Chapter 7 - The Man Who Claimed to Protect Elena Was the One Taking Her to the Enemy
We reached the apartment too late.
The door was open.
Elena was gone.
Mia was still there.
Alone.
Sitting on the floor.
Holding her rabbit.
She looked up at me.
“Mommy went with Mr. Daniel.”
My blood froze.
“Did she want to?”
Mia shook her head.
“He said Mommy had to go.”
“Where?”
She pointed to the window.
“Car.”
Vincent checked the street.
A black sedan.
Gone.
We traced it to a warehouse in Queens.
Daniel had abandoned the car.
A second vehicle waited.
Mia remained with Isabella.
I entered the building with Vincent.
Empty.
Too empty.
Then lights came on.
Daniel stood at the center of the warehouse.
Elena was tied to a chair.
Her face was bruised.
I nearly lost control.
“Let her go.”
Daniel laughed.
“You still don't understand.”
“Then explain.”
“I've been protecting you.”
“By kidnapping Elena?”
“She was going to destroy everything.”
“She knows nothing.”
Daniel smiled.
“She knows where Adrian is.”
Elena shook her head.
“You're lying.”
Daniel turned toward her.
“You told him eventually.”
I looked at Elena.
“What does he mean?”
She cried.
“I was trying to protect Mia.”
Daniel raised a gun.
“Adrian has the final account key.”
Vincent stepped forward.
“Daniel.”
“You've been lying to him for thirty years.”
Daniel looked at Vincent.
“You don't get to lecture me.”
Then Daniel revealed the truth.
He had been working for Vance.
But not because he believed in Vance.
Because Vance had kidnapped Daniel's wife twenty years ago.
Daniel spent two decades pretending loyalty to the Moretti family while secretly searching for her.
She was still alive.
Hidden somewhere.
Vance controlled her.
Daniel believed the archive was the only way to force Vance to release her.
I lowered my gun.
“You should have told me.”
“Would you have helped?”
“Yes.”
He stared at me.
“You say that now.”
“I mean it.”
He hesitated.
That was when a shot came from the upper level.
Daniel dropped.
Vincent pulled Elena free.
I looked up.
A sniper stood behind the railing.
Vance.
He waved.
“Bring me the girl.”
Then he disappeared.
Daniel was wounded but alive.
We carried him out.
Later, in a secure room, he told us where Vance was keeping his wife.
An underground clinic.
We raided it.
She was there.
Alive.
Daniel broke down when he saw her.
The revenge that had driven him for twenty years finally had a face.
We extracted her.
But Vance escaped.
He sent one final message.
TO THE MORETTI FAMILY:
YOU HAVE THREE HOURS.
BRING MIA.
OR MANHATTAN BURNS.
I looked at the message.
Vincent stood beside me.
“Don't give her to him.”
“I won't.”
Elena looked at me.
“How do we stop him?”
I looked at Mia.
The three-year-old was sleeping peacefully in Isabella's arms.
Then I remembered her first order.
Don't let anybody make Mommy cry anymore.
I knew what I had to do.
“We don't fight Vance where he expects.”
Daniel stared at me.
“What are you planning?”
I smiled.
“We give him what he wants.”
“The child?”
“No.”
“The archive?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
May you like
I looked at Vincent.
“We give him me.”
