Chapter 4 - The Estate in Darkness
The blackout lasted only three seconds.
But in those three seconds, the room changed.
Someone shouted.
A tray hit the floor.
A gun clicked somewhere near the door.
When the emergency lights flickered on, Dante was gone.
So was the note.
And so was the guard who had been standing nearest to me.
“Where is Miss Carter?” Dr. Pennington shouted.
I was no longer in Lorenzo’s room.
Someone had pulled me into the hallway during the blackout.
A hand covered my mouth.
An arm locked around my waist.
I fought hard enough to bite skin.
The man cursed and dragged me toward a service stairwell.
“You should have stayed a waitress,” he hissed.
I recognized the voice.
The stern woman who hired me at the diner.
She tore off her dark coat as we ran.
Underneath, she wore scrubs.
A medical uniform.
“You work for Dante,” I gasped.
“I work for whoever survives.”
She shoved me into a black SUV waiting beneath the estate’s rear entrance.
The door slammed.
The vehicle sped through the iron gates.
I hit the window, screaming Noah’s name even though he was miles away.
The woman sat across from me, holding the note from my mother.
“Your father should have destroyed this,” she said.
“What did he find?”
“He found proof that the Romano brothers were not enemies then.”
My body went still.
“Lorenzo and Dante worked together?”
“For years.”
“No.”
“He knew what Dante was capable of. He looked away because the money kept coming.”
I shook my head.
“You are lying.”
“Maybe.” She smiled. “But ask yourself why Lorenzo recognized your father.”
The SUV turned onto a winding mountain road.
Rain hammered the roof.
The woman continued.
“Your father found out that Dante had been testing toxins through private medical companies. He planned to sell a paralysis compound to anyone who paid enough.”
I felt sick.
“And Lorenzo?”
“Lorenzo wanted the operation hidden, not stopped.”
The words cut through me.
The man in the hospital bed was not a hero.
Maybe he was only a monster betrayed by another monster.
“Your father tried to report them,” she said. “Then his car crashed.”
I stared at her.
“You killed him.”
“No.” Her face changed. “But I watched the men who did.”
The SUV slowed.
Ahead, a private helicopter waited on a wet clearing.
My stomach dropped.
She was taking me away.
Then headlights appeared behind us.
Black vehicles.
Fast.
Closing in.
The woman swore.
A gunshot struck the rear window.
The SUV spun across the road.
I grabbed the door handle.
The vehicle hit a guardrail.
The woman lunged for me.
But I kicked the door open and ran into the rain.
Behind me, men shouted.
Ahead, through sheets of water, someone stepped from the lead vehicle.
Lorenzo Romano.
Barely standing.
One hand gripping the side of the SUV.
The other holding a gun.
He should not have been able to walk.
But he was there.
And he looked directly at me.
May you like
“Run,” he said.
Then Dante’s men opened fire.
