Chapter 10 - The Underground Alliance
I opened my mouth to scream, biting down hard against the palm covering my face, but a low, familiar voice hissed in my ear.
"Clara, stop! It's me."
The hand lifted. I spun around in the dim light to find Leo standing there, breathing heavily, his dark tactical shirt smeared with dust and a dark streak of blood along his forearm.
"Leo?" I whispered, my heart hammering against my ribs like a trapped bird. "Where's Dominic? Did they—"
"He's holding them off in the main gallery," Leo interrupted, his eyes sharp and urgent as he grabbed my elbow, pulling me deeper into the shadows behind the wine racks. "Vincent brought a full cleanup crew. The local police are already compromised—they’re on his payroll."
"We can't just leave him there," I argued, pressing the leather ledger into his chest. "Take this. Get out through the drainage culvert. I'm going back."
Leo caught my wrist with an iron grip, stopping me dead in my tracks. "Listen to me, Clara. You are the only leverage we have left. That ledger proves Vincent ordered the abduction of your mother thirty-eight years ago under a false corporate identity. If you walk back up those stairs, he won't just kill Dominic—he’ll bury you right beside the hidden room."
Before I could answer, a loud, metallic crash echoed from the top of the cellar stairs, followed by the heavy, deliberate sound of slow footsteps descending into the dark.
A flashlight beam cut across the stone floor, sweeping past our hiding spot, stopping just ten feet away.
May you like
Vincent Caruso's voice drifted down into the damp chill of the cellar, smooth, cold, and dripping with malicious satisfaction.
"Come out, little house-sitter," Vincent called out into the dark. "You can't hide in my family's foundation forever."
