Chapter 4 - Locker 417
The storage facility smelled like dust, fluorescent lights and bad decisions.
Elena stood beside Luca at one in the morning while two armed security men searched the corridor ahead.
“This is ridiculous,” she whispered.
“You insisted on coming.”
“I meant the number of guns.”
Luca glanced at his men.
“There are two.”
“That you can see.”
He looked at her.
She looked down.
A pistol sat beneath his jacket.
“Three.”
“Observant.”
“I clean your office. You think I don’t know where people hide things?”
“Should I be concerned?”
“You should stop keeping emergency cash behind books nobody reads.”
Luca stopped walking.
“How do you know—”
Elena continued ahead.
For a moment, Luca watched her.
Then he muttered, “I read those books.”
She called over her shoulder, “The dust disagrees.”
Locker 417 stood at the end of the corridor.
The brass key fit.
Luca opened it.
Inside sat one object.
A red children’s suitcase.
Elena stared.
“That’s disturbing.”
Luca agreed.
One of his men opened it carefully.
No explosive.
No weapon.
Only twenty-seven children’s books.
Mia would have been delighted.
Luca was not.
The first was The Velveteen Rabbit.
The second was The Secret Garden.
The third was a collection of fairy tales.
Each contained handwritten notes in the margins.
Numbers.
Initials.
Dates.
Payments.
Elena picked up one.
“This is bookkeeping.”
Luca understood immediately.
A secret ledger disguised inside children’s books.
Mateo had hidden records in plain sight.
They spent forty minutes photographing pages.
Patterns emerged.
Millions diverted from Valente companies.
Offshore accounts.
Names of judges.
Politicians.
Police officers.
And payments beginning three months before Antonio Valente’s death.
Every transaction carried a symbol.
A hawk.
Except one group.
Those bore a small crown.
Elena remembered Mateo’s drawing.
The hawk standing over a crown.
“What’s the crown?”
Luca stared at the page.
“My father called himself many things.”
He turned another page.
“King was never one of them.”
A sound came from the corridor.
Luca’s security men reacted instantly.
Lights went out.
Elena heard movement.
Then a gunshot.
She dropped.
Luca pulled her behind the lockers.
Another shot struck metal.
“Stay down.”
“Excellent advice.”
He looked at her.
“Was that sarcasm?”
“Someone is shooting at us, Luca.”
It was the first time she had used his first name.
Neither acknowledged it.
Footsteps approached.
Luca reached inside his jacket.
Elena grabbed his wrist.
“What are you doing?”
“What does it look like?”
“Like a man with an ego considering a very stupid decision.”
“My people are outside.”
“And someone already got past them.”
He stared.
She had a point.
Luca hated that.
Instead, he pulled his phone out.
No signal.
Of course.
Elena whispered, “There’s a service exit.”
“How do you know?”
“I saw the floor plan.”
“When?”
“While you were intimidating the receptionist.”
“I wasn’t intimidating him.”
“He apologized to a chair after you looked at it.”
“That seems excessive.”
Despite herself, Elena almost laughed.
Another shot.
Humor vanished.
They moved.
The service corridor ended at a stairwell.
Behind them, a masked man appeared.
Luca fired once.
The attacker ducked.
Elena and Luca descended.
At street level, one of Luca’s security SUVs screeched toward them.
They climbed inside.
Only after the doors locked did Luca realize Elena was bleeding.
“Your arm.”
She looked.
A piece of metal had cut her.
“It’s nothing.”
Luca tore a handkerchief from his pocket.
She stared.
“You carry embroidered handkerchiefs?”
“My tailor does.”
“That might be the most criminal thing about you.”
He wrapped her arm.
His fingers were careful.
Unexpectedly careful.
Elena watched his face.
Close up, Luca looked less like the legend people whispered about.
He looked tired.
Thirty-two and tired in a way age could not explain.
“Your father,” she said quietly. “Were you close?”
His hands stopped.
“No.”
The answer arrived too quickly.
Elena waited.
Luca sighed.
“He believed love weakened judgment.”
“That sounds lonely.”
“He considered loneliness efficient.”
“And you?”
He tied the cloth.
“I considered him my father.”
Which answered everything.
They returned to the mansion shortly before three.
Rosa met them inside.
“She’s awake.”
Elena groaned.
“Mia?”
“Refusing to sleep until she knows nobody got murdered.”
Luca blinked.
Rosa shrugged.
“She hears things.”
Mia sat on the sofa wearing Luca’s discarded suit jacket over her pajamas.
It swallowed her whole.
When Luca entered, she jumped up.
“You’re alive!”
“Yes.”
She looked at Elena’s bandage.
“Mama!”
“I’m fine.”
Mia hugged her.
Then she turned toward Luca.
“Did you protect her?”
Luca looked at Elena.
Elena looked back.
“Yes.”
Mia nodded approvingly.
“Good boss.”
Luca had received medals.
Awards.
Tributes from powerful people.
None had landed quite like that.
Then Mia pointed at him.
“You can have your chair back.”
“How generous.”
“I’m using the couch.”
“So I see.”
“And tomorrow I want pancakes.”
“That sounds unrelated.”
“I’m negotiating.”
Elena laughed.
Actually laughed.
Luca stared at her.
It changed her face.
He realized he had never heard it before.
Something quiet moved beneath his ribs.
Something inconvenient.
Then his phone rang.
Julian.
Luca answered.
“Where are you?”
Julian asked.
Luca’s eyes went cold.
“At home.”
A pause.
“Good.”
Why would Julian care?
Luca glanced at the children’s suitcase his security men carried through the doorway.
Then at Mia.
Then Elena.
“Julian.”
“Yes?”
“Tomorrow morning.”
“What about it?”
“We’re going to talk.”
Another pause.
This one longer.
“About what?”
Luca looked at the hawk symbol visible on the top book.
“Birds.”
The line went silent.
May you like
And Luca knew.
Julian understood perfectly.
