Chapter 21 Matteo’s Reverse Trap for Marzio #4
A third party stepped into view behind her, not a man Matteo recognized from Marzio’s typical men.
This one wore a hood and a rain slicker that swallowed his shape.
The hood made his face hard to read, but Matteo caught the gleam of a slim badge clip at the collar - an insignia that didn’t belong to Marzio’s operation.
The hooded figure held a compact device in one hand, the kind used to jam or scramble signals. Matteo had seen it used once in a different city, in a different war. Someone with access to tools like that didn’t show up by accident.
Marzio didn’t look pleased. He looked relieved. Like the third party had been promised.
“Matteo,” the hooded figure called, voice muffled by rain and fabric. The name came out too precise, too practiced. “You’re interfering with the chain of custody.”
Matteo’s phone buzzed again, and this time he didn’t need to read the directive to feel the intention behind it. It was a push toward compliance, toward surrendering Elena’s progress before she could lock the missing page into an irreversible transfer.
He swallowed down the urge to snap his phone in half.
Elena pressed her thumb against the reader. “It’s not asking me for a password.”
Matteo’s attention snapped back to her hands. “What is it asking for?”
Elena’s lips parted, and for a second her fear showed through her anger like a crack in glass. “It’s asking for the ledger key’s authorization to decode the missing page.”
Matteo’s mind raced. The ledger key was supposed to open secure data. But a reader asking for additional credentialing meant the missing page wasn’t just encrypted - it was being actively protected, gated behind a live operational lock.
Protected by who?
By Marzio’s men? That would be too simple.
By the hooded figure? That would be worse.
By someone inside The Shadows who’d predicted Elena would try to open it on the fly?
Matteo’s gaze flicked to Celeste. She was being dragged backward by the hooded figure, arms yanked behind her, her coat tearing at the seams. She looked at Matteo through the rain like she was trying to memorize his face before someone erased her from the equation.
Marzio stepped forward on the slick ground, boots steady despite the chaos. “You got what you wanted, Matteo.”
Matteo didn’t give him the satisfaction of asking what that was.
Marzio’s eyes slid to Elena. “You forced a split. You pulled Celeste into the yard instead of letting her escort the page to the retrieval unit. Now you’ve bought yourself a choice.”
Elena’s reader beeped again. This time it didn’t sound like a cautious prompt. It sounded like a countdown.
Matteo grabbed Elena’s wrist. “Stop.”
Her eyes flashed. “It’s almost there.”
“It’s almost bait,” Matteo said. “He wants you to complete it so they can mark the authorization trail. Then they can locate the missing page’s destination.”
Elena’s jaw clenched. “Then we don’t complete it.”
Matteo held her gaze, and in it he saw the same stubbornness that had driven her to print partial evidence with her bare hands while men tried to snatch it away. She wasn’t a woman who backed down from a locked door. She just found another way to kick it in.
But this wasn’t a story. This was a security protocol built by people who knew how to turn curiosity into a noose.
“Matteo - ” she started.
He cut her off with a harsh whisper. “Listen to me. If you push through, you’ll light up the entire chain. The third party is already here. They’re here to close the loop.”
For a moment, Elena looked like she might argue. Then her eyes flicked to the hooded figure hauling Celeste farther into the yard, and her expression went colder.
“You’re right,” she said. “They’re protecting the missing page actively.”
Matteo exhaled through his teeth. “Good. Then we can still take something from this.”
Elena’s brows drew together. “Like what?”
Matteo’s phone buzzed again, and he finally read the message fully. The directive didn’t demand Elena’s compliance anymore. It demanded Matteo’s withdrawal from the yard and his return to custody personnel.
Custody personnel again.
Which meant the plan wasn’t just about retrieving the page. It was about separating Matteo from Elena after the page was moved.
Matteo’s throat tightened. He had been obeying orders to protect Elena, but the orders were structured to isolate him when the moment came. Someone inside the chain had planned for him to be predictable.
Marzio watched him read, the way a man watches a lock pick fail.
Matteo met his eyes. “You sent the wrong bait.”
Marzio’s smile didn’t reach his eyes. “Did I?”
Matteo made his decision fast - because hesitation was what they wanted. He shoved Elena’s reader into her coat and slapped the ledger key against her palm through the fabric, pressing it there like a promise.
Then he pulled Elena behind the wall again and moved to the edge where he could see Celeste and the hooded figure.
The hooded figure’s hand hovered near a small control panel on Celeste’s wrist, something like a restraint monitor.
Celeste tried to pull away, but two Marzio men held her by the elbows.
Her face was wet with rain and sweat, and her eyes were bright with a kind of panic that didn’t come from fear alone. It came from recognition.
She knew Matteo was trying to make a trade.