Chapter 6 - The Map Beneath the SeatThe wheelchair was carried onto the warehouse worktable.
The second punched through the rear panel.
The third struck the reinforced glass beside Luca's head and spiderwebbed across it.
Emilia screamed.
Luca pushed her lower.
"Stay down!"
Anna wrapped herself over the girl.
Dominic was driving.
Matteo sat in front beside him.
"Black Tahoe!" Dominic shouted.
"I see it."
Matteo lowered the window just enough to return fire.
The highway ahead curved through a wooded stretch outside the city.
Traffic was sparse.
Too sparse.
Luca understood instantly.
The route had been compromised.
Someone knew exactly when they were leaving.
Exactly which vehicle held Emilia.
"Who knew the route?" he demanded.
Dominic's jaw tightened.
"Six people."
"Names later."
Another shot struck the rear windshield.
Anna flinched.
Emilia buried her face against her.
Luca pulled a handgun from beneath his jacket.
He had spent years trying to keep Emilia away from this part of his life.
Now she was trapped in the middle of it because the people he called family had built their empire on secrets.
Dominic accelerated.
The SUV behind them followed.
A second vehicle moved up along the left lane.
Matteo fired twice.
The approaching car swerved.
Dominic shouted, "Hold on."
He slammed the brakes.
The Tahoe flew past them.
Dominic turned sharply toward an exit ramp.
Tires screamed.
The second pursuing vehicle attempted to follow, overshot the turn, then corrected.
Dominic drove through a red light at the bottom.
Luca glanced backward.
Still following.
"Safe location?"
"Four minutes."
"Too long."
Luca saw a police cruiser ahead.
For one absurd moment, it almost felt like rescue.
Then the cruiser pulled sideways across the road.
Blocking them.
Dominic cursed.
"They're involved."
Of course they were.
Vittorio's network.
Elena had named police officials years ago.
How many still existed inside the system?
Dominic mounted the curb.
The SUV bounced violently.
Anna protected Emilia's head.
They tore across the grass beside the cruiser.
An officer stepped out and raised his weapon.
Matteo fired at the cruiser's front tire.
The officer ducked.
They escaped.
Two minutes later, Dominic drove through the steel gate of a private warehouse controlled by one of Luca's legitimate construction companies.
Security teams poured outside.
The pursuing vehicles disappeared.
Only then did anyone breathe.
Luca opened the rear door.
Emilia was crying silently.
That destroyed him.
He crouched.
"I'm sorry."
She looked at him.
"Are they trying to hurt Anna again?"
Luca hesitated.
"Nobody is hurting either of you."
"That's not what I asked."
Eight years old.
Already too perceptive.
He touched her cheek.
"They're trying to stop us from finding something."
"Because of Mama?"
"Yes."
Emilia wiped her face.
"Then we have to find it."
Anna stared at her.
"Emilia, sweetheart—"
"If Mama hid something for Daddy, we have to."
Luca realized there was no way to return her to innocence.
Not completely.
But he could still choose how much darkness she saw.
He asked Dominic to take Emilia and Anna upstairs to the warehouse office.
Then he turned toward Matteo.
"Find the leak."
Within twenty minutes, Dominic had assembled the six people who knew the route.
Two drivers.
One dispatcher.
A communications officer.
Luca's assistant.
And Salvatore Rizzo.
Salvatore had served the DeLuca family for twenty-seven years.
He had taught Luca how to drive.
He had stood beside Luca at Elena's funeral.
He had held Emilia the day she came home from the hospital.
Luca studied every face.
"Someone gave our route to the shooters."
No one spoke.
Dominic placed a tablet on the table.
"We transmitted three false destinations last night."
Luca looked at him.
Dominic had planned this.
Good.
"Each person received a slightly different route."
Salvatore's face changed.
Only slightly.
Luca noticed.
Dominic touched the screen.
"The attackers intercepted the vehicle assigned to Route C."
Silence.
Dominic looked directly at Salvatore.
"Only one person received Route C."
Salvatore exhaled.
Matteo stared.
"No."
Salvatore did not deny it.
Luca felt something inside him collapse.
Not dramatically.
Quietly.
Another pillar of his past giving way.
"How long?" Luca asked.
Salvatore looked almost ashamed.
"Since your father died."
Matteo stepped forward.
"You worked for Vittorio?"
"Not exactly."
"What does that mean?"
"I worked for survival."
Luca's mouth twisted.
"Everyone suddenly has noble reasons."
Salvatore looked at him.
