Chapter 6 - THE BLACK LEDGER
The dead dial tone buzzed in the cold air of the train car before Matteo crushed the phone in his fist.
Elias was dead.
And Vincent was at the Route 17 Diner.
“Why would he go back there?” Lena shouted over the roar of the wind, clutching Leo tightly to her side. “The cops will be crawling all over it after the tear gas!”
Matteo stared out into the darkness, his mind working furiously.
“He didn't just bomb it to scare you,” Matteo realized, his voice dropping to a terrifying calm. “He bombed it to clear it out. To establish a perimeter. He owns the local precinct, Lena. There are no cops at that diner right now. Only his men.”
The train screeched, sparks flying from the wheels as it began to lean into the river bend.
“We have to jump!” Matteo yelled.
He wrapped one massive arm around Lena and Leo.
“Hold your breath!”
They stepped out into the void.
For three terrifying seconds, they fell through the freezing rain.
They hit the black water of the river with a bone-shattering impact. The cold was absolute, knocking the air from Lena’s lungs. She fought the current, kicking furiously, refusing to let go of the boy in the red coat.
Matteo’s hand found her collar in the dark water, pulling them both toward the muddy embankment.
They collapsed in the reeds, coughing up river water, shivering uncontrollably.
Leo was crying, clinging to Lena’s neck.
“We’re okay,” Lena gasped, stroking the boy’s wet hair. “We’re safe.”
Matteo dragged himself up the mud bank. He looked at his ruined watch, then pointed toward a string of headlights on a distant highway overpass.
“Route 17 is five miles west,” Matteo said, shivering, water pouring from his jacket. “We need a car.”
Ten minutes later, Matteo smashed the driver’s side window of an old rusted sedan parked outside a closed gas station. He hotwired it in thirty seconds.
He threw the stolen car into gear, the tires spraying gravel as they sped onto the highway.
Lena sat in the passenger seat, wrapping Leo in a dry blanket she found in the trunk. She pulled the heavy steel lockbox onto her lap.
“Matteo,” Lena said, her teeth chattering. “Vincent has my daughter. He has an army of men. We have a stolen car and a wet revolver. We can’t just walk in there.”
Matteo gripped the steering wheel, his knuckles white.
“We aren't going to fight them, Lena. We’re going to trade.”
“You said he doesn't want to trade!”
“He didn't want to trade for the lockbox,” Matteo corrected her. “Because he already has what he wants from it.”
Lena frowned. She looked down at the steel box on her lap.
“What do you mean?”
“When I stole the lockbox three years ago, I didn't know the adoption files were inside. I stole it because of the ledger.”
“The ledger?” Lena asked.
Matteo nodded. “Vincent’s black ledger. It has every bribe, every hit, every offshore account the Romano family has used for the last thirty years. It’s enough to put him in a black site prison for the rest of his life. That’s what he wants back.”
Lena looked at the lockbox.
“But... Matteo, I opened the box in the apartment. There was no ledger inside. Just the passports, the cash, and the locket.”
Matteo didn't take his eyes off the road.
“I know.”
Lena stared at him. “Where is the ledger?”
“I burned it.”
The words hung in the cold air of the car.
“You burned it?” Lena gasped. “Three years ago?”
“Yes. I didn't want the temptation. I didn't want the leverage. I wanted to be free of that life completely. So I burned the only thing that tied me to it.”
Lena felt a cold panic rise in her chest.
“Matteo! If you burned the ledger, we have nothing to trade! Vincent will kill Sofia the second he realizes the box is empty!”
“He won't realize it,” Matteo said, his voice dropping into a register of pure, calculated menace. “Because he isn't going to open it.”
He looked at Lena, his dark eyes burning with a desperate intensity.
“I’m going to walk through the front door of that diner with the lockbox. I’m going to tell him the ledger is inside. I’m going to demand he hands over Sofia before I give him the key.”
“And when he gets the key?” Lena asked, terrified.
“He won't have time to use it,” Matteo said. “Because the moment Sofia is in my arms, I’m going to kill him.”
Lena swallowed hard.
It was a suicide mission. Matteo was going to sacrifice himself to get their daughter out.
She looked down at Leo, who was asleep in the backseat, exhausted from the terror.
She couldn't lose Matteo. Not now. Not when they were finally about to be a real family.
At 11:55 PM, the Route 17 Diner appeared in the distance.
The neon sign was shattered. The front windows were blown out. The parking lot was filled with four black SUVs. Heavily armed men stood by the doors, smoking in the rain.
Matteo pulled the car off the highway, parking in a dark, wooded ditch a hundred yards behind the diner’s kitchen entrance.
He turned the engine off.
He reached into his jacket and pulled out his heavy Glock 19. He checked the magazine, chambered a round, and slipped it into the back of his waistband.
He turned to Lena.
He reached out and gently touched her cheek. His thumb brushed a streak of mud from her face.
“Stay here with the boy,” Matteo whispered. His eyes were wide, filled with a heartbreaking tenderness. “When you see me walk out with her, you start the car and drive. Do not stop for anything.”
Lena’s eyes filled with tears. She grabbed his hand, pressing it against her face.
“You come back with her, Matteo. Both of you.”
Matteo leaned in and kissed her softly.
“I love you, Lena. I have loved you since the moment you walked into this diner.”
He grabbed the heavy steel lockbox, opened the door, and stepped out into the rain.
Lena watched him walk away, his dark figure blending into the shadows.
She sat in silence for exactly ten seconds.
Then, she looked down at her lap.
Sitting on the passenger seat was the small, snub-nosed .38 revolver Matteo had given her at the railyard.
She picked it up.
She looked in the rearview mirror at Leo. He was fast asleep.
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“I’m coming, baby,” Lena whispered, touching the gold locket at her throat.
She opened the door and stepped out into the storm.
