Chapter 9 - The Printing Plant

The second hit spun our car sideways.

Lorenzo grabbed my shoulder before my head hit the window.

"You hurt?"

"Ask me when the road stops moving."

The SUV hit us again.

Our driver fought the wheel while Marco's security car moved between us and the attackers. Metal screamed. Glass shattered somewhere behind us.

Then Lorenzo did the last thing I expected.

He opened my door.

"Run."

"What?"

"The plant is fifty yards. Natalie has people inside. Run now."

I ran.

He stayed behind long enough to pull our injured driver clear.

Inside the printing plant, dead machines rose like black skeletons. I heard footsteps, then saw Rosa tied to a chair beneath a hanging work light.

"Amelia!"

I rushed toward her.

Carlo stepped from behind a press with a pistol.

"That's far enough."

He looked nothing like a villain. That was the worst part. Expensive coat. Gentle grandfather face. The kind of man who would hold a door open before arranging your funeral.

"Where's Lorenzo?"

"Busy surviving your welcome committee."

Carlo smiled. "He always was difficult to kill."

Rosa's face changed.

"Carlo."

Two words. Pure horror.

He had said too much.

Then Lorenzo's voice came from the darkness.

"Say it again."

Carlo turned.

Lorenzo stood twenty feet away, bleeding from the temple, empty hands visible.

"Say what you just said."

Carlo aimed the gun at him.

I saw Lorenzo's eyes flick toward the ceiling.

A red light blinked above an old office window.

Natalie's team was recording everything.

Carlo didn't know.

"Your father was weak," Carlo said. "Your mother was worse. Daniel Carter almost ruined what I built. And now this woman thinks she can finish his work."

My pulse hammered.

"You killed my father?"

Carlo's smile disappeared.

"I solved a problem."

Rosa made a broken sound.

Then gunfire cracked outside.

Carlo jerked toward the noise.

Lorenzo moved.

He hit Carlo hard enough to send the pistol skidding beneath a press.

Federal agents poured through two doors.

Within seconds Carlo was face-down in dust, shouting about lawyers.

I thought it was over.

Then Natalie pulled me aside.

"Silas Trent isn't here."

"So?"

Her expression tightened.

"Because twenty minutes ago he emptied a Duca reserve account. Forty-two million dollars."

I looked for Lorenzo.

He was staring at his phone.

May you like

A Millionaire Humiliated a 6-Year-Old Boy in Front of an Entire Ballroom...

A wealthy woman humiliated a six-year-old boy in front of an entire ballroom. But when he whispered six words to his aunt, her dar...

My Son Sat There While His Wife Slapped My 4-Year-Old Granddaughter Hold...

MY SON WATCHED HIS WIFE HIT MY FOUR-YEAR-OLD GRANDDAUGHTER—BUT WHAT LILY WHISPERED NEXT MADE MY BLOOD RUN COLD.My four-year-old gr...

**My Wife Secretly Unplugged the Nursery Camera, Then Approached My 6-Mo...

My Wife Secretly Unplugged the Nursery Camera—Then I Saw Her Standing Over My 6-Month-Old Son With a Red-Hot Iron. But What She Sa...

The estate security system had just gone offline.

And my mother was inside that estate.