Chapter 8
Lena did not argue.
That scared me.
People argue when they believe there is time.
She packed Mia’s things with shaking hands.
Mia woke halfway through and rubbed her eyes.
“Is it morning?”
“No, little star,” Lena whispered. “We’re going somewhere safe.”
Mia looked at me.
“Are you still coming to my show?”
“Yes.”
“Promise?”
I hesitated.
Promises had become dangerous things in my life.
Then I crouched.
“I promise I will do everything in my power to be there.”
She frowned.
“That’s a grown-up promise.”
“It’s an honest one.”
She considered it.
“Okay.”
We moved to a safe apartment above an old bakery in Queens.
It belonged to Rosa’s sister.
No Verrone property.
No family records.
No staff who owed Vittorio favors.
Rafael posted men quietly.
Anika Hale sent patrols near the school.
I spent the night reading the rest of Matteo’s files.
The charity.
The judge.
The councilman.
The dead lawyer.
Silvio.
Vittorio.
Everything connected.
Mia was not only Matteo’s child.
She was proof.
Her birth certificate tied Lena to Matteo during the months he uncovered the charity laundering.
Her trust documents gave her future access to account records Matteo hid under her name.
When Mia turned five, the bank would release copies to her guardian.
That was why they wanted her.
Not dead, if possible.
Controlled.
Owned.
Raised by someone they could buy.
I looked at Lena sleeping upright in a chair beside Mia.
She had survived four years with men hunting shadows around her child.
I had survived by turning into one.
At dawn, Mia woke and asked for pancakes.
Rosa’s sister made them.
I burned one trying to help.
Mia laughed.
“You’re bad at daddy breakfast.”
“I have other skills.”
“Like scaring people?”
“Yes.”
She thought about that.
“Can you scare bad people but not kids?”
I looked at Lena.
Her eyes were on me.
“That is the goal.”
At nine, we drove to the school in three ordinary cars.
No black convoy.
No show.
Mia wore a yellow dress.
I wore a blue tie.
She approved.
At 9:47, Anika called.
“Damiano, we found a man with a gun near the auditorium.”
I looked at Mia holding her paper heart.
May you like
Then at the school doors.
Vittorio had started early.
