Chapter 15 #2
Tonio never broke stride. He hauled Sofia past him and out into the cold night air.
He pressed the ticket into the valet’s palm along with a bill that ensured obedience. “Black sedan. Now.”
The kid bolted.
Inside the car, the silence was suffocating. Sofia’s hands shook; he saw it in his peripheral vision, even if she tried to hide it.
“That was his man?” she asked, her voice tight.
“Yes.” The word was scraped out. They’d been found. Somehow. Surveillance?
He pulled out fast, merging into traffic with controlled aggression. The city lights blurred past the windshield as his gaze cycled between the rearview, side mirrors, and blind spots.
He expected headlights to appear.
Nothing yet.
Sofia’s voice broke the quiet. “How did they know?”
“I’ll find out.” His tone made it a promise, not a guess.
The drive was a tense, pulsing silence—his focus lethal, her trust unwavering. When the estate’s iron gates appeared at the end of the long private drive, a thin slice of relief cut through his chest.
Not safety.
Just home turf.
And if they wanted her?
They’d have to get through a fortress first.
Tonio didn’t wait for the gates to finish closing behind them. He pulled the sedan to a sharp halt directly before the main entrance.
Sofia pushed her door open with shaky hands. Tonio was already there, his steadying grip on her elbow more urgent than gentle. “Inside. Now.”
He didn't release her until they were across the threshold and the heavy oak door was bolted shut behind them. Only then did he hit the intercom on the wall, his voice flat.
“Lockdown. Full perimeter.”
Through the narrow sidelight windows, Sofia saw that the response was instantaneous.
A massive steel shutter unspooled from above the front entrance, sealing them in with a final, resonant thud.
Across the grounds, motion lights snapped on, throwing the landscaped shadows into sharp relief.
Armed figures emerged from the tree line, their movements crisp and professional, fanning out to secure the property.
Inside the foyer, the security monitors washed the walls in cold light. Luc was already at the command desk, sleeves rolled, phone pressed to his shoulder while his other hand flew across a keyboard.
Tonio didn’t bother with pleasantries. “We were compromised at the restaurant. They knew exactly where we were.”
Carlos, Luc’s head of security, was already moving, grabbing a handheld RF scanner from a charging dock. “Standard sweep,” he said, his voice all business. He started with the car, running the device along the undercarriage, the wheel wells, and the bumpers.
A frantic, high-pitched whine erupted from the scanner as he passed it over the rear driver's-side wheel well.
He knelt, his fingers probing the metal until they pried loose a small, magnetic case. He held it up. A tracker.
“The car,” Carlos said, his voice flat. “They tagged the car.”
Sofia’s stomach dropped. “So they followed us from the house?”
“No,” Luc said, not looking up from his screen. His face was grim. “That’s a high-end model. Long battery, hardened signal.” He finally looked at Tonio, holding up the device. “The power cell suggests it’s been active for at least forty-eight hours.”
The silence in the foyer became absolute.
Forty-eight hours.
Carlos held up the tracker. “It was magnetized to the inner wheel well. They could have planted this anywhere.” His eyes met Tonio’s. “The question isn’t how they found you at the restaurant. It’s when they got close enough to the car to put it there.”
The unspoken possibilities hung in the air: a moment of vulnerability in the city, or a violation within their own walls.
It meant they hadn’t been safe for the last two days. Every trip, every move—the car sitting in the driveway, a perfect beacon pointing directly to this fortress—had been exposed.
He ran a silent threat assessment. The perimeter was compromised.
The enemy was desperate, aggressive. But the real weakness wasn’t obvious—it was personal.
His eyes found Sofia. She was the flaw in his armor, the one thing he couldn’t afford to lose.
Wanting her was a risk too big to allow.
He shut the thought down. Too dangerous.
“They didn’t just find you at the restaurant,” Luc concluded, his words dropping like stones. “They knew you were here. They knew where ‘here’ was. The restaurant was just the first time you were vulnerable enough for them to make a move.”
The threat was no longer outside the gates. It had been sitting in their own garage.
Tonio turned to her. No softness. No hesitation.
“You don’t leave my sight until this is finished.”
Sofia searched his face, as if trying to find the line between order and protectiveness. “You mean… stay here? With you?”
He stepped in, close enough she had to tilt her chin up.
“I mean everywhere. If I move, you move. If I breathe, you’re within arm’s reach.”
Her pulse kicked hard at the intensity of it. Not a cage. A shield.
“And if I say no?” she asked quietly.
Tonio didn’t flinch. “They sent a man to take you. Saying no isn’t on the table anymore.”
There it was—simple, final. No pretending she wasn’t already in this.
She exhaled, a single nod. “Then tell me where you need me.”
Tonio’s hand settled at the small of her back. The same place it rested when they first walked into the restaurant. This time, it felt permanent.
“Right here.”
Because from this point forward, they weren’t running. They were hunting.