Chapter 6 - The Lake House
Luca read the note twice.
Then he folded it.
“We’re not bringing the dogs.”
I looked at Bruno and Dante.
“Then what are we doing?”
“Making Carlo believe we are.”
Vanessa shook her head.
“He’ll know.”
“How?”
“Because my father knows you.”
Luca looked at her.
“So do you.”
She flinched.
Whatever their engagement had been, it was dead now.
Within an hour, Luca had arranged two vehicles.
One visible.
One hidden.
Bruno and Dante remained at the mansion under Dr. Monroe’s care.
A security team drove decoy crates toward Lake Geneva.
Luca took me in the second vehicle.
“You shouldn’t come.”
“You already said that.”
“And you already ignored me.”
“My father is part of this.”
He looked through the windshield.
“That doesn’t make it safer.”
“No.”
“But it makes leaving impossible.”
He didn’t argue again.
The lake house sat behind tall pines on several acres of frozen-looking shoreline.
Gray water stretched beneath a heavy sky.
I understood immediately why Luca hated the place.
His father had died here.
We entered through a rear service road.
The main house appeared abandoned.
But tire tracks crossed the wet gravel.
Luca’s men found Marco in a storage shed.
Alive.
Hands tied.
Head bruised.
Thomas was gone.
Marco insisted Carlo’s men had taken him separately.
Luca cut him free.
“Why did you leave your room?”
“I didn’t.”
Marco looked furious.
“One of your guards brought coffee.”
“Who?”
“Peter Russo.”
Luca looked at another man.
“Find Russo.”
They found his uniform in the woods.
Not Russo.
Marco turned to Luca.
“You have another leak.”
Vanessa had been right.
Someone inside Luca’s organization was helping Carlo.
Then I noticed Dante’s symbol carved into a wooden railing.
314.
“Luca.”
He came closer.
Below the number was an arrow.
Pointing toward the lake.
We followed the shoreline.
Half a mile from the house stood an old boathouse.
Inside was a rusted metal door.
Bruno’s missing tag opened it.
Behind the door was a tunnel.
Luca stared into the darkness.
“My father built this.”
Marco nodded.
“For emergencies.”
“You knew?”
“Only that it existed.”
Inside we found old scent markers.
Small leather strips.
Bruno’s route.
Vanessa had told the truth.
Each marker led deeper into the tunnel.
At the end was a steel elevator.
There was no button.
Only a scanner.
I tried tag 314.
Nothing.
315.
Nothing.
Then I saw a keypad.
I entered:
BE BRAVE KIDDO.
The elevator doors opened.
Luca looked at me.
“Your father built this.”
We descended.
The chamber below contained shelves of documents and hard drives.
Years of evidence.
But the central safe was empty.
Someone had reached it first.
On the floor was blood.
Not much.
But enough.
Beside it lay Thomas Reed’s watch.
Then the lights turned red.
An alarm began.
Marco shouted.
“Move!”
A timer appeared on the wall.
02:00.
Two minutes.
Luca grabbed my arm.
We ran.
At the elevator, the doors refused to open.
Someone had locked us underground.
The timer reached ninety seconds.
Marco searched the wall.
“There has to be another exit!”
I remembered my father.
Electrical locks.
Hidden systems.
Then I saw three wires behind a panel.
Red.
Blue.
White.
On the metal beside them, my father had scratched a sentence.
EMMA WILL KNOW.
I almost laughed.
“I don’t.”
Luca looked at me.
“Yes, you do.”
Then I remembered.
My father teaching me household wiring when I was twelve.
Never trust the obvious live wire.
Check the neutral first.
I pulled the white wire.
The red lights died.
The countdown froze at twelve seconds.
Everyone stared.
Marco exhaled.
“Your father was insane.”
“No.”
I looked at the stopped timer.
“He knew me.”
A secondary door opened.
We escaped through a tunnel ending near the woods.
But Thomas was still missing.
And when we returned to the mansion, there was another message waiting.
This one was addressed to me.
Emma,
Your father stole something from me.
Now you’re going to give it back.
C.B.
Attached was a photograph.
My mother.
May you like
Standing outside her apartment.
Taken less than an hour earlier.
