Chapter 3 - The Safehouse
Lorenzo stared at the glowing screen of his phone, his blood running completely cold.
The text message had been sent to him by mistake.
Someone inside his own mansion was coordinating this assassination in real time.
He grabbed Clara by the arm and guided her silently toward the hidden servant stairwell.
He could not trust any of the armed guards patrolling his own property.
They descended into the damp, stone-walled wine cellar beneath the estate.
Lorenzo pushed aside a heavy wooden wine rack, revealing a dark, narrow smuggling tunnel.
He handed Clara a heavy flashlight and told her to walk as fast as she could.
Rosie had stopped crying, sensing the dangerous urgency in the cold, damp air.
They walked for twenty minutes until they emerged into an abandoned subway maintenance access shaft.
Lorenzo led them to a reinforced steel door that opened into his private, off-the-books safehouse.
The room was fully stocked with weapons, medical supplies, and emergency cash.
Clara set Rosie down on a soft leather sofa and wrapped a thick wool blanket around her.
Lorenzo locked the heavy deadbolts and turned to face the woman who had hidden his child.
"Who was coordinating the attack three years ago?" Lorenzo asked, his voice deadly calm.
Clara refused to look him in the eye, her hands trembling as she poured a glass of water.
"Sofia never gave me a name, she only told me to look for a specific tattoo," Clara whispered.
"She said the traitor had a black scorpion inked on the back of his left shoulder."
Lorenzo felt the air completely leave his lungs.
He had personally paid for that exact tattoo to be done ten years ago.
It belonged to Marco, his trusted head of security and his closest childhood friend.
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Suddenly, the reinforced steel door of the safehouse groaned as something heavy slammed against it from the outside.
A highly classified electronic breaching charge began beeping rapidly against the metal lock.
