Chapter 8 - The Night New York Held Its Breath
The final list contained enough evidence to destroy half the powerful men in the city.
It also contained one final location.
A warehouse near the East River.
That was where Salvatore planned to exchange the master copy for safe passage out of the country.
Enzo assembled his people.
But Sophie noticed something.
"You don't have enough men."
"I don't need many."
"You need someone who can get close without being noticed."
He looked at her.
"No."
"I've spent three years learning how to be invisible."
"I'm not using that."
"Why?"
"Because I'm not sending you into a room full of armed men."
"You don't control me."
His jaw tightened.
"No."
Then softer:
"But I care what happens to you."
She went still.
He seemed surprised by his own words.
"I don't know how to do this," he admitted.
"Do what?"
"Need someone."
She stepped closer.
"You don't have to know."
He looked at her.
She kissed him.
It was brief.
Uncertain.
Then his hand came to the back of her neck.
He kissed her again.
Slowly.
When they separated, he rested his forehead against hers.
"This changes nothing."
"It changes everything."
He smiled.
Then he returned to the plan.
That night, Sophie wore a black dress.
She entered the warehouse through the front.
A woman arriving alone was less suspicious than a convoy of armed men.
Salvatore was waiting.
"You look like your mother."
"I'll take that as an insult."
He smiled.
"You have her courage."
"She got it from me."
"No. You got it from your father."
Vincent stepped from the shadows.
Sophie looked around.
"Where's the exchange?"
"First," Vincent said, "you tell me where the original code is."
"Destroyed."
He laughed.
"You're lying."
"I learned from professionals."
He slapped her.
The pain flashed across her cheek.
She looked up.
"I've been hit harder."
Salvatore stared.
"You're more like Adrian than I expected."
Then the doors exploded inward.
Enzo's men stormed the warehouse.
Gunfire erupted.
Sophie dropped behind a crate.
Enzo entered through the side door.
His eyes found her immediately.
"Move!"
She ran.
Vincent fired.
Enzo returned fire.
Salvatore fled toward the docks.
Rocco, still wounded, intercepted him.
The confrontation became brutal.
Meanwhile, Sophie found the master ledger in a metal case.
She opened it.
Nothing.
Blank pages.
A trick.
She realized the pages were coated.
Heat.
Her father's code.
She needed temperature.
She remembered the piano.
Music wasn't written with ink.
It was written into the fibers.
She held the pages near a broken heater.
Numbers emerged.
Hundreds of them.
Vincent saw her.
"Give me that!"
She ran.
He chased her toward the pier.
Rain hammered the river.
The ledger slipped from her hand.
Vincent grabbed her.
"Your father should have handed it over."
"You killed him."
"Yes."
She froze.
He smiled.
"He begged."
Her eyes filled.
"He asked me to spare you."
Vincent's smile widened.
"I never intended to."
A gunshot.
Vincent staggered.
Enzo stood twenty feet away.
"Let her go."
Vincent pushed Sophie aside and fired.
Enzo was hit in the shoulder.
Sophie screamed.
Rocco fired.
Vincent collapsed.
Salvatore was arrested by federal agents who had received the evidence anonymously.
For the first time, the conspiracy had nowhere left to hide.
Enzo dropped to one knee.
Sophie ran to him.
"You're bleeding."
"I'm fine."
"You are absolutely not fine."
He laughed.
"You worry too much."
"You almost died."
"I've done that before."
She pressed her hands to the wound.
"Don't."
"I'll stop."
"When?"
"When you stop looking at me like that."
"Like what?"
"Like I'm someone you can't lose."
She stared at him.
"You are."
He went quiet.
May you like
Then he pulled her close.
"Good."
