Chapter 6 - Twenty Minutes
Vincent’s vision narrowed until there was only the speaker on the wall.
The boy cried again.
Not loudly. Not dramatically. A frightened, exhausted whimper.
It wrecked Vincent more than any threat could have.
“Let me hear Sofia,” he said.
Rocco chuckled. “Still negotiating.”
“Let me hear my wife.”
A pause.
Then a woman’s voice came through, far from the microphone.
“Vince, don’t—”
The line cut.
Vincent closed his eyes.
Alive.
Sofia was alive.
For three years, every room in the mansion had carried her absence like cold air. Now she was somewhere close enough for Rocco to use her as leverage.
Dominic grabbed Vincent’s arm. “This is exactly what she warned about. He wants you charging out blind.”
Vincent pulled free. “My son is with him.”
“And if you die in the driveway, that helps how?”
Grace stepped forward. “The old wine tunnels.”
Vincent looked at her.
“What?”
“There are tunnels under the estate. Sofia showed me once. They run from the original cellar to the greenhouse and the carriage house.”
Dominic frowned. “Those were sealed before we were born.”
“Not all of them,” Grace said.
Emily tugged on her mother’s sleeve. “The man with the red tie came from the greenhouse.”
Vincent looked toward the east wing.
Rocco was not outside the estate.
He was under it.
Isabella picked up the pendant. “If the card is what he wants, we copy it first.”
“The network is down,” Dominic said.
“I don’t need the network.” Emily lifted her backpack. “My school laptop has a card slot.”
Four adults looked at her.
She frowned. “What? Our teacher makes us back up science projects.”
Despite everything, Grace made a strangled sound that might have been a laugh.
They moved into the pantry, where Emily opened the laptop on a flour-dusted counter. Isabella inserted the card.
Folders appeared.
Bank records. Shipping manifests. Photos. Scanned passports.
And one video file named IF VINCENT SEES THIS.
Vincent clicked it.
Sofia appeared on-screen, sitting in a motel room, bruised but furious.
“If you found this, I’m probably still alive,” she said. “Rocco can’t kill me until he knows where the master ledger is.”
Vincent leaned closer.
“The card is not the master ledger. It’s bait.”
May you like
Behind them, the pantry door locked with a metallic click.
Gas began hissing from the vents.
