Chapter 11 - The Price of a Second LifeFor one suspended moment, the entire ballroom stared at the man who had been dead for three years.
Then everyone began talking at once.
Some guests recognized Miguel from old photographs. Others looked to Dante for an explanation. A few quietly moved toward the walls, desperate to distance themselves from whatever was about to happen.
Victor didn't move.
“You should be dead,” he told Miguel.
Miguel stopped several feet from the head table.
“You tried very hard to make that happen.”
Rourke appeared on the screen again, pressing his pistol harder against Teresa's back.
“Drop your weapon, Miguel.”
Miguel held up both hands.
“I came unarmed.”
Dante stared at him.
“Are you insane?”
“Probably.”
“That's not helpful.”
“I'm working on it.”
Under different circumstances, I might have laughed. Instead, I watched the screen, searching Sophie's face for some sign that she understood her father had returned.
She was staring at Miguel.
Her mouth had fallen open.
“Daddy?”
The word came through the ballroom speakers.
Miguel's face broke.
He took one involuntary step toward the screen.
Rourke shoved Teresa forward.
“Don't.”
Miguel stopped.
Victor approached him slowly.
“You know what I want.”
“The original records.”
“And the key.”
Miguel glanced at me.
I knew what he was asking.
The pendant.
I removed it from beneath my collar, keeping the chain wrapped around my fingers.
Victor held out his hand.
“Give it to me.”
“No.”
He sighed.
“Must everyone in this family be difficult?”
“She's not part of your family,” Dante replied.
Victor turned toward him.
“Neither are you, anymore.”
He pressed another button.
A sharp metallic click echoed through the ballroom.
The doors locked automatically.
On the screen, Rourke dragged Teresa out of view. Sophie remained alone in the stone room.
Then the camera shifted.
The wall behind her opened.
A second man stepped into the room.
He wore a dark mechanic's jacket.
I recognized the outline of his face, though the image was blurry.
Elias.
He crouched beside Sophie, whispered something in her ear, and helped her climb down from the chair.
Then he looked directly at the camera.
He held up three fingers.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
A code.
Miguel's expression changed.
“He found the sixth entrance.”
Dante leaned toward him.
“What does that mean?”
“It means Rourke doesn't control every tunnel.”
Miguel pulled a small device from his sleeve and pressed a button.
The ballroom's emergency lights went dark again.
This time, the darkness lasted only three seconds.
When the lights returned, Dante stood beside Victor with a gun pressed against his ribs. Miguel had vanished.
Victor's smile disappeared.
He looked toward the doors.
Then he looked at the screen.
The video showed an empty stone room.
Sophie and Elias were gone.
For the first time that night, Victor appeared uncertain.
“What did you do?” he demanded.
Dante smiled without humor.
“Something my father taught me.”
He leaned closer.
“Never build a house with only one way out.”
A gunshot echoed from the upper floor.
Another followed.
Then a voice crackled over the ballroom speakers.
It was Rourke.
“Victor, we have a problem.”
The screen flickered.
Rourke appeared, blood running down his forehead.
“The girl has the ledger.”
Victor's expression collapsed.
“No,” he whispered.
May you like
Rourke looked directly into the camera.
“She's already opened it.”
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