Chapter 8 - The CoupLeo fired at the control panel.
Nothing.
Marcus ran toward the emergency exit.
Locked.
"Someone planned this."
Leo looked at Natasha.
"Yes."
"Who?"
Before he could answer, the warehouse speaker activated.
A voice filled the room.
Marcus froze.
"That's Vincent."
Leo stared upward.
"Vincent Tomlin."
His cousin.
His second-in-command.
The man who had stood beside Leo at Carlo's funeral preparations.
The man who had sworn loyalty.
"Congratulations, Leo," Vincent said.
"You've just delivered the heir to me."
Natasha's stomach dropped.
Leo looked at Marcus.
"How many?"
"At least twenty."
"Can we get out?"
"Not without opening the shutters."
Vincent laughed through the speaker.
"You always were stubborn."
Leo stepped toward the microphone.
"What do you want?"
"The same thing Carlo wanted."
"What?"
"Control."
"You'll never have it."
"I don't need it."
A pause.
"I only need the child."
Natasha felt Leo's hand close around hers.
Vincent continued.
"Kill her if she resists."
Leo's expression became lethal.
"Touch her, and you die."
Vincent chuckled.
"That's the problem with you."
"What?"
"You finally found something you love."
The lights went out.
Gunfire erupted.
Leo shoved Natasha beneath a desk.
Marcus returned fire.
The room became chaos.
Natasha crawled toward the emergency panel.
She remembered something.
A maintenance tunnel.
The old woman had mentioned it.
She whispered to Marcus.
"Behind the wall."
"What?"
"The bakery apartment."
He looked confused.
"My mother's friend. She said the church connects to the old Tomlin tunnels."
Leo heard.
"Where?"
"Basement."
They found the panel behind a storage cabinet.
Leo tore it open.
"Go."
Natasha crawled inside.
Leo followed.
Bullets struck the wall behind them.
They ran through the tunnel.
For twenty minutes, they moved underground.
Then they emerged beneath a church crypt.
Natasha collapsed.
Leo crouched beside her.
"Are you hurt?"
"No."
He touched her cheek.
"You're shaking."
"So are you."
He looked down.
His hands were trembling.
"I thought I lost you."
Natasha stared.
"You can't keep telling me to leave and then act like you can't survive without me."
"I know."
"Why did you?"
"Because I was trying to protect you."
"By destroying me?"
He had no answer.
She looked away.
Then Marcus arrived.
"Boss."
Leo stood.
"What?"
"We found Vincent."
"Where?"
"At Carlo's old mansion."
Leo's eyes narrowed.
"Alive?"
Marcus shook his head.
"Dead."
Silence.
Natasha looked at him.
"Then who gave the order?"
Marcus hesitated.
"We found something beside the body."
He handed Leo a note.
Leo read it.
The paper had only five words.
One Tomlin must die.
Leo looked at Natasha.
She understood.
"This isn't about the baby."
"No."
"Then what?"
Leo folded the note.
"It's about blood."
That night, they returned to the penthouse.
Natasha thought everything inside would feel familiar.
It didn't.
It felt haunted.
She walked into the bedroom.
Her old things were still there.
The bracelet.
The jewelry.
The suitcase.
Even the book.
Everything exactly where she had left it.
She turned.
"Leo?"
He stood in the doorway.
"I didn't move anything."
"Why?"
He looked at her.
"Because I kept thinking you'd come back."
Natasha's heart clenched.
Then she saw something on the bed.
A second phone.
It was ringing.
Leo picked it up.
The caller ID showed no number.
He answered.
A man's voice whispered:
"Ask Natasha why her mother was really sent away."
Leo looked at her.
The voice continued.
"Then ask her why she was married to me."
The call ended.
Natasha stared at Leo.
"Married?"
Leo looked at her.
"Natasha..."
But someone knocked on the penthouse door.
Three slow knocks.
Then a woman spoke from the hallway.
"Darling, open the door."
Natasha knew that voice.
May you like
Her mother.
Alive.
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