Chapter 19 The Evidence Room Fire #4
Valentina stepped forward just enough to force the man to look at her. “You’re not the one I met on the rooftop.”
The man’s mouth curved. “I’m the one who arrived when the question was asked.”
“What question?” Enzo demanded, and he hated the way he sounded like he was chasing answers instead of owning them.
The man’s eyes flicked to Enzo’s hands, to the cradle, to the place where the sealed pact should’ve been safe behind resin.
Then he lifted one gloved hand and tapped the air lightly, as if knocking on a door only he could see. “The question of what remains when records burn.”
Valentina’s voice sharpened. “So this is about the agreement.”
“It’s about what the agreement unlocks,” the man corrected, and the words carried a quiet satisfaction, like he’d been waiting to say them.
Enzo took a half step sideways, keeping his body angled to block Valentina’s view of the hallway behind the man. He wanted her focused on him, on choices. Not on what might already be dying in the evidence room.
“Where’s the proof you want?” Enzo asked. “You already had access. You wouldn’t stage an annex fire unless you were missing something.”
The man’s gaze slid to him again. “You’re quick. That’s why your voice was useful.”
Valentina went still.
Enzo felt the words land like a bullet he’d already dodged once and couldn’t dodge twice. He’d known about the handler using his voice recordings. He’d felt it in his bones when his access had been revoked and his commands had been turned against his own people.
But hearing it spoken by this man - hearing it with the certainty of a witness - made it real in a new way.
Valentina’s mouth tightened. “So you’re the one who used his voice.”
“His voice,” the man repeated, savoring the phrase. “And his hesitation.”
Enzo’s jaw clenched. He didn’t hesitate. He - he fought. He protected.
He forced himself to breathe through the anger. Because anger was cheap. Evidence was expensive. And right now, he didn’t have time for revenge.
“Sprinklers,” Enzo said, more to himself than to the man. “You disabled them.”
The man’s eyes brightened slightly, like Enzo had said something entertaining. “Not disabled. Distracted.”
Valentina’s gaze cut to the hallway walls. “Smoke alarms disabled. Cameras smeared.”
“Chain locks primed to delay,” the man added. “Enough time for the page you’re carrying to become ash.”
Enzo’s chest tightened. He wasn’t carrying the page. Not yet. Not the way the man wanted him to believe.
He’d brought the resin cradle because Valentina had demanded it - because the sealed pact mattered, because the trapdoor clause mattered, because the mastermind wanted the midday filing to activate something that would force legal outcomes.
But the evidence room fire wasn’t just about what was inside the evidence room.
It was about what Enzo and Valentina could save.
The man shifted his weight, and the movement was subtle - like he was making room for someone else. Enzo heard another set of footsteps now, closer, muffled by smoke.
“Two of you,” Valentina said, her voice low.
“Three,” Enzo corrected, and he wasn’t guessing. He could count the air displacement. He could feel the hallway’s pressure changes. The third presence was hidden behind the door further down, where sound traveled differently.
The man in black gloves smiled wider. “You’re learning. That’s good.”
Valentina’s eyes snapped to Enzo. “What are you doing?”
He didn’t answer right away. He glanced at the stairwell behind them, at the exit route down. Smoke was thickening there now, too - like the building was feeding on oxygen.
If they ran, the evidence room would burn. If they stayed, they risked being pinned between smoke and locked doors.
Enzo made a decision fast enough to feel like instinct and slow enough to feel like love. He stepped closer to Valentina, close enough that her scent - clean linen and something sharper underneath - hit him hard.
“Stay behind me,” he murmured.
Her eyes flared. “No.”
Enzo didn’t argue. He reached up and brushed his knuckles over the side of her neck, just where her pulse beat fast. It was intimate in a way the situation didn’t deserve and yet the situation demanded. He felt her shiver, the tiny betrayal of her body against the danger.
Valentina inhaled sharply. “Enzo - ”
“Listen,” he said, voice rough. “If I go in alone, they’ll think they can break you. If we both go in, they’ll try to split us. So we do something neither of them expects.”
Her stare held him. “What.”
He swallowed. The truth tasted like smoke. “We make the fire chase us instead of the other way around.”
Valentina’s lips parted, and for a moment she looked like she might laugh - like she might tell him he was crazy.
Then a crackle snapped through the air, sharp and sudden. Somewhere deeper in the annex, something had caught. Heat rolled along the hallway like a wave.
The man in black gloves shifted his stance again, ready to move. “You can’t outthink a match.”
Enzo’s gaze stayed on him. “Watch me.”
He pulled the resin cradle free from under his arm just enough for Valentina to see the seam where the pact sat under protective resin. The insertion seam glinted dully in the flickering light.
Valentina’s expression changed instantly - fear tightening into focus. “You didn’t bring it for show.”
“I brought it because the evidence room fire is a question,” Enzo said. “And I’m done letting them ask it first.”
Valentina’s hand rose, hovering over the cradle without touching. “If we open it - ”
“It’ll buy seconds,” Enzo said. “Not safety.”