Chương 5 - The Ransom
Celia stared at the silver key resting in the palm of her hand.
"What is this?" Lorenzo asked, peering over her shoulder.
"I don't know," Celia whispered, her mind racing through every memory she had of Travis.
She turned the key over, noticing a small series of numbers engraved on the back.
It looked exactly like the key to a safety deposit box or a private storage locker.
Lorenzo's phone suddenly vibrated with a private caller ID.
He answered the call and put it on speakerphone, holding it between them.
"I see you found my invitation, Duca," Travis's mocking voice echoed in the empty dorm room.
"If you touch one hair on that girl's head, I will dismantle you piece by piece," Lorenzo promised in a deadly, quiet tone.
Travis laughed, a sharp, grating sound that made Celia sick.
"I don't want the girl," Travis replied. "I want the ledger."
Lorenzo's posture instantly stiffened, his gray eyes widening in genuine shock.
"What ledger?" Celia asked, looking frantically between the phone and Lorenzo.
"Oh, he hasn't told you?" Travis mocked. "Lorenzo keeps a physical book of every judge he's bribed, every politician he owns, and every body he's buried."
Lorenzo remained perfectly silent, his jaw clenched so tightly the old scar stood out stark white.
"The Moretti family wants that book, and they put me in charge of finding it," Travis continued.
"I hid that ledger months ago," Lorenzo finally said. "You have no idea where it is."
"I didn't," Travis admitted smoothly. "But I realized that a paranoid man like you would never keep it in his own territory."
Celia felt a cold realization creeping up her spine.
"Where did you hide it, Lorenzo?" she asked, her voice trembling.
Lorenzo slowly turned to look at her, his expression filled with rare regret.
"I used the architectural firm's secure archives," Lorenzo admitted softly. "I paid your boss, David, to bury it in the old blueprints section."
Celia gasped, finally understanding the entire twisted web.
Travis hadn't been stalking her just because he was a jealous ex-boyfriend.
He had been stalking her to track her movements in and out of the firm's secure archive room.
"Bring the ledger to the abandoned Navy Pier warehouse in exactly two hours," Travis ordered over the phone.
"If anyone else shows up besides Celia and Lorenzo, Maya gets thrown into the lake."
The line went dead.
Celia looked down at the silver key, realizing it belonged to the archive vault at her office.
She looked up at Lorenzo, the man who had saved her life but secretly put her in this danger to begin with.
"You used me," Celia whispered, taking a step away from him.
"I needed a secure location," Lorenzo defended himself, stepping forward.
Celia shook her head and tightly gripped the silver key.
"I am getting that ledger," she declared. "And I am trading it for my sister."
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Lorenzo blocked the doorway with his massive frame.
"I cannot let you give the Moretti family that book," Lorenzo said softly. "It will destroy my entire empire."
