Chapter 8 - THE LITTLE GIRL AT THE TOP OF THE STAIRS
I do not remember getting into the car.
I remember Adrian driving.
I remember Matteo shouting into the radio.
I remember my own voice saying Sophia’s name over and over.
But the city outside became streaks of light.
Nothing felt real.
Colton had planned everything.
The pier.
Anthony.
The fake exchange.
He did not need the ledger badly enough to risk himself.
He needed Adrian away from the house.
And he knew exactly what would pull him out.
Family.
By the time we reached Romano House, the front gate stood open.
One guard lay unconscious near the drive.
Another was bleeding but alive.
Adrian barely stopped the car before I opened the door.
He grabbed my wrist.
“Stay behind me.”
“My daughter is inside.”
“I know.”
“Then move.”
We entered through the kitchen.
Glass covered the floor.
A security alarm chirped uselessly.
Mrs. Greco lay near the pantry.
I dropped beside her.
“She’s breathing.”
Her eyes opened.
“Maria.”
“Where is Sophia?”
“Took Elena upstairs.”
“Who?”
“Men.”
She grabbed my sleeve.
“Sophia ran.”
“Where?”
“Service stairs.”
Adrian was already moving.
The house had five floors and passages I barely knew.
I had cleaned most of them.
That was my advantage.
“Adrian.”
He stopped.
“If they entered through the foyer, they’ll expect the main staircase.”
“Yes.”
“Sophia knows the service halls.”
“How?”
I almost smiled despite everything.
“Because she hides from me when she steals cookies.”
We took the staff stairs.
Third floor.
Empty.
Fourth.
A noise.
Tiny footsteps.
“Sophia?”
No answer.
Then a whisper.
“Mami?”
I nearly collapsed.
She crawled out from beneath a linen cart.
I ran to her.
She hit me so hard I stumbled backward.
“You came!”
“I told you I would.”
Her body trembled.
Adrian crouched.
“Where’s my mother?”
Sophia pointed.
“Bad man took Grandma Elena.”
“What bad man?”
“The one with the angry eyebrows.”
Useful as always.
“Where?”
“Your room.”
Adrian went still.
His bedroom occupied the north wing.
One way in through the hall.
Another through a dressing room connected to an old library.
I knew because I had cleaned it.
“There’s another entrance,” I said.
He nodded.
“We take it.”
“No.”
“What?”
“You take Sophia downstairs.”
His face hardened.
“You’re not going near Colton.”
“You need someone to tell security where you are.”
“Maria.”
“I know the passages.”
“Absolutely not.”
Sophia touched his hand.
“You promised you’d come back.”
His eyes closed.
Then he looked at me.
“You stay behind me.”
“Yes.”
“And the second I tell you to run—”
“I run.”
We left Sophia with two security men in the stairwell.
Every step away from her hurt.
But Elena was trapped.
And I had learned something over the past two days.
Adrian protected everybody.
Sometimes so fiercely that he forgot protection did not have to be carried alone.
We entered the old library.
The hidden connecting door stood slightly open.
Voices came through.
Colton.
“You always were sentimental, Elena.”
Then Elena.
“You always were boring, Richard.”
Even kidnapped, Adrian’s mother remained terrifying.
“You killed my daughter.”
“Your daughter wandered into business.”
“She was twenty-two.”
“She was a Romano.”
Adrian’s breathing changed.
I touched his arm.
Not to stop him.
To remind him he was not alone.
He looked at me.
Then stepped through.
“Let her go.”
Colton turned.
A pistol pressed against Elena’s side.
Two men stood near the windows.
Security entered behind us.
Colton smiled.
“There he is.”
“Your men are gone.”
“Not all.”
“You lost Vincent.”
“He was always expendable.”
Elena looked disgusted.
“I told you he was boring.”
Colton shoved the gun harder against her.
Adrian’s face became deadly calm.
“You wanted the ledger.”
“I wanted more than the ledger.”
