Chapter 9 - The Second ChildThe words hit harder than the guns.
“She has another one.”
Even Vanessa flinched, as if Sofia had said something she had not expected anyone to know.
Gabriel’s weapon remained steady, but his eyes changed. “Another what?”
Sofia pressed against Evelyn. “Another kid.”
Detective Harris did not look away from Vanessa. “Where?”
Vanessa laughed. “This is becoming theatrical.”
Titan growled toward the open tunnel door.
Evelyn knew that growl now. It was not blind aggression. It was warning, recognition, urgency.
“There is someone back there,” Evelyn said.
Vanessa’s smile thinned. “You really have made yourself important in one night, haven’t you?”
“No,” Evelyn said. “You made the mistake of thinking only important people matter.”
Gabriel shifted his aim from Vanessa’s chest to the hand holding the gun against Calvin. “Let him go.”
“Why? You were going to put him in your wine cellar.”
“I was going to ask questions.”
“You ask questions like other men break bones.”
Calvin sobbed. “She made me do it.”
Vanessa struck him with the gun barrel. “Quiet.”
Detective Harris stepped forward. “Vanessa Sterling, lower your weapon.”
Vanessa’s eyes flashed. “Do you know how many judges attend my charity dinners? How many police foundations cash my checks? Do you think one detective from Milwaukee gets to say my name like a warning?”
Harris’s face did not move. “Yes.”
For the second time that night, Evelyn almost laughed.
Victor coughed, leaning harder against the wall. He looked pale now, sweat shining near his hairline. Titan had not reached him, but someone or something had. His betrayal had not gone as cleanly as planned.
Gabriel noticed too. “You are bleeding.”
Victor smiled faintly. “Old houses bite.”
Vanessa’s eyes darted to him.
There was fear there.
Not for him.
Of him.
Evelyn realized the alliance was cracking.
A sound came from the open side chamber.
A small, broken cough.
Gabriel’s face darkened.
Vanessa saw his attention shift and made her move.
She shoved Calvin forward and fired toward the overhead light.
The chamber exploded into sparks and shadow.
Everyone ducked.
Titan lunged.
Victor grabbed Vanessa and pulled her through the far exit, disappearing into the tunnel toward the lake.
Gabriel started after them, but Evelyn shouted, “The child first!”
He stopped as if her voice had hooked into his spine.
For one second, his hunger for revenge warred with the thing he had nearly lost forever upstairs.
Then he turned toward the side chamber.
Detective Harris cuffed Calvin to a pipe and followed.
Inside the chamber, behind stacked crates and a rusted wine rack, they found a boy curled beneath a blanket.
He was older than Sofia, maybe ten, with blond hair matted to his forehead and one eye swollen nearly shut.
He stared at Gabriel and whispered, “Please don’t send me back to Mrs. Sterling.”
Vanessa.
Not Victor. Not Calvin.
Vanessa.
Gabriel knelt slowly. “What is your name?”
“Oliver.”
Detective Harris moved in gently, checking his pulse, his pupils, the bruises on his wrists. Her expression hardened with every second.
Evelyn crouched near him. “Oliver, do you know Sofia?”
The boy nodded faintly. “She gave me crackers through the vent.”
Sofia began to cry.
Not loudly.
Just a silent collapse, as if the world had finally become too heavy for her small body.
Gabriel reached toward her and stopped before touching.
Evelyn saw the restraint and, for the first time, understood something important about him. He was not gentle by nature. He was choosing it piece by piece, because Sofia needed him to.
“Why was Oliver here?” Harris asked.
Oliver answered, “Because my dad tried to stop the sale.”
Gabriel’s eyes sharpened. “What sale?”
“The lake properties. Mrs. Sterling said if Dad signed, I could go home.”
Evelyn looked at Gabriel. “Your real estate.”
He shook his head once. “I never used children to force signatures.”
“I know,” Oliver whispered. “That’s why they needed your name.”
The tunnel seemed to close around them.
Vanessa had not only hidden Sofia.
She had turned Gabriel Romano into a ghost story, a threat whispered behind locked doors, a monster useful enough to steal with.
Calvin rattled his cuffs from the outer chamber. “I will talk. I will talk to whoever keeps me away from her.”
Detective Harris stepped out. “Start.”
Calvin’s voice shook. “Sterling Foundation. Victor handled security. Vanessa picked targets. Kids, debts, immigration problems, medical bills, custody fights. Anything that made people quiet. They used the east tunnels because Mr. Romano never came down after Lucia died.”
Gabriel stood very still.
Evelyn watched guilt carve itself into him.
He had not done this.
But his grief had left locked doors, and monsters had moved in behind them.
A radio crackled.
An officer’s voice burst through. “Detective, suspect Vanessa Sterling sighted near the boathouse. She has a vehicle. Repeat, she has—”
The transmission cut off.
Then came an explosion from outside.
The boathouse windows flashed orange.
Sofia screamed.
Gabriel turned toward the firelight blooming beyond the tunnel.
May you like
Victor and Vanessa were gone.
And the evidence was burning.
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