Chương 9
Julian looked toward the hallway.
“Tonight?”
Sophia nodded.
“That’s why she was in the cold room.”
Dominic’s phone vibrated once.
A text appeared despite the dead signal.
No number.
No sender identification.
Just an image.
Dominic opened it.
Ethan and Lily sat side by side on a concrete floor.
Both were alive.
Both looked frightened.
Behind them stood a gray metal cabinet.
A paper sign had been taped to it.
Dominic enlarged the image.
Three words had been written in black marker.
BRING THE WATCH.
Sophia read over his shoulder.
Her fist tightened around the brass key.
Then a second message appeared.
COME ALONE, DOMINIC.
A third followed before anyone could speak.
ASK SOPHIA WHAT HER HUSBAND HID.
Dominic read the message twice.
Sophia did not need to.
Her face had already changed.
“What did Michael hide?”
Dominic asked.
“I don’t know.”
“You have about ten seconds to decide whether that answer is true.”
She looked at him with such exhausted fury that Julian stepped between them before either moved.
“She just found out her daughter was taken.”
“And my son is with her.”
“That doesn’t make threats useful.”
Dominic’s phone vibrated again.
A map pin appeared beneath the photograph.
The location was fourteen miles away, inside an industrial district near the Hudson.
Vincent came running down the corridor.
“We restored part of the exterior system.”
Dominic held up the phone.
Vincent read the messages.
His jaw tightened.
“Could be a trap.”
“It is a trap.”
“I mean the location.”
Julian took the phone.
He zoomed in on the satellite image.
“Old freight buildings.”
Sophia stepped closer.
“Wait.”
Her finger landed on one long rectangular structure beside a disused rail spur.
“I know that building.”
Dominic looked at her.
“How?”
“Michael rented space there.”
The hallway went silent.
Sophia’s eyes stayed on the map.
“Not the storage locker.”
“Then what?”
“A workshop.”
“You said he worked out of the garage.”
“He did.”
Her voice weakened.
“Until Lily was born.”
Dominic’s anger returned so quickly it almost felt clean.
“What else have you forgotten?”
She turned on him.
“I forgot nothing.”
“You’ve given me a new piece of Michael’s life every fifteen minutes.”
“Because every piece looked harmless when he was alive.”
Her voice cracked.
“A key was a key.”
“A workshop was a workshop.”
“A second phone was something I thought belonged to a cheating husband.”
She slapped one hand against her chest.
“I did not know I was supposed to connect my marriage to murdered men and poisoned children seven years later.”
Dominic said nothing.
Vincent took the phone from Julian.
“We can reach the building in twenty minutes.”
“No convoy.”
Dominic headed toward the stairs.
Vincent followed.
“No.”
Dominic did not slow.
“Excuse me?”
“He told you to come alone.”
“I heard him.”
“And you intend to obey?”
“I intend to make him believe I did.”
Vincent caught Dominic’s arm at the landing.
Dominic looked down at the hand.
Vincent released him.
“If Gabriel knows this house, he knows how you operate.”
“Then we stop operating normally.”
Julian descended behind them.
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
“That answer stopped working an hour ago.”
Dominic turned.
“If Gabriel sees you, he may change the terms.”
“So I stay out of sight.”
“You have never stayed out of sight in your life.”
“I can learn.”
Sophia was already moving toward the staff entrance.
Dominic noticed.
“Where are you going?”
“With you.”
“No.”
She stopped.
“My daughter is in that building because of my husband.”
“That is exactly why you are staying here.”
“You don’t know what Gabriel wants from me.”
“The message told me to ask you a question, not bring you.”
“And if Michael hid something there, I may be the only person who recognizes it.”
Dominic stared at her.
Vincent said, “She has a point.”
Dominic shot him a look.
Vincent shrugged once.
“I hate it too.”
Sophia opened her fist and showed them the brass key.
“If that opens something in there, are you planning to guess where?”
Dominic looked at the key.
Then at Sophia.
“You stay behind me.”
She laughed without humor.
“I clean your bathrooms for a living, Dominic.”
“Not tonight.”
For some reason, that silenced her.
Vincent assembled a plan in the garage while Dominic changed jackets and checked the pistol he kept locked in his car.
Sophia watched him from several feet away.
She had seen guns in the estate before.
Security carried them.
Dominic’s men carried them.
Seeing one disappear beneath his coat felt different now that Lily was somewhere ahead of it.
“Will you use that?”
Dominic looked at her.
“If I have to.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“It is the only one I have.”
Julian emerged wearing a dark windbreaker.
Vincent pointed at him.
“You stay with the second vehicle.”
Julian nodded.
“No improvising.”
Another nod.
“Not even if you think you see something.”
Julian sighed.
“I said yes.”
“You nodded.”
“I was saving everyone time.”
Vincent looked at Dominic.
“Your brother is why I drink.”
“Get in line.”
They left the estate through the north service road with the headlights off until the trees concealed them from the main gate.
Dominic drove.
Sophia sat beside him.
Neither spoke for the first five minutes.
The road narrowed through residential neighborhoods where porch lights still burned and sprinklers ticked across dark lawns.
The normality offended Sophia.
Somewhere, somebody was washing dishes.
Somebody was watching television.
Somebody had put a child to bed and expected that child to still be there in the morning.
She pressed the brass key so hard into her palm that its teeth hurt.
Dominic noticed.
“You’re bleeding.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re not.”
“Neither are you.”
He had no answer.
She loosened her hand.
A tiny red crescent marked her skin.
Dominic reached into the center console and handed her a clean handkerchief.
Sophia looked at it.
“You carry handkerchiefs?”
“My father did.”
She almost refused it.
Then she wrapped it around her palm.
“Michael hated them.”
“What?”
May you like
“Handkerchiefs.”
Dominic glanced at her.
