Chapter 13 - Trapped in the Dark, We Learned Who Had Been Listening

Emergency lights should have come on.

They did not.

The warehouse became a black box around us.

Dominic pressed me behind a concrete column and spoke into his radio. “Marco?”

Static.

“Nico?”

Nothing.

The signal jammer was immediate and deliberate.

Someone knew exactly what systems we used.

A metallic crash sounded at the front entrance.

I felt the old building around us differently now. Every aisle and column was part of my childhood, but darkness had stripped away familiarity. I remembered riding a dolly between stacks while Dad pretended not to notice, hiding behind crates during summer afternoons, knowing exactly which floorboards complained under weight. Those memories became a map. I pointed Dominic toward a narrow maintenance lane that could keep us out of the first flashlight sweep.

Dominic took the ledger case from me. “Can you reach the tunnel from here in the dark?”

“Yes.”

“Go.”

“I’m not leaving you.”

“That was not romantic instruction, Harper. It was tactical.”

“Then tactically, the tunnel exit was exposed during the last attack.”

He swore softly because I was right.

We moved instead toward the freight elevator shaft, where the structural cavity gave us cover. Footsteps entered the warehouse.

Three men at least.

A flashlight beam swept across the far wall.

Then a familiar voice said, “Harper?”

Caleb.

Every muscle in my body tightened.

He sounded almost gentle.

“I know you’re in here. I don’t want anyone hurt.”

Dominic’s mouth hardened beside me.

Caleb continued, “Give me the case and this ends.”

I whispered, “He knew exactly when we opened it.”

Dominic nodded.

Someone had been listening inside our circle.

A second voice spoke from the darkness.

“Mr. DeLuca, you should come out too.”

Not Enzo.

The speaker was Marco.

My stomach dropped.

Dominic did not move.

For several seconds I could hear nothing except my own breathing.

Then Marco said, “I’m sorry.”

The words sounded exhausted.

Dominic stepped from cover before I could stop him.

“Show yourself.”

A flashlight turned.

Marco stood twenty feet away with a gun pointed down, not at us. Caleb stood behind him with two armed men. Marco’s face looked wrong before he said anything—not guilty exactly, but cornered. I remembered how he had checked exits at the club, how he had carried my ring in an evidence bag, how many times he had stood close enough to Dominic to kill him and had not. Betrayal was here, but its shape was still unclear.

“You’re the leak,” Dominic said.

Marco shook his head. “Not the way you think.”

Caleb’s expression sharpened. “Marco.”

“Shut up,” Marco snapped.

That surprised Caleb.

Marco looked at Dominic. “Enzo had my brother’s debt. He threatened his kids. I gave him meeting times, locations, security details. I never gave him enough to kill you.”

Dominic’s face was carved from stone. “Antonio died because of information from inside the family.”

“I wasn’t with you then.”

“No. But you became the same kind of coward.”

Marco flinched.

Caleb raised his gun toward Dominic.

“Enough.”

Marco moved between them.

The shot came fast.

Marco stumbled.

Chaos exploded.

Dominic fired. One of Caleb’s men dropped his weapon and dove behind a crate. I crawled toward Marco as bullets struck concrete overhead.

He was alive, blood spreading beneath his shoulder.

“Don’t,” he gasped when I tried to pull him.

“I’m not leaving you in the open.”

Together we dragged behind the elevator housing.

Dominic covered us.

Caleb shouted, “Harper, he’ll get you killed!”

I almost laughed at the insanity of hearing that from him.

Then Marco grabbed my sleeve.

“The jammer box,” he said. “North wall. Red switch inside.”

I looked across the dark warehouse.

Too far.

Dominic heard him. “Stay here.”

He disappeared between the rows of crates.

Seconds later, gunfire cracked from the north side.

Then the emergency lights flickered alive.

Radio static burst in Dominic’s earpiece.

Nico’s voice: “We’re locked outside. South loading door!”

Dominic shouted a code.

The door alarm screamed as Nico’s team breached it.

Caleb ran.

He did not flee toward the front.

He headed for the basement.

“The tunnel,” I said.

Dominic chased him.

I stayed with Marco, pressing cloth against the wound while Nico’s men secured the warehouse.

A minute later Dominic returned alone.

“He had a vehicle waiting at the alley.”

Marco’s face had gone gray.

Dominic knelt beside him.

“Why now?” he asked. “Why tell us now?”

Marco struggled to speak.

“Because Enzo changed the order.”

“What order?”

“He doesn’t just want the ledger anymore.”

Marco looked at me.

“He wants Harper dead before the wedding date.”

My blood turned cold.

“Why?” Dominic asked.

Marco swallowed.

“Because if she dies unmarried, the Bellamy trust doesn’t go to Caleb.”

He took a painful breath.

“It reverts to the charitable foundation named in Thomas Bellamy’s original will.”

I knew that foundation.

The Bellamy Civic Preservation Fund.

Dominic’s eyes narrowed.

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Marco whispered the last part.

“Enzo bought control of the foundation two years ago.”