Chapter 21 Matteo’s Reverse Trap for Marzio #5
Matteo wanted her to understand he wasn’t trading her. He was taking her.
He rose just enough to fire a warning shot. Not toward Celeste. Toward the hooded figure’s device. The bullet hit metal with a sharp, ringing crack. The hooded figure flinched, his grip tightening as he looked down at the device like it had betrayed him.
Then Matteo threw a flash grenade.
The light didn’t explode dramatically in the rain. It just bloomed white and hard, washing the yard in a cruel glare that erased faces and turned weapons into silhouettes. Matteo moved inside the glare while Marzio’s men reacted, their aim misaligned for a fraction of a second.
In that fraction, Matteo lunged for Celeste.
He caught her by the forearm and hauled her sideways into cover behind a stack of crates. Celeste’s body hit the wood with a grunt. Matteo didn’t give her time to process she was being saved. He pressed his palm to her shoulder hard enough to pin her.
Celeste’s eyes snapped to his, breath ragged. “You - ”
“Quiet,” Matteo hissed. “Where is the missing page.”
Her mouth opened again, but Matteo forced his forearm against her collarbone, limiting movement without choking her. The rain ran off the edge of her hood and down his skin, cold and slick.
Celeste’s voice dropped to a whisper. “Protected. Not by Marzio.”
Matteo felt the urge to slam his fist into something. “Then by who?”
Celeste’s gaze flicked, just once, toward the hooded figure - still blinking away the light, still adjusting. Then she looked back at Matteo with a kind of grim satisfaction.
“Celeste Grimaldi,” she said, and the name tasted like a lie inside her mouth. “I’m the intermediary. Not the lock.”
Matteo’s blood cooled. “You’re the new key intermediary.”
Celeste’s lips trembled. “They gave me a role. They told me I’d be escorted. They told me I’d be safe.”
“You were never safe,” Matteo said.
Celeste sucked in a breath. “The missing page is in a protected transfer vault. It’s not here on the ground. It’s already moved.”
Matteo’s grip tightened. “Moved where.”
Celeste’s eyes darted again, and Matteo realized she wasn’t hesitating because she didn’t know. She hesitated because she knew the answer would cost her.
He leaned in close enough to smell her fear - metallic, sharp, like coins held too long in a pocket. “Tell me, Celeste.”
Her throat worked. “A secured unit. A private archive lane under the port. They’re calling it a retrieval node, but it’s a gate. The page is in the gate.”
Matteo’s mind snapped to the dead retrieval unit he’d shot earlier. He’d destroyed the device that was supposed to confirm transfer compliance. But if the page was already moved into a gate, then the confirmation device was only the last step - the step that would let them control the destination.
Which meant the missing page wasn’t gone.
It was still within reach - but only if Matteo could get to the retrieval node before Marzio’s people completed the authorization sequence.
Matteo glanced toward the yard. Marzio was regaining his calm, moving with purpose now that the flash had burned off. The hooded figure had recovered his stance, device repaired enough to function, though the casing looked scorched.
Marzio called out, voice cutting through rain and shouting. “Bring the assistant back. Matteo can keep his pets.”
Matteo’s jaw flexed.
Celeste’s eyes widened. “Assistant?”
Matteo didn’t answer her. He shoved her behind cover harder, then turned his head toward Elena.
Elena was pinned near the wall, using the concrete as a shield, her face pale but fierce. Her reader was hidden under her coat. Her hand kept moving as if she was trying to reach it without being seen.
She caught Matteo’s look and understood instantly: he’d grabbed Celeste instead of the page.
Her eyes flicked to Celeste’s pinned position. “You took her.”
Matteo’s voice stayed low. “I took leverage.”
Elena’s lips pressed together. “Marzio still has the missing page.”
Matteo’s phone buzzed again. The directive now included a time window so tight it felt like a threat: return to custody compliance within minutes, or Elena’s coordinates would be re-sanitized through the chain.
Coordinates.
Elena’s eyes widened, and he saw the moment she realized what the directive meant. It wasn’t just about moving the page. It was about erasing her trace again, making her disappear from the system so they could relocate her without leaving a trail Matteo could follow.
“They’ll wipe the link,” Elena said.
Matteo nodded once. “And they’ll do it after Marzio escapes with authorization.”
Elena’s voice went thin. “Then we can’t wait.”
Matteo’s gaze sharpened. “No.”
He turned back to Celeste and shoved the question into the space between them. “What’s the gate’s key intermediary protocol. How do we override it.”
Celeste’s eyes flickered with pain. “You don’t override. You replace.”
“Replace with what.”
Celeste’s breath hitched. “With the authorization signature they were supposed to use. But it won’t work unless you can force a controlled contact with Mar