Chapter 4 - THE LEAK WEARING VINCENT’S NAME
The safe apartment remained quiet until midnight.
Sarah woke to the sound of Lily speaking in the hallway.
She opened the bedroom door.
Lily stood near the entrance holding Mr. Buttons.
A man’s voice came through the intercom.
“Delivery for Miss Bennett.”
Sarah had ordered nothing.
She pressed the security button.
No response came from the guard station.
The camera beside the entrance showed an empty hallway.
Then the feed froze.
Sarah grabbed Lily and moved toward the reinforced bathroom.
A knock sounded from inside the apartment.
Not the front door.
The utility closet.
Someone was already inside.
Sarah locked the bathroom.
She called Vincent.
He answered on the first ring.
“Where are your guards?”
“What happened?”
“Someone is inside.”
Vincent’s voice changed.
“Get into the tub.”
“Put Lily beneath you.”
“Stay away from the door.”
The utility closet opened.
Footsteps crossed the apartment.
The bathroom handle moved.
Lily covered her mouth with both hands.
Sarah held a metal towel bar she had pulled from the wall.
The intruder struck the door.
Once.
Twice.
Then gunfire sounded from the living room.
The attacker stopped.
A body hit the floor.
Vincent’s voice came from outside.
“Sarah.”
“Do not open until I give the code.”
He recited the phrase they had selected.
The yellow rabbit hates carrots.
Sarah unlocked the door.
Vincent stood in the hallway with blood on his sleeve.
The approved guard lay restrained beside the kitchen.
The intruder had escaped through the utility shaft.
Vincent checked Lily first.
“Are you hurt?”
She shook her head.
“Did you shoot someone?”
“No.”
“The wall?”
“Yes.”
“Is the wall okay?”
“It has had better nights.”
Sarah looked at the guard.
“Why did he let them in?”
Vincent took the man’s phone.
The latest message had been sent from an account using Vincent’s identity.
The sender knew private codes.
Guard rotations.
The safe apartment location.
Only a few people had that access.
One was Vincent.
Another was Adrian’s security systems director, Nicholas Russo.
Vincent’s younger brother.
Nicholas had built the secure communications network.
He had attended Adrian’s surgery.
He had also disappeared from the hospital ten minutes before the attack.
Sarah stared at Vincent.
“Your brother gave them my daughter.”
Vincent’s face emptied.
“I do not know yet.”
“You know enough.”
“Yes.”
Adrian woke from surgery the following morning.
The device beneath his skin ached.
Dr. Maren refused to allow visitors until his heart rhythm stabilized.
Vincent entered anyway.
Adrian saw his expression.
“Lily?”
“Safe.”
“Sarah?”
“Safe.”
“What happened?”
Vincent explained.
When he reached Nicholas’s name, his voice weakened.
Adrian had known the brothers for eleven years.
Vincent had taken a bullet for him.
Nicholas had built every digital wall protecting the Moretti organization.
Adrian pressed his fingers against the bandage over his new device.
“You are not investigating him alone.”
“He is my brother.”
“That is why.”
Vincent looked toward the monitor.
“What do you want me to do?”
“Find evidence.”
“And if it proves he betrayed us?”
“We bring him in alive.”
Vincent’s eyes hardened.
“That is not how we handled betrayal before.”
“Before, my daughter drew me without a face.”
“Before, I believed killing the traitor fixed the system that created him.”
“What changed?”
May you like
Adrian looked toward the photograph of Lily holding his hand.
“I survived long enough to discover I do not want her inheriting my answers.”