“What?”
“You gone.”
Adrian stared at him.
Colton continued.
“Your father understood this city. Fear creates obedience.”
“My father died afraid of everyone around him.”
“He died powerful.”
“Same thing to you, apparently.”
Colton smiled.
Then he looked at me.
“The maid.”
My skin crawled.
“You caused considerable inconvenience.”
“I get that a lot.”
His smile thinned.
“I should have listened when Vincent suggested dealing with you immediately.”
Adrian stepped forward.
“Look at me.”
Colton did.
“You don’t speak to her.”
Something in Adrian’s voice made even Elena glance at him.
Colton noticed too.
“Oh.”
He smiled slowly.
“That explains everything.”
“Nothing to explain.”
“Doesn’t it?”
His gaze moved between us.
“The great Adrian Romano. Brought down by a woman with a mop and a child who asks inconvenient questions.”
I wanted to say something.
Adrian beat me to it.
“If telling the truth brings a man down, he deserved to fall.”
Colton’s face hardened.
There it was.
The difference between them.
Colton needed people afraid.
Adrian had spent years believing fear was necessary.
But he was beginning to understand it was not the same thing as loyalty.
Sirens sounded faintly outside.
Colton’s eyes snapped toward the window.
“You called police?”
Matteo’s voice came from the hall.
“Federal agents, actually.”
Colton’s expression changed.
Matteo stepped into view.
“The ledger went to the U.S. Attorney forty minutes ago.”
Adrian looked surprised.
Matteo shrugged.
“You’re welcome.”
Colton tightened his grip on Elena.
“You stupid—”
Elena drove her heel into his foot.
The gun moved.
Adrian lunged.
Everything happened at once.
Security tackled one man.
Matteo struck the other.
Colton fired.
The sound deafened me.
Adrian went down.
“Adrian!”
I screamed.
Colton ran.
Elena was safe.
I dropped beside Adrian.
Blood spread across his shirt.
“No.”
His eyes opened.
“Shoulder.”
“What?”
“It’s my shoulder.”
“You’re bleeding!”
“I’ve noticed.”
Footsteps thundered through the house.
Federal agents.
Security.
Police.
Outside, someone shouted that Colton had been captured at the gate.
I barely heard it.
I pressed my hand against Adrian’s wound.
He winced.
“Harder.”
“You’re insane.”
“Probably.”
Elena knelt beside us.
“He’ll live.”
“You don’t know that.”
“He was shot once when he was twenty-seven.”
Adrian glared.
“Ma.”
“What? You survived.”
I started laughing.
It came out half sob.
Adrian stared at me.
Then smiled weakly.
“You’re crying.”
“I am not.”
“Your eyes are shiny.”
I laughed harder.
Sophia appeared in the doorway.
Nobody stopped her.
“Mami!”
She ran toward us.
Then saw the blood.
Her face crumpled.
“Mr. Adrian?”
“I’m okay.”
She approached slowly.
“Did the bad man hurt you?”
“A little.”
She looked furious.
“I don’t like him.”
Adrian laughed.
Then regretted it immediately.
Sophia climbed carefully beside him.
“You came back.”
His eyes met mine.
“Yes.”
“You promised.”
“I remember.”
She leaned forward and whispered loudly enough for everyone to hear.
“My mommy likes you now.”
I stopped breathing.
Adrian’s eyebrows lifted.
Elena smiled.
Matteo looked delighted.
“Sophia.”
“What?”
“We are not discussing this.”
“She does.”
Adrian looked at me.
Despite the pain, despite the blood, despite agents filling his house and his entire life collapsing around him, he smiled.
“Does she?”
I pointed at his shoulder.
“You are currently in no condition to become arrogant.”
“That isn’t a no.”
“Hospital.”
“Maria—”
“Hospital, Mr. Romano.”
He smiled wider.
May you like
For the first time since I had known him, Adrian Romano obeyed without argument.
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