Chapter 6 - THE FILE THAT WATCHED THEM
Nathan immediately disconnected the laptop.
Too late.
Daniel grabbed it and removed the battery.
“Malware?”
Nathan nodded.
“Probably a beacon.”
Alejandro turned on Isabella.
“You gave us a tracked drive?”
“I didn’t know.”
“How did you get it?”
“I copied Vivian’s files.”
“From where?”
“Her private computer.”
Elena suddenly understood.
“She wanted you to copy them.”
Isabella stared.
“No.”
“Yes.”
Elena stood.
“She never leaves things where people can steal them.
Never.”
Isabella’s face changed.
“She knew.”
Nathan muttered.
“The drive wasn’t evidence.
It was bait.”
Daniel scanned the parking lot.
“We leave now.”
They split into two vehicles.
Nathan drove separately to protect them if followed.
Alejandro stayed with Elena, Marco, Isabella, and Daniel.
Ten minutes later Daniel spotted headlights maintaining distance.
“Black sedan.
Three cars back.”
Alejandro looked behind them.
“Can we lose it?”
“Probably.”
“Probably?”
“This isn’t a movie.”
Elena unexpectedly smiled.
Barely.
But Alejandro saw it.
The first smile he had seen from her in three years.
Then the sedan accelerated.
Daniel turned sharply onto a rural road.
Rain still fell.
Marco woke.
“What’s happening?”
Elena hugged him.
“Nothing.
Stay down.”
The sedan gained.
Another vehicle appeared ahead.
Roadblock.
Daniel cursed.
“Brace yourselves.”
He turned onto a narrow dirt road.
The SUV bounced violently.
Branches struck the windshield.
The sedan followed.
Alejandro looked at Elena.
“You said Vivian doesn’t use muscle.”
“She uses it when information fails.”
Gunfire shattered the rear window.
Marco screamed.
Alejandro covered him.
Daniel accelerated.
Ahead stood an abandoned railway bridge.
Narrow.
No guardrails.
“Daniel.”
“I see it.”
They crossed.
The sedan followed too fast.
Its rear tires slipped.
The vehicle spun sideways.
It slammed into a support post and stopped.
Daniel kept driving.
Twenty minutes later they reached a farmhouse belonging to Nathan’s uncle.
They changed vehicles again.
Nathan arrived forty minutes afterward.
His daughter was safe.
But Vivian had sent her a photograph of Nathan standing in the church parking lot.
Message received.
Nathan paced the farmhouse kitchen.
“She has surveillance everywhere.”
Alejandro shook his head.
“No.
She has people everywhere.”
Elena sat quietly.
Then she said.
“We need to stop running.”
Everyone looked at her.
Alejandro immediately objected.
“No.”
“Alejandro.”
“No.
I just got you back.”
“And if we keep running, she decides what happens.”
Elena looked at Nathan.
“You need direct evidence.”
“Yes.”
“The room under the chapel has it.”
Alejandro shook his head.
“We’re not going back.”
“I am.”
“No.”
She stood.
“You don’t get to decide where I go.”
That stopped him.
He realized how his words sounded.
Three years of imprisonment.
Three years without choices.
Alejandro nodded.
“You’re right.”
Elena’s shoulders relaxed slightly.
“But you’re also not going alone.”
Nathan spread a map across the table.
They began planning.
The Castillo mansion had been built in 1927.
The original owners included tunnels for Prohibition-era alcohol storage.
Alejandro knew two.
Elena knew five.
Vivian apparently knew all of them.
Rosa knew another.
“Rosa,” Elena said suddenly.
Alejandro looked up.
“She helped Marco.”
“She may still be inside.”
“We have to get her out.”
Daniel shook his head.
“Police will control the property.”
Nathan checked his phone.
“Actually, not anymore.”
“What?”
“The local department withdrew thirty minutes ago.”
Alejandro frowned.
“Why?”
“No public explanation.”
Elena understood.
“Vivian moved.”
Alejandro called a number.
The mansion line.
It rang.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Then Marco spoke quietly.
“She uses the red room when she’s leaving.”
Everyone looked at him.
“What red room?”
Marco hugged his knees.
“The room with suitcases.”
Elena crouched.
“Where is it?”
“Behind her bedroom.”
Alejandro had never known about it.
Marco continued.
“She told Mr. Hale once that if the house became unsafe, they would go to the island.”
“What island?”
Marco shrugged.
“The island where nobody asks names.”
Nathan and Alejandro exchanged looks.
Isabella went pale.
“I know.”
Everyone turned.
“There’s a private island in the Caribbean.
San Aurelio.”
Nathan frowned.
“That’s not private.”
“The southern peninsula is.”
“Owned by?”
Isabella answered.
“A company called Meridian Agricultural Holdings.”
Nathan searched.
His expression changed.
“Meridian is controlled through seven shell companies.”
“By Vivian?”
“No.”
He turned the laptop.
Final beneficiary.
CASTILLO GLOBAL FOUNDATION.
Alejandro stared.
His own charitable foundation.
Vivian had been using his organization.
His money.
His infrastructure.
For years.
They entered the mansion just before dawn through an old drainage tunnel.
No police.
No servants.
No Vivian.
The house felt abandoned.
Elena led them to the chapel.
A painting behind the altar concealed a keypad.
She entered six numbers.
Incorrect.
Again.
Incorrect.
Marco stepped forward.
“Her birthday.”
Elena looked at him.
“Whose?”
“Yours.”
Elena froze.
She typed her birthday.
The wall opened.
Alejandro felt a chill.
Vivian had used Elena’s birthday to protect the records of the life she had stolen.
They descended.
The underground room contained filing cabinets.
Hard drives.
Photographs.
Passports.
Sealed envelopes.
Nathan whispered.
“My God.”
Daniel opened one cabinet.
Rows of folders.
Judges.
Executives.
Police officers.
Politicians.
Doctors.
Alejandro opened a folder with his own name.
Photographs.
Medical records.
Travel schedules.
Then Elena called from the far wall.
“Alejandro.”
He turned.
She held an envelope.
Inside was a document.
A death certificate.
His death certificate.
Dated six months in the future.
Cause of death.
Aircraft accident.
Nathan read it twice.
“This is prepared paperwork.”
Daniel found another file.
Flight number.
Aircraft registration.
Pilot information.
Scheduled destination.
Alejandro stared at the date.
He already knew that flight.
It was his annual December trip to Zurich.
Vivian had not merely stolen Elena’s life.
She had planned Alejandro’s death.
Then Nathan opened another folder.
His expression changed.
“What?”
He turned the paper around.
A photograph showed Vivian beside a man entering a restaurant.
Alejandro recognized him.
Victor Castillo.
Alejandro’s uncle.
Vice Chairman of Castillo Global.
The man currently running the company in Alejandro’s absence.
Beneath the photograph were four words.
PHASE THREE AFTER ALEJANDRO.
Alejandro looked toward the mansion above them.
May you like
The enemy was no longer a woman who had taken his wife.
The enemy was inside his own bloodline.
