Chapter 7 - THE PRICE OF BRINGING ELENA HOME
For eight months, Lorenzo Bolaro had dreamed of his wife.
In some dreams Elena was standing in their kitchen barefoot, laughing.
In others she was screaming behind a door he could never open.
But he had never allowed himself to dream she was alive.
Now she was on a screen.
Breathing.
Blinking.
Terrified.
Victor Crane stood behind her.
“You want her back?”
Lorenzo stepped toward the television.
“I’ll kill you.”
Crane smiled.
“That response is exactly why Elena was afraid of you.”
Lorenzo froze.
Crane knew where to cut.
Maya watched Lorenzo’s hands close into fists.
“Tell me where she is.”
“You have something I need.”
“The evidence.”
“Every copy.”
Lorenzo laughed without humor.
“You think I’m giving you anything?”
Crane rested a hand on Elena’s shoulder.
She flinched.
Maya saw it.
So did Lorenzo.
His entire body changed.
“Touch her again,” Lorenzo said quietly, “and nothing on earth will keep you alive.”
Crane’s smile faded.
“Midnight. I’ll send instructions.”
The screen went black.
Maya immediately moved toward the computer terminal.
“Could that transmission be traced?”
Marco shook his head.
“We’re working on it.”
Lorenzo was already walking away.
“Prepare the files.”
Maya followed.
“You’re going to give them to him?”
“I’m bringing my wife home.”
“And then he destroys the evidence and disappears.”
“I don’t care.”
Maya stopped.
“Yes, you do.”
Lorenzo turned.
“You don’t get to tell me what I care about.”
“You care about Nico.”
That silenced him.
“If Crane walks away, he can come after your son again.”
“I’ll find him.”
“You’ve been looking for him all day.”
His eyes flashed.
Maya continued.
“He expects you to choose emotionally.”
“My wife is alive.”
“I know.”
“You don’t know what that means.”
“No.”
Her voice softened.
“I don’t.”
That disarmed him more effectively than arguing.
“But Elena spent months collecting this evidence. She risked everything for it. Don’t erase what she did because you’re desperate to save her.”
Lorenzo looked away.
“What would you do?”
“I’d make him believe he won.”
By 8:00 p.m., Marco had created encrypted duplicates.
The original flash drive was placed inside a case.
A tracker was hidden in the lining.
A second transmitter was concealed inside the clasp.
At 11:42, Crane sent coordinates.
An old freight terminal near the river.
Lorenzo went with Marco and six men.
Maya was ordered to remain at the mansion.
She ignored the order.
At 11:58, Lorenzo saw her climbing from another SUV.
His expression could have stopped traffic.
“What are you doing?”
“Coming.”
“No.”
“Elena may need medical care.”
“We have medics.”
“Do they know her history?”
“No.”
“I do.”
“You read one file.”
“That’s one more than they did.”
Lorenzo stared at her.
“You are impossible.”
“I’ve been told.”
There was no time to argue.
At midnight, they entered the terminal.
Crane stood beneath a hanging industrial light.
Elena sat twenty feet behind him.
Alive.
Lorenzo stopped.
“Elena.”
Her face crumpled.
“Lorenzo.”
He took a step.
Crane raised a gun.
“Stop.”
Lorenzo stopped.
“Give me the drive.”
Marco handed over the case.
Crane inspected it.
“You really did love her.”
Lorenzo’s voice was ice.
“Release her.”
Crane nodded toward an armed man.
The man pushed Elena’s wheelchair forward.
Maya watched her carefully.
Something was wrong.
Elena’s pupils were sluggish.
Her head tilted slightly.
Drugged.
Maya moved.
Crane noticed.
“Who is she?”
“The nurse,” Lorenzo said.
Crane laughed.
“The famous nurse.”
Maya ignored him.
“Elena needs treatment.”
“She’s fine.”
“No. She’s sedated.”
Crane pointed the gun at Maya.
“I suggest you stop diagnosing my patients.”
Maya looked directly at him.
“She was never your patient.”
His smile vanished.
Elena suddenly whispered something.
Maya leaned closer.
“What?”
“Floor.”
Maya looked down.
A thin wire ran beneath the wheelchair.
Bomb.
“MOVE!”
Everything happened at once.
Lorenzo lunged for Elena.
Maya threw herself sideways.
Marco opened fire.
Crane ran.
The explosion tore through the terminal.
Glass shattered.
Metal screamed.
Lorenzo covered Elena with his body.
Maya hit concrete hard enough to lose her breath.
When she looked up, flames were spreading.
Crane was gone.
Again.
But Elena was alive.
Lorenzo lifted her into his arms.
She stared at him.
Eight months of grief existed between them.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered.
Elena touched his face.
“Nico?”
“He’s alive.”
She began sobbing.
“My baby.”
Lorenzo carried her outside.
At the hospital, Maya stayed nearby while physicians treated Elena for dehydration, malnutrition, repeated sedation and untreated injuries.
She had been held in different private facilities for eight months.
Crane had kept her alive because he needed access codes to financial accounts Elena had hidden.
She never gave them to him.
At 5:00 a.m., Elena finally saw Nico.
Lorenzo carried the baby into her room.
Elena made a sound Maya would never forget.
Not quite a cry.
Not quite a laugh.
She reached for him.
Nico stared at the stranger who was his mother.
Then Elena whispered the lullaby she had sung during pregnancy.
The baby went completely still.
His eyes widened.
And then Nico reached for her.
Lorenzo turned away.
Maya saw his shoulders shake.
She quietly left the room.
He followed her several minutes later.
“Thank you.”
“You found her.”
“You found the bottle.”
Maya smiled faintly.
“That too.”
He looked at her differently now.
Not as an employee.
Not even as an ally.
As someone who had entered the worst night of his life and refused to leave.
“Maya.”
“Yes?”
He stepped closer.
Then stopped himself.
“Elena is my wife.”
“I know.”
“I don’t know what happens now.”
“You don’t need to.”
He looked toward the hospital room.
“She was afraid of me.”
“She was afraid of the life around you.”
“That isn’t much better.”
“No.”
He nodded slowly.
Maya respected him for not asking her to lie.
Then Marco approached.
His face destroyed the fragile calm.
“We have a problem.”
Lorenzo straightened.
“What?”
“Crane didn’t take the real flash drive.”
“What?”
“The case we recovered after the explosion still contained it.”
Maya frowned.
“Then why arrange the exchange?”
Marco held up his phone.
“Because he wanted us out of the mansion.”
Security footage appeared.
While Lorenzo, Marco and Maya had been at the freight terminal, three masked men entered the estate through the tunnel.
They went directly to Nico’s nursery.
The crib had been empty because Nico was at the hospital.
So they took something else.
Isabella.
And before leaving, they painted a message across the nursery wall.
Lorenzo stared at the photograph.
Four words.
May you like
YOUR SON IS NEXT.
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