Chapter 4 - THE WOMAN THEY TOOK
The house became a war zone in forty seconds.
Gates locked.
Cars launched into the rain.
Phones disappeared into men's hands.
Adriano became the Viper.
Wren saw the transformation happen.
The frightened son vanished.
The man who replaced him spoke in clipped sentences that made armed people run.
But Wren looked at the balcony.
Something was wrong.
“She didn't leave this way.”
Adriano turned.
“What?”
Wren pointed toward the wet stone.
“No footprints.”
Rain had blown inward, soaking the threshold.
But beyond it, the balcony dust remained mostly undisturbed.
Someone wanted them to think Odile had been taken through the balcony.
Wren walked to the bed.
The note smelled faintly of rosemary.
Kitchen rosemary.
She turned it over.
Grease marked one corner.
“This came from downstairs.”
Adriano stared at her.
Wren suddenly remembered the locked pantry.
“Open the pantry.”
They ran downstairs.
Adriano pressed his thumb against the biometric lock.
The door opened.
Behind sacks of flour was another door.
Wren stared.
“You have a secret door in your pantry?”
“This house was built during Prohibition.”
“Of course it was.”
The passage behind it led into darkness.
They found Odile seven minutes later.
Alive.
Conscious.
Furious.
She was sitting on the floor of an old wine tunnel with her hands tied loosely in front of her.
The man guarding her had disappeared.
“Untie me,” she snapped.
Adriano dropped to his knees.
His hands shook.
Wren pretended not to notice.
Odile looked at her.
“I suppose you're expecting gratitude.”
“I'd settle for you not throwing dinner.”
Odile almost smiled.
Then she whispered, “I know who did this.”
Adriano froze.
Odile looked at her son.
“Your uncle.”
The name that followed changed everything.
“Renato.”
Adriano stood.
Renato Vescari was his father's younger brother.
A respectable philanthropist.
A board member of Vescari Holdings.
And the man scheduled to inherit voting control of Odile's shares if she died before signing a revised family trust.
Odile had been refusing to sign anything while ill.
If she died, Renato gained power.
If she recovered, he lost it.
The motive was suddenly painfully simple.
But Odile shook her head.
“You don't understand.”
She looked at Wren.
“Renato isn't trying to kill me.”
“Then what is he doing?”
“He's trying to keep me weak.”
“Why?”
Odile's eyes filled with something deeper than fear.
“Because he thinks I know where my husband hid the ledger.”
Adriano went completely still.
“What ledger?”
Odile smiled without humor.
May you like
“The one your father died protecting.”
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