"Vittorio had evidence that could send half this family to prison."
"So you helped him."
"I contained problems."
"Elena?"
Salvatore looked away.
Luca's voice dropped.
"Were you involved in Elena's death?"
"No."
"Answer carefully."
"I swear to you, no."
"Did you know?"
Salvatore's silence answered.
Luca stepped closer.
"You knew my wife was in danger."
"Yes."
"And said nothing."
"I thought Vittorio was bluffing."
"You knew about Emilia?"
"Not until later."
"How much later?"
"When Bianca moved her to Saint Catherine's."
Matteo swore.
Luca stared at the man who had once been like an uncle to him.
"Why attack us today?"
Salvatore looked frightened now.
"I didn't authorize the attack."
"But you gave them the route."
"I was told they wanted surveillance."
"You believed that?"
"No."
There it was.
Cowardice.
Perhaps the most destructive vice of all.
Luca looked at Dominic.
"Secure him."
Salvatore panicked.
"Luca, wait."
Two guards grabbed him.
"There is something else."
Luca paused.
Salvatore swallowed.
"Vittorio isn't the one giving orders anymore."
Matteo frowned.
"Who is?"
"I don't know."
"You're lying."
"I'm not."
Salvatore looked toward the ceiling, as though afraid even walls could hear.
"About six months ago, instructions changed. New accounts. New codes."
"From who?"
"Someone called Belladonna."
Luca exchanged a glance with Matteo.
The name meant nothing.
Salvatore continued.
"Vittorio became nervous. He started moving money."
"Who is Belladonna?"
"I don't know."
"Male? Female?"
"No idea."
"How did they communicate?"
"Encrypted messages."
Dominic asked, "Can you access them?"
"Some."
Luca considered.
"Show us."
An hour later, Salvatore unlocked a hidden communications account.
There were seventeen messages.
Most were logistical.
Payments.
Surveillance.
Instructions to locate Anna Mercer.
Then Luca saw one from three years earlier.
MERCER CONTACTED CHILD. REMOVE HER WITHOUT PUBLIC INCIDENT.
Another message followed.
NO BODY. WE HAVE ENOUGH GHOSTS.
Luca read it twice.
"Who sent this?"
"Belladonna."
A chill traveled through him.
Three years earlier, Vittorio had frightened Anna away.
But someone else had issued the order.
Someone who knew everything.
Dominic opened another message.
This one was from six months ago.
THE GIRL IS BEGINNING TO QUESTION HER CONDITION.
Luca's jaw tightened.
"Who was reporting on Emilia?"
Salvatore shook his head.
"I don't know."
Someone near his daughter.
Recent.
Trusted.
Luca thought of nurses.
Teachers.
Therapists.
Household staff.
Doctors.
The circle became enormous.
Another message appeared.
IF SHE WALKS, EVERYTHING UNRAVELS.
Matteo whispered, "They knew she could walk."
Brooks had explained earlier that Emilia's paralysis had become partly psychological and partly physical from years of disuse.
But she retained enough function to recover.
The ballroom had apparently triggered something powerful enough to overcome that conditioning.
Anna.
Recognition.
Safety.
Memory.
Luca scrolled to the most recent message.
Sent that morning.
DO NOT LET THE CHILD REACH THE STATUE.
His blood chilled.
Belladonna knew about the garden.
"Then whatever Elena hid is still there," Matteo said.
Luca nodded.
"And they haven't found it."
Dominic looked up.
"We cannot return openly."
"No."
Luca began thinking.
Security.
Diversion.
Access tunnels.
The DeLuca estate had been renovated twice since Elena died.
There was an old maintenance route beneath the eastern greenhouse.
Hardly anyone knew it remained usable.
Luca looked at Matteo.
"We go tonight."
"What about Emilia?"
"She stays here."
A small voice from the doorway answered.
"No."
Everyone turned.
Emilia stood beside Anna.
Luca frowned.
"You should be upstairs."
"I heard you."
"Emilia—"
"You don't know where Mama hid it."
"We'll search."
"You won't find it."
Luca stared.
"Why?"
Emilia pointed toward herself.
"Because she hid the map with me."
Anna frowned.
"What map?"
Emilia touched the blackened brass button hanging from a chain Anna had given her after the ballroom.
"No."
She pointed to her own wheelchair.
"The map is inside my chair."
Luca looked slowly toward the wheelchair.
The same wheelchair Bianca had ordered specially for Emilia when she was three.
May you like
Emilia whispered:
"Grandma put it there."
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