75. Dante
DANTE
My little siren is more clever than I gave her credit for.
Of course I knew she wasn’t actually using the restroom at the corner store, but I let her think I believed her to see what her plan was.
And it was a good one, however reckless.
She is very resourceful, which will serve her well if she decides to step into Angelo’s position.
I’m just glad I didn’t tell her about the tracker I placed on her because it definitely came in handy.
By some miracle, Rose agrees to ride with me from the diner. I will not be letting her out of my sight for even a moment now, not even if she actually does need to use the restroom.
“Where are you going? I thought you were going to take me to look at the house?” Rose’s confusion breaks the silence as I turn away from the direction of my property entrance.
“We need to go back in through the tunnels. I still have a camera feed live on the tunnel exit that was running on a separate system from the other cameras, so whatever they did to disable them didn’t affect that camera.
Whoever came for you could still be watching the place.
But I checked the tunnel feeds, and no one has come in or out except for us, so luckily that means they weren’t able to access the basement. ”
“Shoot, I didn’t even think about that. You really think they could be watching it?”
“If they know your connection to Luca, then I have no doubt they will be monitoring any activity in case you return to look for him.” Which I know is the real reason she came back here. I just don’t know how to tell her that there isn’t any way he would’ve survived.
“How is the basement still intact?”
“It’s reinforced with military-grade materials meant to withstand an attack.”
“Why didn’t we just stay in the basement then and hide? Why did we escape through that creepy tunnel?”
“I didn’t want to take the chance that it could be breached. Not with the most valuable thing inside.”
“Dang, what do you have hidden down there? Some buried treasure or something? What are you, a pirate?”
“Yes, treasure, but it’s not buried, tesoro.”
“Oh.” Her response sounds dejected as if she still hasn’t fully processed what is going on and how valuable she is to the people hunting her.
Maybe now she will start to understand how important she is not only to the Nicoletti family but, more importantly, to me.
We make it back into the basement through the tunnel without incident.
I grab a few of my hard drives and weapons I have stored, but other than that, I will leave the rest for a cleanup crew to dispose of.
Rose is silent the entire way. I’m sure she is nervous about what we will find.
But I already know we won’t find anything, or anyone.
These men were professionals, and they would never leave any trace behind.
But I will let her experience the reality I already know for herself.
After doing a quick visual sweep of the area above the basement, we only find what I expected: ash.