Chapter 6 - The Woman Nobody Expected to Fight Back
The plan belonged to Agent Campbell.
I improved it.
Nobody liked that.
Especially David.
“You are not going inside Romano House.”
“I am.”
“Catherine.”
“Remember how disappearing without consulting me worked out?”
He closed his mouth.
Alessandro almost smiled.
“She's good.”
“You are not helping.”
“No. But she's good.”
Romano House stood outside Baltimore on forty acres of wooded property.
Not Alessandro's personal home, he insisted.
“A business property.”
“Does the business traditionally require bulletproof windows?”
“Baltimore zoning is complicated.”
I stopped asking.
DeLuca had occupied the house with men loyal to him after Alessandro was shot.
He assumed Alessandro was dead.
When news of Alessandro’s survival circulated, DeLuca accelerated everything.
Voss had Logan.
The ledger card.
Our missing photograph.
What he did not have was Alessandro’s physical server key.
That was why Logan remained alive.
We approached exactly as demanded.
One vehicle.
Alessandro driving despite Enzo's outrage.
David beside him.
Me in back.
No visible weapons.
Federal tactical teams waited beyond the property line.
Enzo had hidden a tracker inside Alessandro’s belt.
I wore another beneath my hospital badge.
“Once we see Logan, nobody improvises,” David said.
Alessandro looked at him.
“You were always optimistic.”
“Not a joke.”
“I know.”
I stared out at the trees.
My hands were cold.
David reached backward.
His fingers found mine.
For a second, I wanted to pull away.
Then I didn't.
Not forgiveness.
Not yet.
Shared fear.
That was enough.
Romano House appeared through iron gates.
Voss waited outside.
Federal badge gone.
Gun visible.
He looked like an accountant’s version of danger.
Gray coat.
Ordinary face.
“Out.”
We complied.
“Catherine.”
I stared.
“Where is my son?”
“Inside.”
“I see him first.”
Voss laughed.
“You don't negotiate.”
Alessandro said, “She does now.”
Voss’s face tightened.
They searched us.
Found nothing.
The trackers remained undetected.
Inside, the mansion felt abandoned.
Furniture covered.
Dust.
No staff.
Then I heard Logan crying.
“Mommy!”
I ran.
David caught my arm before a man with a gun blocked the hall.
“Easy.”
DeLuca descended the staircase.
Sixties.
Silver hair.
Perfect suit.
He looked like somebody's wealthy grandfather.
My anger became enormous.
“You took my child.”
“I borrowed leverage.”
“Children are not leverage.”
“In Alessandro’s world, everyone is.”
Alessandro’s expression turned cold.
“Not anymore.”
DeLuca smiled.
“You were always sentimental after getting shot.”
“Apparently dying improves perspective.”
“Temporarily.”
Logan appeared upstairs.
A guard held his hand.
He was crying.
No visible injury.
“Mommy!”
Every instinct told me to run.
I stayed.
Because David squeezed my hand once.
Wait.
DeLuca held up the stolen wedding photograph.
“Beautiful couple.”
I hated him.
“Where is the key?” he asked Alessandro.
“Release the boy.”
“No.”
“Then no key.”
DeLuca sighed.
“Lawson—”
“Alessandro.”
“Whatever.”
“Let him go.”
Voss shifted.
“He'll cooperate.”
DeLuca ignored him.
I watched Voss.
Something about his body language.
Nervous.
He kept looking toward a side hallway.
Then Marla’s words returned.
Voss took Logan.
DeLuca was at Romano House.
Maybe their partnership was failing.
I spoke.
“Voss.”
Everyone looked at me.
“You don't trust him.”
David whispered, “Cat.”
I continued.
“You brought Logan separately.”
Voss’s jaw tightened.
“Shut up.”
“DeLuca doesn't know where you've been keeping him.”
“Catherine.”
“You planned to use my son to get your own deal.”
DeLuca slowly turned toward Voss.
There.
A fracture.
Voss snapped, “She’s guessing.”
“Am I?”
I looked at DeLuca.
