Chapter Fifteen #3
For the next forty-two hours, we try.
Dmitri’s house is empty. A coffee cup remains beside the kitchen sink, and food has begun to spoil in the refrigerator, but there is no indication of where he went.
His accounts haven’t been touched. His phone last connected to a tower north of the city, then disappeared.
We search properties connected to Mikhailov, Petrov, and every Russian associate we can identify: warehouses, apartments, garages, and a house near the New Hampshire border.
Nothing.
Aniya and her father have vanished.
More protection goes on Angela, Armando’s mother, Dario’s family, and Bruno’s granddaughter. Every business moves to heightened security. Deliveries are suspended. Men sleep in their cars outside schools and homes.
Belmont changes around the threat.
Additional vehicles line the drive. Guards who usually remain out of sight stand openly near the doors. The gates stay closed long enough for every arriving car to be identified.
Lucia notices.
She asks why Bruno no longer drives her into the city, why Armando has missed breakfast two mornings in a row, and why the gates remain closed even when our own vehicles approach.
I tell her we’re reviewing security.
Not a lie.
Not enough of the truth to matter.
She watches me more carefully after that.
With six hours remaining, I stand in the security room while every available screen displays another failed search.
The room is dark except for the monitors. Maps, property records, and photographs cover the central table. Empty coffee cups have gathered beside keyboards, and the air smells of overheated equipment and men who haven’t slept.
Gio enters and closes the door.
“We aren’t going to find Aniya in time.”
“We still have six hours.”
“You haven’t slept.”
“I’m aware.”
“Mikhailov could be bluffing.”
“He has photographs of everyone who matters to our men.”
“He won’t start a war he can’t control.”
“He already has.”
Gio braces both hands on the table.
“We don’t give her back.”
I look at the screens.
“And let her sister pay the price? Let our people pay the price?”
“Why does she have to pay it?”
The look he gives me is desperate.
“If Lucia learns her uncle has Aniya, what will she do?”
His silence answers.
“She’ll go back,” I say.
“Then we don’t tell her.”
He’s more right than he knows.
If Lucia learns about Aniya, she’ll return willingly. Mikhailov will see the truth immediately: sacrifice, loyalty, and an alliance that remains intact. He’ll know we helped her make the decision.
He’ll keep Aniya hidden, his men watching this house, and every defense firmly in place because he’ll expect us to come for Lucia.
But if she believes I betrayed her, Mikhailov will believe it too.
He’ll see her fear, anger, and hatred. He’ll believe he has separated her from us completely.
Men who believe they’ve won stop protecting themselves from the enemy they think they’ve defeated.
I look at Lucia through the security monitor.
She trusts me.
By tomorrow, she’ll hate me.
The realization makes me physically ill, but her hatred will be real, and that makes it the only cover I can give her.
Mikhailov cannot force her to reveal a plan she doesn’t know exists.
“We have to find Aniya,” Gio says.
“We’ve tried.”
“Then we keep trying.”
“For how long? Until one of our men’s children disappears? Until Angela is shot outside the market?”
Gio’s face hardens.
“So we hand Lucia over.”
I close my eyes.
“No.”
“That’s what you’re saying.”
“I’m saying there is no move that doesn’t sacrifice someone.”
“Then sacrifice Mikhailov.”
“I intend to.”
“When?”
“When I can do it without burying half the people who trust us.”
Gio pushes away from the table.
“You promised her.”
The words land harder than anything Mikhailov said.
I open my eyes.
“I know.”
“You told her she could leave whenever she wanted.”
“I know.”
“You said we would fight.”
“I know.”
“Then act like it.”
He walks out.
I remain in the security room.
On one screen, Lucia crosses the east terrace carrying a basket of cut roses. She pauses beside the pool and bends to retrieve a fallen leaf from the stone.
She adds it to the basket.
Angela meets her at the conservatory door, and they disappear inside together.
Lucia belongs here now.
Her books are in the library. Her tea is in the kitchen. Her photograph of Maria sits beside her bed.
Gio is in love with her.
Angela already treats her like a daughter.
The men have begun treating her safety as something personal.
I’m going to destroy all of it.
Armando enters quietly.
“No sign of Aniya.”
“How long?”
“Three hours.”
Not enough.
It will never be enough.
“What do you want me to do?” he asks.
Through the camera, Lucia reappears inside the conservatory. She sets the basket on the table and begins arranging flowers.
Safe.
Comfortable.
Trusting.
“Are you going to tell her about Aniya?” he asks.
I look at the screens.
“If she knows, then Mikhailov will know.”
Armando understands.
“She’ll hate you.”
“That’s the point.”
I told her the gate would open if she asked to leave.
I never considered that I might be the one forcing her through it.
“Call Mikhailov.”
Armando goes still.
“And tell him what?”
Lucia laughs at something Angela says.
Even without sound, I recognize it.
I force myself to look away.
“Tell him I’ll bring her home.”