Chapter 8 - The Second ManDante fired first.
The two men vanished behind concrete pillars.
Cora dragged her mother toward the medical room.
"Can she survive?"
"Probably."
"Probably?"
"She's been shot."
Dante reloaded.
"Stay here."
Cora grabbed his arm.
"No."
He looked at her.
"I know them."
"Which one?"
"I don't know."
She pulled the brass key from her pocket.
"But this might tell us."
Dante glanced at it.
"Where did you get it?"
"My mother's hand."
Before he could answer, Elena appeared through the smoke.
Cora's heart stopped.
"Elena."
Elena raised her weapon.
Dante moved in front of Cora.
"Why?"
Elena looked at him.
"I told you."
"What?"
"I protected you from your father."
She fired at the floor beside his feet.
"Now I'm protecting you from yourself."
"What does that mean?"
Elena's gaze shifted toward Cora.
"Your father wasn't killed because he knew about the ledger."
She paused.
"He was killed because he knew who Dante really was."
Cora looked at Dante.
He said nothing.
"Explain."
Elena shook her head.
"You don't want to hear it from me."
Then one of the twin men attacked.
The room erupted into chaos.
Dante tackled him.
Cora ran.
She found a narrow stairwell behind the medical cabinet.
She descended.
At the bottom was a red metal door.
Her hand shook.
The brass key fit.
The lock clicked.
The room beyond smelled like dust.
And old paper.
A single desk stood in the center.
On it was a tape recorder.
And a photograph.
Cora approached.
The photograph showed her father.
Holding her when she was a child.
Behind him stood Dante.
Not as a young man.
Not even as a teenager.
But as a boy of perhaps twelve.
Cora stared.
Dante had known her family since before she was born.
A floorboard creaked behind her.
She turned.
Dante stood in the doorway.
Blood ran down his temple.
"Cora."
She lifted the photograph.
"You lied."
He didn't deny it.
"You knew me."
"Not personally."
"You knew my father."
"Yes."
"And you knew my family."
"Yes."
"Why did you pretend I was a stranger?"
"Because you were safer believing that."
She stared at him.
"Safe?"
His jaw tightened.
"Your father made me promise something."
"What?"
"That I would stay away from you."
"Why?"
Dante stepped into the room.
"Because he knew what my father was."
Cora whispered.
"What?"
"A monster."
She looked at him.
"And what does that make you?"
He had no answer.
Cora turned on the recorder.
Her father's voice filled the room.
"Dante."
Dante froze.
"If you're hearing this, then I'm dead."
Cora looked at him.
The recording continued.
"You will eventually meet my daughter."
Dante's eyes closed.
"Protect her."
Cora looked at him.
"Why?"
The recording answered.
"Because the people hunting me will eventually learn that she carries something I never managed to destroy."
The tape clicked.
Static.
Then another sentence.
"She carries the memory."
The recorder stopped.
Cora's head spun.
"The memory of what?"
Dante looked at her.
Before he could answer, the room's hidden speaker crackled.
A man's voice whispered:
"Ask her what happened at the red door."
Cora turned.
Her childhood memory returned all at once.
She saw her father.
Her mother.
Lucien Moretti.
Victor.
And a second man.
But there was something else.
A child.
A little boy.
Standing behind Lucien.
Cora whispered:
"You."
Dante stared.
"What?"
"You were there."
She stepped backward.
"You saw everything."
His face changed.
"Cora..."
"You were twelve."
Dante slowly lowered his weapon.
"I tried to stop him."
"Stop what?"
"I failed."
She looked into his eyes.
"Did my father die because of you?"
Dante swallowed.
"No."
A pause.
"But he died because I was too afraid to protect him."
Cora stared at him.
Then the lights went out.
A phone rang somewhere in the darkness.
Dante answered.
A voice spoke.
"You have ten minutes."
"Who is this?"
"You'll find out."
"What do you want?"
"The girl."
Dante looked at Cora.
"Why?"
The voice laughed.
"Because she isn't just the key."
A pause.
"She's the witness."
The call ended.
Cora's face went pale.
Dante whispered:
May you like
"Start remembering."
Because somewhere in her buried memory was the one thing every powerful man in the city was willing to kill for.
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