Chapter 11 - Come Alone
The address led to an old three-flat in Humboldt Park.
Maya paid the cab two blocks away.
The street looked ordinary. Kids' bikes on porches. A dog barking behind a fence. Someone grilling onions even though it was barely noon.
Danger always looked more offensive when normal life surrounded it.
Maya approached the building.
The front door opened before she knocked.
Gray Cap stood inside.
"Phone."
She handed it over.
"Bag."
She gave him that too.
He patted her coat pockets, then stepped aside.
"Upstairs."
Maya climbed.
Her mother sat at a kitchen table on the second floor. Beside her, Sophie Nico's daughter clutched a stuffed rabbit.
"Mom."
Elena stood too fast and winced.
Maya rushed to her.
"Did they hurt you?"
"No. You shouldn't have come."
"I wasn't leaving you."
Sophie whispered, "Is my daddy coming?"
Maya crouched. "He's trying."
A voice behind her said, "No, he isn't."
Adrian Vale entered the room.
He was older than Julian, silver-haired, neat, almost gentle-looking. Maya had expected a monster. Instead she saw the kind of man people trusted with retirement accounts.
That made him worse.
"Your father had the same disappointed expression when he met me," Vale said.
Maya stood. "Let them go."
"When I have what I need."
"The binder? You already stole it."
"Yes, and page seven says nothing. Cinnamon roll recipe. Four teaspoons. Very sentimental."
Elena laughed softly.
Vale turned.
"Something funny?"
"Rafael always said arrogant men were easy to fool."
Vale's smile disappeared.
Maya looked at her mother. "You know what page seven means."
Elena stared at her daughter.
"The song," Maya said. "Dad wrote that you know the song."
Vale stepped closer. "And now we're all listening."
Elena's hands trembled.
Then she began to sing.
A lullaby Maya had heard a thousand times.
Vale recorded it on his phone.
Maya counted words.
Seven, three, fourteen, one.
Numbers hidden in the verse.
Elena stopped halfway.
Vale frowned. "Continue."
"No."
He slapped her.
Maya lunged.
Gray Cap grabbed her arms.
"Don't touch her!"
Vale leaned close to Elena. "Finish the song."
Elena wiped blood from her lip.
"Go to hell."
Vale raised his hand again.
A window shattered.
Gray Cap jerked backward and collapsed.
Maya dropped to the floor.
Gunfire erupted from the hallway.
Vale swore and pulled Elena toward the back door.
Julian appeared through the smoke with a pistol in one hand.
His eyes found Maya.
For one second, pure relief crossed his face.
Then someone fired from behind her.
Julian twisted.
May you like
Blood spread across his white shirt.
And he fell.
