Chapter 11 - The Boy On The Screen.
Claire could hear her own heartbeat in the earpiece.
Matteo was alive.
He was sitting at the dining table.
His pencil moved across a worksheet.
Rosa passed behind him carrying a plate.
Nothing in the image suggested they knew they were being watched.
That was the worst part.
"Where is that camera?" Claire asked.
Evelyn smiled faintly.
"A better question."
Claire forced herself not to look toward the loading dock.
If police moved too early, Evelyn's people might disappear before they learned how the feed was obtained.
"You were inside the Lincoln Park house."
"Maybe."
"Stop doing that."
Evelyn's eyebrows rose.
"Doing what?"
"Speaking like every answer is a favor."
Michael looked at Claire as if she had lost her mind.
Evelyn looked amused.
"Dante has affected you."
"No."
"You challenge people who can make your life difficult."
"I did that before Dante."
"Then Michael chose badly."
Claire looked at him.
"Michael chose badly in a lot of ways."
He flinched.
Good.
Evelyn held up the phone.
"The drive for the location of the camera."
"I don't have the drive."
"You can get it."
"How?"
"Dante listens to you."
Claire thought of every argument they had won and lost.
"Barely."
"More than anyone else."
In the van outside, Dante was hearing that.
Claire refused to wonder what expression he wore.
"Why do you need the drive if you already know what's on it?"
Evelyn's face cooled.
"I don't."
"You do."
Claire took a slow step toward her.
"You stole my clothes looking for Marcus's clue."
"Stay where you are."
"You staged an airport photo because you were afraid Dante would find the warehouse."
"Claire."
"And now you're using a camera feed because you still don't know what the police recovered."
Evelyn's eyes sharpened.
Claire knew she had found the nerve.
"You don't know whether Lucia's files are on that drive."
Silence.
Michael looked up.
Evelyn's composure returned, but a fraction too late.
"Clever waitress."
"I told you I need a new title."
Ruiz whispered in Claire's ear.
"Good. Keep her engaged."
Claire looked at the feed again.
"How is the camera getting power?"
Evelyn said nothing.
"Battery?"
Nothing.
"Existing system?"
Evelyn smiled.
Claire caught it.
"Existing system."
Dante's team had inspected the new apartment before they entered.
Two men from his sister's security detail had done the sweep.
One of them had installed a temporary camera hub.
Claire remembered seeing a small black box near the television.
"The feed isn't from a hidden camera," she said.
Evelyn's smile vanished.
"It's from Dante's camera."
In Claire's ear, Dante's voice appeared for the first time.
"I know where."
Claire almost reacted.
She forced her face still.
Evelyn watched her.
"What?"
"Nothing."
Dante spoke again through the earpiece.
"Stay calm. Matteo is moving now."
Claire breathed.
Somewhere, security was relocating him and Rosa.
She kept Evelyn's attention.
"You have someone inside Sofia's team."
Evelyn's gaze went cold.
"You talk too much."
"People say that."
"Michael used to say the opposite."
Claire glanced at him.
"Michael liked me quiet because then I couldn't ask where the money went."
His face reddened.
"Claire, I said I'm sorry."
"You said that when you sold my engagement ring too."
Evelyn laughed softly.
"This is almost disappointing."
"What is?"
"You still care whether he lives."
Claire looked at Michael.
He had betrayed her.
Forged her name.
Used her identity.
Helped deliver tools to a plan that endangered a room full of people.
She did not love him.
She was not sure she even liked the person he had become.
But she did not want him harmed.
That truth did not weaken her.
It simply meant Evelyn had failed to turn cruelty into Claire's language.
"Yes," Claire said.
Evelyn seemed surprised.
"I care."
Michael's eyes lifted.
"That doesn't mean I forgive him."
Claire looked at Evelyn.
"Those are different things."
For one brief second, Evelyn looked as if she genuinely did not understand.
Then the phone in her hand buzzed.
She looked down.
The video feed had gone black.
Her face changed.
Dante's voice came through Claire's earpiece.
"Matteo is secure."
Claire exhaled.
Evelyn looked toward the shadows.
