Chapter 8 - FIRE
Flames climbed the east wing faster than they should have.
Accelerant.
Salvatore knew it before the fire captain said it.
Someone wanted that room gone.
The paper records.
The security backups.
The trust documents.
Everything.
“Where’s Ruby?”
“Safe room,” Marco answered.
“With Maria?”
“Yes.”
Salvatore looked at him.
“Do not move her.”
Firefighters rushed past.
Lucinda and Matteo were taken to opposite guarded rooms.
Neither was formally arrested yet.
Salvatore hated that.
But the police wanted evidence.
And evidence was burning.
Marco coughed as smoke rolled across the ceiling.
“We have cloud backups.”
“How much?”
“Maybe seventy percent.”
“Maybe?”
“The archive server was supposed to sync every night.”
“Supposed to?”
Marco looked furious with himself.
“I’m checking.”
A firefighter emerged carrying a black metal box.
“Found this behind the server rack.”
Marco took it.
A homemade ignition device.
Remote triggered.
Salvatore studied it.
“Someone activated this tonight.”
“Yes.”
“From inside the estate?”
“Likely.”
The traitor was still here.
Again.
Then Salvatore heard screaming.
Not Ruby.
Maria.
He ran.
She stood in the corridor outside the safe room.
The door was open.
Empty.
Salvatore stopped breathing.
“No.”
Maria was crying.
“She was here.”
Marco shouted into his radio.
“Lock every gate!”
Salvatore entered the room.
Ruby’s stuffed rabbit lay on the floor.
Beside it sat a tablet.
The screen glowed.
A video was playing.
Live.
Ruby sat in a dark room somewhere on the property.
She wasn’t crying.
That frightened him more.
A distorted voice came from the tablet.
“Hello, Salvatore.”
He stepped closer.
“Let her go.”
“Send Lucinda and Matteo to the garage.”
Salvatore looked at Marco.
Lucinda and Matteo?
The voice continued.
“And bring the memory card.”
Salvatore’s eyes narrowed.
“Who are you?”
“No negotiations.”
The video shifted.
Ruby looked toward someone offscreen.
“Daddy?”
“I’m here!”
She couldn’t hear him.
The feed was one-way.
Then Ruby did something strange.
She raised three fingers.
Lowered them.
Raised one.
Then two.
Salvatore stared.
Marco whispered:
“What is she doing?”
Salvatore’s heart pounded.
Months earlier, he had taught Ruby a game during hospital stays.
Find me without words.
Three.
One.
Two.
Room 312.
But the mansion had no room 312.
Then he understood.
“Camera twelve.”
“What?”
“Third floor. Camera twelve.”
Marco pulled up the map.
An unused nursery corridor.
They ran.
At the third-floor landing, Salvatore heard footsteps.
Someone fled through the service door.
Marco chased them.
Salvatore kicked open the nursery.
Ruby sat behind an overturned chair.
Alive.
He grabbed her.
“I knew you’d find me,” she whispered.
Salvatore held her so tightly he had to force himself to loosen his arms.
“I will always find you.”
Marco’s voice exploded over the radio.
“Boss!”
Salvatore answered.
“What?”
“I saw him.”
“Who?”
Marco was breathing hard.
“The man in the stolen uniform.”
“Did you catch him?”
“No.”
“Did you see his face?”
A long pause.
“Yes.”
Salvatore waited.
Marco’s next words hit harder than the explosion.
May you like
“It’s your brother.”
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