Chapter 8 - THE NIGHT THE ROMANO ESTATE BURNED
The attack lasted eleven minutes.
Emma remembered every second.
Vincent covering her body.
Isabella crawling through broken glass.
Tony firing from behind a stone pillar.
Smoke.
Screaming.
A security guard falling.
Then fire.
The east wing burned first.
Someone had placed incendiary devices inside the walls.
An inside job.
Again.
Vincent moved Emma and Isabella through an underground tunnel.
Halfway through, Isabella stopped.
“Vincent.”
Blood covered her hand.
She had been shot.
Emma screamed.
Vincent caught his wife before she fell.
For the first time, Emma saw fear break Vincent Romano.
Not anger.
Not controlled violence.
Fear.
“Bella.”
Isabella smiled weakly.
“I'm okay.”
“You're bleeding.”
“I noticed.”
They reached the safe house.
A doctor removed the bullet.
Emma sat outside the room.
Vincent stood against the wall.
His hands were covered in Isabella's blood.
Emma walked to him.
He did not seem to see her.
“She'll live,” Emma said.
Vincent nodded.
“She'll live.”
“You don't believe the doctor?”
“I believe very few people.”
Emma understood that.
She sat on the floor.
After a moment, Vincent sat beside her.
“Was my mother like me?” Emma asked.
“Yes.”
“You barely knew me.”
“I've known you for four days and you have threatened me with office supplies, insulted my vehicles, disobeyed every instruction, and nearly been killed three times.”
Emma shrugged.
Vincent looked at her.
“Claire once broke my nose.”
Emma smiled.
“Really?”
“I was seventeen.”
“What did you do?”
“I deserved it.”
Emma's smile grew.
Vincent's phone rang.
Tony.
The traitor had been identified.
Vincent's chief of security.
Michael Dane.
The same man who had coordinated Isabella's route the night of the crash.
The same man who knew Emma's bedroom.
The same man who had disappeared during the attack.
But Michael had left something behind.
A message.
BRING THE GIRL TO ST. CATHERINE'S.
OR THE CHILDREN INSIDE DIE AT MIDNIGHT.
Emma stood.
“No.”
Vincent already knew what she was thinking.
“No.”
“There are forty-three kids there.”
“No.”
“He'll kill them.”
“I will handle it.”
“How?”
Vincent said nothing.
Emma stepped closer.
“You can't protect everyone by locking me in a room.”
“Watch me.”
“You said you wanted to learn how to be my brother.”
Vincent's jaw tightened.
“Yes.”
“Then learn fast.”
May you like
Emma grabbed her backpack.
“Because I'm going back.”
