Chapter 10
The council room erupted.
People shouted.
Chairs scraped.
Dante pulled me behind him.
Agent Voss drew her weapon and ordered everyone away from the doors.
My heart hammered so hard I could barely hear.
Silvio stood calmly near the far wall.
He had planned this.
Of course he had.
A screen lowered from the ceiling.
Security footage appeared.
Nico upstairs.
Sleeping in Marco’s arms.
Then another camera angle.
A man approaching the nursery door.
Dante went still.
“No.”
Silvio’s voice came through the speakers again.
“Choose, brother. The woman wearing your dead wife’s face, or your son.”
Dante turned toward the locked door like he could tear through steel.
I grabbed his sleeve.
“Go.”
He looked at me.
“I won’t leave you.”
“Nico is the target. Sofia protected him. Go.”
Agent Voss shouted into her radio.
No signal.
Jammed.
The old man who had insulted me earlier whispered, “Silvio has the old tunnels.”
Dante spun on him.
“Where?”
The man pointed to a bookcase.
Dante and two guards shoved it aside.
A narrow passage opened.
Dante looked at me one last time.
I handed him Sofia’s flash drive.
“If something happens to me, play it everywhere.”
His jaw tightened.
“Nothing happens to you.”
Then he disappeared into the tunnel.
Silvio watched me with amusement.
“You think sending him away saves the boy?”
“No,” I said. “I think you needed him distracted.”
His smile thinned.
Good.
I turned to the council.
“Sofia knew he would do this. She changed the trust because she knew none of you would protect Nico if it cost you comfort.”
No one answered.
I lifted my hospital bracelet.
“I was erased once. I will not help you erase her son.”
Agent Voss forced the side panel open.
A weak signal returned.
Her radio crackled.
Then Dante’s voice came through.
“Nico secure.”
May you like
Silvio’s face changed.
For the first time, he looked afraid.
