Chapter 8 - BENEATH THE WRECKAGECelia woke upside down.
Her seat belt cut into her ribs. Broken glass glittered across the truck’s ceiling, which was now beneath her. Smoke entered through the shattered windows.
For several seconds, she could not remember where she was.
Then she heard Leo choking.
“Leo!”
She released the seat belt and crashed onto the roof.
Pain shot through her shoulder, but she crawled toward the stretcher. The metal frame had broken loose and pinned Margaret against the side of the vehicle.
Leo’s breathing mask was gone.
His lips were turning blue.
Celia found the manual ventilation bag beneath a collapsed cabinet. The tubing had torn.
She pressed her mouth over Leo’s and breathed for him.
Once.
Twice.
Again.
The boy’s chest rose weakly.
“Celia,” Margaret groaned.
“I’m here.”
“My leg.”
Celia could see blood spreading beneath the stretcher frame.
Outside, gunfire continued in short bursts.
Tommy’s voice shouted from somewhere near the front.
“Move! The fuel is leaking!”
Celia kept breathing for Leo.
She could not carry him and free her mother at the same time.
Margaret understood.
“Take the boy.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
“Your father died trying to protect proof. Elena died trying to protect this child’s future. Do not let their deaths become useless because you’re too stubborn to make a decision.”
“I said I’m not choosing.”
“Then stop talking and find another way.”
Celia looked around.
A steel medical bracket had snapped from the wall. She wedged it beneath the stretcher frame and pushed.
Nothing moved.
She adjusted the angle and tried again.
Margaret screamed as the pressure shifted.
The frame lifted half an inch.
“Pull your leg!”
Margaret dragged herself free.
The truck’s rear door opened with a metallic shriek. Tommy appeared, blood running down his face.
“Give me Leo.”
Celia hesitated.
“Now!”
She placed the boy in his arms.
Tommy carried him into the sleet while Celia helped Margaret crawl through the wreckage.
They reached a drainage ditch seconds before flames engulfed the truck.
The explosion illuminated the road.
Two of Vincent’s guards lay dead near the convoy. Another vehicle had escaped. The attackers were gone.
“They wanted the key,” Tommy said.
Celia searched her pockets.
“It fell when we rolled.”
Margaret clutched her arm.
“Then it’s still near the road.”
Tommy looked toward the burning truck.
“We can’t stay.”
“We can’t leave it.”
“More men will come.”
Celia saw tire tracks disappearing into the darkness. The attackers had withdrawn immediately after the crash.
“They think the key was destroyed,” she said.
Tommy considered this.
“Or they already found it.”
Leo made a faint sound.
The surviving paramedic examined him beside the ditch.
“He needs ventilation immediately.”
“Our equipment burned,” Celia said.
“There may be another unit in the escort vehicle.”
The remaining SUV had overturned but was not burning. Tommy and the paramedic ran toward it.
Celia helped Margaret sit beneath a tree.
“Tell me who Vincent trusts,” Celia said.
“What?”
“You said someone close to him ordered Elena’s death.”
Margaret looked toward Leo.
“I don’t know the name. Elena discovered that Anthony wasn’t acting alone. Someone younger was helping him control the family accounts.”
“Simon?”
“She said it wasn’t Simon.”
“Tommy?”
“I never met Tommy.”
“Dr. Sterling?”
“Elena trusted the doctor.”
“Who else?”
Margaret shook her head.
“She called him the second son.”
“Vincent doesn’t have a brother.”
“Not a real son. A chosen one.”
Tommy returned with a portable ventilator.
The paramedic connected Leo and restarted assisted breathing.
His oxygen level rose slowly.
Celia watched Tommy.
Vincent’s most trusted man.
A man who knew the family secrets.
A man whose compromised phone had nearly killed them.
Tommy noticed her stare.
“What?”
“Who gave you that phone?”
“It came from our secure equipment room.”
“Who had access?”
“Six people.”
“Names.”
“This is not the time.”
“It became the time when the phone exploded.”
Tommy stepped closer.
“You think I betrayed Vincent?”
“I think someone he trusts killed his wife.”
Tommy’s expression did not change, but something moved behind his eyes.
“Who told you that?”
“My mother.”
“Your mother has been hiding information for twelve years.”
“She had a reason.”
“Everyone has a reason.”
Before Celia could answer, the sound of an engine approached.
Tommy raised his gun.
A sheriff’s patrol car stopped fifty yards away. One deputy stepped out with his hands visible.
“State police are on the way,” he called. “Anyone injured?”
Tommy did not respond.
The deputy’s gaze moved to Leo’s medical equipment and the weapons on the ground.
“Put the gun down.”
Tommy whispered to Celia.
“If the police take Leo, Simon gets him.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Look at the deputy’s left hand.”
The man wore a gold ring bearing a small crest.
The same crest embroidered on Leo’s school blazer.
Romano.
The deputy reached for his radio.
Tommy fired into the patrol car’s front tire.
The deputy dropped behind the door and returned fire.
“Run!” Tommy shouted.
They carried Leo through the trees.
Margaret could barely walk. Celia wrapped an arm around her waist while the paramedic and Tommy maneuvered the stretcher over frozen ground.
The deputy followed.
His flashlight cut through the branches.
“You cannot outrun me!”
Tommy turned and fired twice, forcing him down.
Ahead, the land sloped toward a river.
“There’s nowhere to go,” Celia said.
Tommy pointed toward a dark structure near the bank.
An abandoned boathouse.
They entered through a broken side door.
Inside, old fishing equipment hung from rotting walls. A small motorboat rested in the water beneath the building.
“It won’t start,” the paramedic said after checking the engine.
Tommy pulled off the cover.
“It will.”
Celia lowered Margaret onto a bench.
“Where are we going?”
“Across the river. Another vehicle will meet us.”
“You still trust your network?”
“No.”
Tommy connected two wires beneath the motor.
The engine coughed.
Outside, the deputy entered the boathouse.
“End of the road,” he called.
Tommy positioned himself beside the door.
Celia noticed something silver near the deputy’s boots.
The vault key.
It must have caught in the fabric of her coat and fallen while they ran.
The deputy saw it.
He bent down.
Celia grabbed a rusted boat hook and swung it through the doorway. The metal end caught the deputy’s wrist, pulling him forward. Tommy struck him once and took his weapon.
Celia retrieved the key.
The deputy smiled through a split lip.
“You have no idea what you’re opening.”
“Then tell me.”
“The Romano vault doesn’t contain recordings.”
Margaret stared at him.
“That’s impossible.”
“It contains the people from the recordings.”
“What does that mean?” Celia asked.
The deputy laughed.
“You think Anthony blackmailed powerful men with tapes? Tapes can be denied. Witnesses cannot.”
A car engine approached outside.
The deputy’s smile widened.
“Simon isn’t the only person coming for that key.”
Tommy dragged him into the boathouse and searched his jacket.
He found an FBI credential.
The deputy was not a deputy.
He was an undercover federal agent.
Celia looked at Tommy.
“We just attacked the FBI.”
“No,” the agent said.
May you like
His smile vanished.
“You attacked the only person trying to warn you that Special Agent Rebecca Lane works for the second son.”
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