Chapter 7 - Midnight at Calder WarehouseAt 11:43 p.m., Elena entered the warehouse where everything had begun.
That made it both safer and more dangerous.
Safer because Dominic couldn't easily attack without witnesses.
More dangerous because thousands of people offered thousands of places to hide.
Agent Walsh wanted a tactical team.
Adrian wanted his security.
Elena wanted neither.
“This is exactly how someone gets scared off,” she said.
Walsh crossed her arms.
“And walking into an unknown situation alone is exactly how someone gets murdered.”
Adrian nodded.
Elena looked at him.
“Don't enjoy agreeing with her.”
“I rarely enjoy federal agents.”
“Feeling is mutual,” Walsh said.
Eventually they compromised.
Elena would approach locker 317 alone while Walsh's team watched remotely.
Adrian was instructed to remain in the surveillance van.
He lasted four minutes.
Locker 317 was located near an older section of the terminal.
Elena inserted the brass key.
It turned.
Inside sat a gray backpack.
Nothing else.
Elena removed it.
Then a voice behind her said, “You have your mother's eyes.”
She turned.
An elderly man stood nearby holding a newspaper.
“Who are you?”
“Someone who promised Sofia I would watch that locker.”
Elena's heart raced.
“Is she alive?”
The man's expression changed.
“I don't know.”
“You said you knew her.”
“I did.”
“When?”
“Nine years ago.”
Elena grabbed his arm.
“My mother died twelve years ago.”
“No.”
He shook his head.
“She came here three years after that.”
Elena felt dizzy.
“Why didn't she come to me?”
“Because she believed Dominic would kill you if he knew she was alive.”
The man handed her a business card with nothing but a number.
“She told me if the locker was ever opened, I should give you this.”
“Who are you?”
But before he answered, shouting erupted.
Adrian.
“ELENA!”
She looked up.
A man was running toward her.
Not Adrian.
Another man.
Gun.
Adrian slammed into him before he reached Elena.
The weapon skidded across the floor.
People screamed.
Walsh's agents rushed forward.
A second attacker appeared on the upper walkway.
Elena saw him raise a pistol.
“Adrian!”
She pushed Adrian sideways.
Gunfire shattered glass.
The station erupted into panic.
Walsh tackled Elena behind a concrete pillar.
Agents returned fire.
The attacker disappeared.
When it ended, Adrian had a bullet graze across his shoulder.
Elena ripped open his shirt without asking.
He looked down.
“This becoming a habit?”
“Getting shot?”
“You undressing me in emergencies.”
She stared.
“You nearly died.”
“So did you.”
“Stop joking.”
His expression softened.
“Yes, nurse.”
“Student nurse.”
“Bossier somehow.”
She pressed cloth against the wound.
He winced.
“Good,” Elena said.
“You enjoy hurting me?”
“Currently.”
Walsh arrived.
“We need to move.”
The backpack was taken to a secure federal location.
Inside were copies of bank transfers, photographs, coded notebooks, a small USB drive, and an envelope addressed to Elena.
The letter inside was from Sofia.
Baby,
I made choices you may never forgive. I accepted that a long time ago.
I left because Dominic found me. He told me he would kill you if I stayed near you. I believed him because I had already seen what he could do.
Elena had to stop reading.
Adrian sat quietly beside her.
She continued.
I watched you from far away whenever I could. Your graduation. Your sixteenth birthday. Your first day of college. I wanted to walk toward you every time.
Elena began crying silently.
If you're reading this, you have become exactly who I hoped you would become: someone strong enough to survive our family without becoming like us.
The ledger is hidden where Dominic will never willingly go.
Where his son died.
Adrian's father knew the truth. Rosa knows only half.
Trust Adrian only if he chooses Lily over the Moretti name.
Elena lowered the letter.
“What does that mean?”
Adrian looked shaken.
“I don't know.”
Walsh pointed to the coded notebook.
“We may.”
The files revealed a decades-old secret.
Marco Moretti had not died in a car accident.
He had been murdered.
But not by Adrian's father.
Dominic had killed his own son accidentally during a violent argument.
Adrian's father, Matteo, covered it up to protect the family.
He staged the crash.
Dominic had spent twenty years telling himself a different story.
Blaming Matteo.
Blaming the family.
Eventually believing his own lie.
And Sofia had witnessed everything.
“That was why she ran,” Elena whispered.
Walsh nodded.
“And why Dominic wants the ledger destroyed.”
Adrian's phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
Dominic's voice.
“You opened the locker.”
Adrian said nothing.
“Where's Elena?”
“Safe.”
Dominic laughed.
“Nobody in our family is safe.”
“She isn't your family.”
Elena looked at him.
Dominic's voice hardened.
“She is my blood.”
“She is not yours.”
A pause.
“Careful, Adrian. You're starting to sound attached.”
Adrian glanced at Elena.
“Maybe I am.”
Her heart stumbled.
Dominic chuckled.
“Then this will hurt.”
A video arrived.
Adrian opened it.
Rosa appeared on screen.
Bound to a chair.
Lily beside her.
Elena stopped breathing.
“No.”
Adrian went white.
They had left Lily and Rosa at a federal safe house.
Someone had betrayed them again.
Dominic returned to the call.
“Bring Elena and everything from the locker.”
Adrian's voice became deadly calm.
“Touch my daughter—”
“I already did once.”
“You won't get another chance.”
“Midnight. Calder Warehouse.”
The same warehouse where Elena had found Lily.
The line disconnected.
Walsh immediately began planning.
Adrian walked toward the door.
Elena followed.
“Where are you going?”
“To get my daughter.”
“Then I'm coming.”
“No.”
“He asked for me.”
“Exactly.”
“Adrian.”
He turned.
“I am not trading you for Lily.”
Elena stared at him.
“My mother said to trust you if you chose Lily over the Moretti name.”
“I don't care about the Moretti name.”
“Then choose Lily.”
He stepped closer.
“I am.”
His voice dropped.
“But I'm not sacrificing you to do it.”
For a moment, neither moved.
Then Elena whispered, “You can't save everyone.”
Adrian looked at her.
“No.”
He touched her cheek gently.
“But I'm getting tired of losing people.”
May you like
And that was when Elena realized the most dangerous thing about Adrian Moretti wasn't his reputation.
It was how badly she was beginning to care whether he survived it.
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