Chapter 9 - In the Dark
“Stay down,” Luca said.
Something struck the concrete near the wagon.
Glass scattered.
I crouched beside the rear wheel with the letter pressed against my chest.
Luca had handed it to me without thinking.
Or maybe he had thought faster than I could.
A flashlight beam swept the ceiling.
Then the floor.
Sal caught my sleeve.
“This way.”
He knew that garage like other people knew their own kitchens.
We moved behind the workbench.
A man shouted.
“Give us the box.”
Luca answered from the other side of the wagon.
“You picked the wrong house.”
Footsteps rushed toward his voice.
Metal crashed.
I flinched, but Sal kept pulling me toward a narrow side door.
The handle didn’t move.
Locked from outside.
For one terrible second, we just stood there.
Then Sal reached above the frame.
A spare key.
Even now, he remembered where everything belonged.
The door opened into the potting room.
I pushed through.
Behind us, someone grabbed Sal’s coat.
He hit the frame with a sharp grunt.
I turned back.
A hand reached around the door.
I shoved a heavy bag of soil against it with both arms.
The man swore and pulled away.
Sal stumbled inside.
I slammed the door.
“Your phone,” he said.
I called the house and shouted for the security guard to get to the garage.
Sal braced the door with his shoulder.
Blood ran from a scrape near his temple.
He looked furious with himself for bleeding.
Outside, an engine roared.
By the time the guard reached us, the intruders had fled.
Luca stood beside the wagon with a split lip and one sleeve torn at the shoulder.
He looked at Sal.
Then at the letter in my hand.
“Everybody all right?”
Sal nodded.
I couldn’t seem to stop gripping the paper.
Police came again.
This time, they photographed broken glass, a damaged side gate, and the cable someone had cut near the garage’s electrical panel.
Mara took the memory card to a laptop while an officer remained in the room.
The first file was a video.
Adrian Cole sat across from Luca’s father in the old study.
He looked exhausted.
“I copied the payment records,” Adrian said.
Then he leaned toward the camera.
“If Victor knows I came here, he’ll use Vanessa.”
Luca pressed his hand against the table.
Adrian looked straight ahead.
May you like
“She signed the transfers.
But she doesn’t know what he’s planning for her son.”