“If he trusted you, why isn't he standing beside you?”
DeLuca stared.
Voss stepped backward.
“Silas.”
Wrong move.
DeLuca’s men shifted.
Alessandro whispered, “Excellent.”
David looked terrified.
But he understood.
Create confusion.
Buy time.
I pointed upstairs.
“And who has Logan right now? Your man or his?”
DeLuca looked toward the guard.
The guard hesitated.
Voss shouted, “Enough!”
He pulled his weapon.
Not at us.
At DeLuca.
Chaos exploded.
Alessandro shoved me behind a column.
David lunged toward the stairs.
One of DeLuca’s men grabbed him.
David slammed the man's arm away.
They struggled.
A table overturned.
Glass shattered.
Logan screamed.
I broke away from Alessandro.
“Catherine!”
I ran upstairs.
The guard holding Logan tried to stop me.
I grabbed the first thing within reach—a heavy decorative vase—and smashed it against the wall beside him.
He flinched.
Not because I struck him.
Because ceramic exploded inches from his face.
I pulled Logan behind me.
The guard reached for my arm.
I twisted away and shoved him hard enough that he stumbled against the railing.
Then federal agents breached the downstairs doors.
“FEDERAL AGENTS! DROP YOUR WEAPONS!”
Gunfire erupted into the ceiling from somewhere.
I dropped over Logan.
“Mommy!”
“I've got you.”
Boots thundered.
Orders.
Hands.
Then David appeared.
“Cat!”
He pulled us into an alcove.
“Logan.”
Our son stared.
“Daddy?”
David broke.
“Yeah.”
Logan threw himself into his arms.
David held him.
A family frozen inside chaos.
Then DeLuca appeared behind David.
Gun.
Raised.
I saw it first.
“DAVID!”
Alessandro hit DeLuca from the side.
Both men crashed into the wall.
The gun slid across the floor.
DeLuca punched Alessandro near his healing wound.
Alessandro staggered.
David handed Logan to me and moved forward.
“No!”
Too many years of men solving everything with fists.
Then Agent Campbell arrived.
Weapon raised.
“DONE!”
Everyone froze.
DeLuca looked at the gun on the floor.
Then at the federal agents surrounding him.
He smiled bitterly.
“This is what you became, Alessandro?”
Alessandro pressed a hand against his bleeding side.
“Alive?”
“A witness.”
“Yes.”
“You'll destroy the Romano family.”
Alessandro looked toward Logan.
“No.”
He shook his head.
“I’m ending what should have ended years ago.”
DeLuca was handcuffed.
Voss attempted to escape through the service corridor.
Enzo caught him outside.
No execution.
No disappearance.
Federal custody.
That mattered.
They recovered the ledger.
The photograph.
The server key.
Everything.
By evening, Logan slept in a hospital room between David and me.
Alessandro was in surgery again because apparently being shot three times and briefly dying had not satisfied his appetite for medical drama.
David sat beside Logan.
I sat across from him.
Silence.
Finally he said:
“You saved him.”
“We did.”
“No.”
He looked at me.
“You did what I never trusted you to do.”
“What?”
“Stand inside the truth and still make the right decision.”
My anger softened.
Not disappeared.
“I don't know if I can forgive you.”
“I know.”
“I don't know if we're still married in any way that matters.”
“I know.”
“I hate when people say that.”
“Sorry.”
I almost smiled.
Then Logan reached out in his sleep and grabbed one finger from each of us.
David looked down.
Our hands stayed there.
Not together.
Not apart.
Connected by our son.
Maybe that was enough for tonight.
Then Agent Campbell entered.
“We need to talk.”
My heart sank.
“About what?”
She looked at David.
“The ledger proves DeLuca’s network.”
Then at me.
“But it also proves David Winters worked for Alessandro Romano for four years.”
I already knew.
“So?”
Campbell's expression remained serious.
“Some of what he did wasn't financial investigation.”
David closed his eyes.
I looked at him.
May you like
“What did you do?”
And suddenly I realized the husband I had just found might still be hiding the worst truth of all.