"Go."
Two men moved from behind the printing presses.
Ruiz's voice snapped.
"Police. Now."
Everything happened quickly but without the chaos Claire expected.
Officers entered from both sides.
One man dropped to his knees immediately.
The other ran toward a side exit and disappeared through a door before officers reached him.
Evelyn stepped behind Michael's chair.
She did not draw a weapon.
Instead, she pressed a small metal object against the cable securing his wrists.
Claire realized it was a cutter.
Evelyn sliced the restraint and shoved Michael forward.
"Run."
Michael stumbled into Claire.
For one second, the three bodies blocked the officers' line of sight.
Evelyn moved toward a service corridor.
Claire caught her sleeve.
Pain shot through Claire's healing shoulder.
Evelyn spun.
Their eyes met.
"Let go."
Claire tightened her hand.
"No."
Evelyn struck Claire's wrist away and ran.
Dante appeared through the loading dock at the exact moment Ruiz shouted his name.
"Moretti, stay back!"
Of course he did not.
He crossed the floor toward Claire.
"Are you hurt?"
"I'm fine."
"You always say that."
"It keeps being mostly true."
Michael stood beside the chair, stunned.
Dante saw him.
The warmth left his face instantly.
Michael stepped back.
Claire moved between them without thinking.
Dante stopped.
"Again?"
"Again."
"He helped them."
"And he is going to tell the police everything."
Michael looked at Claire.
"I am?"
She turned.
"Yes."
"Claire—"
"You used my name to borrow money."
He swallowed.
"Yes."
"You gave Evelyn access to my life."
"I know."
"You helped Marcus with the restaurant plan."
"I didn't know—"
"You knew enough."
He closed his mouth.
Claire pointed toward Ruiz.
"You tell her all of it."
"Evelyn will kill me."
"Then help us put her somewhere she can't reach you."
Michael looked at Dante.
"He'll kill me first."
Dante's voice was quiet.
"Tempting."
Claire gave him a look.
He looked away.
Ruiz approached.
"Mr. Rourke, you have choices."
"Do I?"
"Fewer than you had yesterday."
Michael looked exhausted.
"I want a lawyer."
"Good answer."
Ruiz led him away.
Claire watched until the police car left.
Dante stood beside her.
"You grabbed Evelyn."
"Briefly."
"With an injured shoulder."
"I forgot."
"How do you forget an injured shoulder?"
"There was a lot happening."
He looked as if he wanted to be angry and could not decide where to put it.
"You promised not to confuse courage with stupidity."
"I don't think I crossed the line."
"You sprinted over it."
Claire smiled despite herself.
Then she noticed Ruiz coming back toward them.
The detective held a phone in a clear evidence bag.
"We recovered this from one of Cross's men."
Dante looked at it.
"And?"
"There is a message thread with Carlo."
Dante's face became stone.
Ruiz continued.
"The last message was sent twenty minutes ago."
Claire's stomach tightened.
"What did it say?"
Ruiz turned the screen toward them.
PLAN FAILED.
MOVE THE BOY TONIGHT.
Claire looked at Dante.
His face emptied of everything except fear.
"Matteo," he said.
Then his phone rang.
Before Dante answered, Claire caught one more detail on the seized phone.
The message thread with Carlo included photographs of Matteo's routines.
Soccer practice.
School pickup.
A bookstore visit with Rosa.
Nothing looked threatening by itself.
Together, the photographs formed a map of a child's life.
Claire felt sick.
Dante saw the screen.
His face changed in a way she had never seen before.
Not rage.
Shame.
"I thought I protected him."
Claire looked at him.
"You did."
"Not enough."
"Nobody can build a life with zero risk."
His eyes hardened.
"Watch me."
"No."
The word stopped him.
Claire lowered her voice.
"If you turn Matteo's life into a bunker, Evelyn still wins."
Dante looked at the photographs again.
"What would you have me do?"
"Protect him without teaching him the world belongs to people who scare us."
For a moment, Dante said nothing.
Then the phone rang.
Rosa's name filled the screen.
May you like
Dante answered immediately.
Rosa was calling.
