Chapter 4 - What Was Hidden in Storage 214

I should have stayed at the mansion.

That would have been sensible.

Instead, twenty-five minutes later, I was in the back seat of Adrian’s SUV.

Dominic beside me.

Graham in front.

Adrian driving.

Serafina was not with us.

He had told security to keep her at the house.

She did not argue.

That worried me more than if she had screamed.

Storage 214 was not a storage unit.

Not really.

It was a section of an abandoned Bellandi warehouse near the river.

Brick walls.

Broken windows.

One security light over a steel door.

Adrian parked.

Dominic looked at me.

“You can stay in the car.”

“So can you.”

He almost smiled.

Then we went inside.

The brass key opened a narrow room behind an old loading office.

No shelves.

No boxes.

Just one metal cabinet bolted to the floor.

Adrian looked at Dominic.

“This?”

Dominic nodded.

“Victor never trusted digital records.”

Graham crouched beside the cabinet.

“Neither did your father.”

The key opened that too.

Inside were three ledgers.

A stack of photographs.

Two cassette tapes.

And a sealed plastic bag containing a bloodstained cufflink.

Adrian stopped breathing for a second.

He knew it.

“Dad’s.”

Dominic looked away.

“I saw it that night.”

Adrian picked it up carefully.

The black enamel V on the face was scratched.

“Why keep this?”

Graham answered.

“Proof that Enzo made it out of this building injured.”

Adrian opened the first ledger.

Names.

Dates.

Payments.

I couldn’t understand most of it.

Graham could.

He turned pages faster.

“Shell companies.”

Dominic leaned over.

“Bellandi?”

“And Vescari.”

Adrian looked at him.

Graham shook his head.

“Old accounts. Before your control.”

He kept reading.

Then stopped.

“What?”

Adrian asked.

Graham pointed.

“Medical transport.”

The same phrase again.

Only this time there were two names beside it.

Victor Bellandi.

And Carlo Ferri.

Adrian’s jaw tightened.

“Where’s Luca?”

Graham flipped farther.

Nothing.

“No Luca.”

Dominic exhaled.

“So Serafina told the truth about that part.”

Adrian did not respond.

He opened the second ledger.

This one was newer.

Payments continued after Victor’s death.

Smaller.

More careful.

One recipient repeated every month.

NORTHSTAR CARE SERVICES.

Adrian looked at Graham.

“Same place?”

“No.”

Graham’s expression changed.

“This is different.”

He took out his phone.

No service.

The warehouse walls were too thick.

I moved toward the doorway.

That was when I heard something.

A scrape.

Outside.

I froze.

“Someone’s here.”

Adrian closed the ledger.

Dominic turned off the room light.

Darkness swallowed us.

Footsteps entered the warehouse.

Slow.

Not one person.

At least two.

Maybe three.

Adrian motioned for me to stay behind the cabinet.

I hated how natural that looked for him.

No panic.

No wasted movement.

He had spent his life preparing for rooms like this.

A flashlight beam crossed the doorway.

Then a man’s voice.

“Check the office.”

Another voice answered.

I knew it.

Carlo.

My stomach dropped.

He had gotten out.

Or someone had let him.

Adrian heard it too.

His expression went cold.

Carlo stepped into the room.

The light hit Adrian’s face.

He stopped.

For one second nobody moved.

Then Adrian said, “You should’ve gone home when Mara told you no.”

Carlo reached inside his coat.

Dominic moved first.

He slammed the cabinet door into Carlo’s arm.

Something metal hit the floor.

A handgun.

Adrian kicked it away.

The second man ran.

Graham shouted.

I heard a door crash open.

Then silence.

Carlo was on his knees.

Adrian stood over him.

Not touching him.

That was somehow worse.

“Where is my father?”

Carlo laughed breathlessly.

“You think this is about your father?”

Adrian’s voice remained calm.

“It became about my father twelve years ago.”

Carlo looked at the ledgers.

“Victor should have burned those.”

“Apparently Victor liked insurance.”

“He liked control.”

“So does Luca?”

Carlo smiled.

That answered enough.

Adrian crouched.

“Where is Enzo?”

Carlo looked at me.

Then Dominic.

Then back at Adrian.

“You’re late.”

Dominic grabbed his collar.

“Where?”

Carlo’s smile disappeared.

“Northstar.”

Graham frowned.

“The company in the ledger?”

Carlo nodded.

“Private transport. Different locations. No permanent address.”

Adrian’s face hardened.

“You moved him?”

“Not me.”

“Luca?”

Carlo said nothing.

Adrian stood.

“Who let you out of my house?”

This time Carlo smiled again.

“That’s the better question.”

My stomach tightened.

Because only a few people had access to the ballroom security.

Adrian knew it.

He pulled out his phone.

One bar now.

He called the mansion.

No answer.

Again.

Nothing.

Then my phone rang.

Unknown number.

Everyone looked at me.

I answered.

“Mara?”

Serafina.

Her voice was shaking.

“Where are you?”

“At the warehouse.”

She breathed out.

“Listen to me. Luca is not coming there.”

Adrian took the phone.

“Where is he?”

Silence.

“Serafina.”

Her voice broke.

“At your house.”

Adrian went completely still.

“Why?”

“Because he thinks the last copy is in your study.”

Graham looked at the ledgers.

“What last copy?”

Serafina heard him.

“My father made four.”

Dominic swore.

Adrian’s voice dropped.

“And where is the fourth?”

Another pause.

Then she said:

“Inside the watch your father left you.”

Adrian’s eyes changed.

The watch.

Top drawer.

His father’s watch.

I had dusted around that drawer for eleven months.

And never knew it held anything more than grief.

Adrian turned toward the door.

Carlo laughed softly from the floor.

“You’re not going to make it.”

Adrian looked back.

“No.”

Then at me.

“But Mara might.”

I stared.

“What?”

“You know every service entrance in that house.”

He handed me his keys.

“And Luca has never noticed you.”

That sentence should have offended me.

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Instead, it might have saved us.

Because for the second time that night, being the maid nobody considered important was about to become the most useful thing in the room.