Chapter 14 - BURIED UNDER THE LAKE HOUSE
The blast tore through the old basement.
Concrete fell.
Lights died.
Water burst from an ancient pipe.
Dante woke with dust in his mouth.
His left leg screamed.
He tried to move.
Couldn’t.
For one horrible second, he thought the damage had returned.
Then someone touched his shoulder.
“Dante.”
Isabela.
He opened his eyes.
“Sofia?”
“With me.”
The child was crying quietly but alive.
Bruno crawled from debris.
Elena appeared beside him.
Victor was unconscious.
Rosa was gone.
Again.
Dante looked toward the collapsed tunnel.
“She planned this.”
Bruno coughed.
“Secondary charges.”
Dante pushed himself upright.
His leg moved.
Painful.
But functional.
He almost laughed.
Sofia crawled toward him.
“You’re bleeding.”
“Not much.”
She touched his sleeve.
“You stood up.”
Dante looked at her.
“You noticed?”
“You’re very tall.”
Even Bruno smiled.
For three seconds.
Then water began rising.
A ruptured underground channel.
The basement would flood.
They carried Victor.
Dante refused to be carried until his leg gave out.
Isabela put his arm over her shoulder.
“You’re impossible.”
“So I’ve heard.”
They found an emergency tunnel.
Elias had once used it to carry Alejandro out.
History repeating.
At the exit, dawn light appeared.
Then a gunshot.
Bruno dropped.
Dante spun.
Rosa stood outside.
Alone now.
Her gun aimed.
Bruno had been hit in the shoulder.
Dante moved in front of Sofia.
Rosa looked at him.
“You still protect children.”
“Someone should.”
Pain crossed her face.
“You think I’m a monster.”
“I think you’ve earned the description.”
“I kept this family alive.”
“You poisoned it.”
“I prevented Victor from destroying everything.”
Victor, barely conscious, laughed.
“You mean stealing everything.”
Rosa aimed at him.
Dante stepped between them.
“No.”
She looked at Dante.
“You would choose him?”
“I choose to end this.”
“You can’t.”
“Watch me.”
Rosa lowered the gun slightly.
“You don’t understand the trust.”
“Then explain.”
“If you dissolve it, hundreds of employees lose protection.”
“Then I rebuild legally.”
“Enemies take territory.”
“Let them.”
“You would throw away your father’s empire?”
Dante thought of the mountain road.
Rafael.
Sofia.
Elena.
Mateo.
Bodies and secrets.
“Yes.”
Rosa stared at him.
And finally understood.
She had lost.
Not the trust.
Dante.
A distant siren sounded.
External security teams approaching.
Rosa looked toward the forest.
Dante saw calculation.
“Don’t.”
She ran.
Bruno tried to raise his weapon.
Dante stopped him.
“No.”
Rosa disappeared among trees.
Isabela stared.
“You’re letting her go?”
“No.”
Dante looked toward the road.
“I’m letting her think she escaped.”
Because before entering the lake house, Dante had placed a tracker inside the old Montenegro family ring Rosa always wore.
He had noticed she never removed it.
Bruno smiled despite the bullet wound.
“Where is she going?”
Dante checked the tracker.
North.
Fast.
Toward an airfield.
Then the signal changed direction.
Not the airfield.
Toward the mountains.
Dante stared.
Same road where his SUV had crashed.
Henrique looked at him.
“Why there?”
Dante already knew.
The crash site.
Someone had hidden something.
Or someone.
The tracker stopped.
At a property not shown on modern maps.
Elias looked at the coordinates.
His face changed.
“What?”
He looked at Dante.
“That’s where Alejandro went after Uruguay.”
Dante stared.
“My father is there.”
Elias whispered.
“He was.”
Dante heard the distinction.
“Was?”
Elias looked toward the mountains.
“I haven’t heard from him in six months.”
Dante tightened his grip on the crutch.
Rosa had fled toward the last known hiding place of Alejandro Montenegro.
Which meant either she planned to kill him.
May you like
Or she had been working with him all along.
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