Chapter 10 - The House That Burned Twice.
.Anna moved toward the front window, but Luca caught her arm.
"He wants you visible."
"He has Sofia."
"And he will kill all of us if we give him everything."
Anna hated that he was right.
Dr. Voss pointed toward the basement.
"There used to be a storm tunnel under this house."
Luca looked at Anna.
She remembered it before he asked.
"Behind the furnace."
They moved downstairs while bullets shattered the first-floor windows.
Luca's men returned fire from the rear hall.
Anna found the old iron panel behind the furnace and pulled it open.
A brick tunnel led toward a drainage ditch beyond the property wall.
Luca handed the laptop to his most trusted guard.
"Get this to Nora and the federal investigator."
The guard disappeared into the tunnel.
Anna held the memory card.
Luca looked at it.
"You go next."
She shook her head.
"Not without Sofia."
A bottle crashed upstairs.
Fire rolled across the hallway ceiling.
Victor's men were using incendiaries.
The smell of smoke struck Anna with the full force of the crash memory.
She saw flames inside twisted metal.
She heard two-year-old Sofia screaming outside the car.
She saw Victor dragging her through mud while Dr. Voss injected something into her arm.
Then she remembered one more thing.
Victor had whispered a location while believing she was unconscious.
"Take the child to Pier Nine until the boss arrives."
Anna grabbed Luca.
"Pier Nine."
"What?"
"That is where Victor took Sofia after the crash before he brought her to the hospital. He has a warehouse there."
Voss looked up sharply.
"He still owns it through a shell company."
Luca made the decision instantly.
They escaped through the tunnel as the old house filled with smoke.
At the drainage ditch, Anna looked back and saw flames pouring from the roof.
The place holding four years of grief was burning again.
This time she did not feel erased by it.
She felt furious.
They drove toward the river in an unmarked delivery van.
Nora called during the trip.
The federal investigator, Special Agent Mara Keene, had received the files and was assembling a team.
She warned Luca not to approach Pier Nine until law enforcement arrived.
Luca looked at Anna.
Neither of them answered.
When they reached the industrial waterfront, Victor's warehouse appeared dark except for one row of upper windows.
A child's shadow moved behind the glass.
Anna's breath caught.
"Sofia."
Luca gripped the steering wheel.
"We wait for Keene."
Then Sofia's silhouette disappeared abruptly.
A man stepped into the window holding her sparkly hair clip.
Victor.
A text arrived on Anna's phone from an unknown number.
COME ALONE WITH THE CARD OR SHE GOES INTO THE RIVER.
Anna opened the van door.
Luca grabbed her wrist.
"Elena."
She looked at him.
"Four years ago, he took my choice away."
She closed his fingers around a second object.
May you like
It was not the real memory card.
"This time, we choose the trap."
