Chapter 8 - Lucia
By the time we landed in Portland, Lucia was gone.
Her apartment door had been forced.
A lamp was broken.
Blood marked the kitchen floor.
Not much.
Enough.
Rachel’s agents found one shell casing.
One shoe.
And Lucia’s phone beneath the couch.
I stood in the center of her apartment looking at photographs of a life I should have known.
Lucia hiking.
Lucia graduating law school.
Lucia standing beside an older couple I assumed were her adoptive parents.
Lucia holding a cardboard sign at a charity event:
NO ONE SHOULD HAVE TO BE AFRAID AT HOME.
My sister.
Gabriel walked beside me.
“She looks like Mariana.”
“I know.”
On Lucia’s desk sat an old photograph.
The same baby picture from my father’s letter.
Except this copy had writing on the back.
Your first mother loved you enough to disappear.
Lucia had known she was adopted.
But not who she was.
Rachel entered.
“We found surveillance footage.”
A black SUV had taken Lucia.
Plate obscured.
“Any direction?”
“East.”
My phone rang.
Victor.
I answered.
“Tell me you didn’t take her.”
“I didn’t.”
“Then help me.”
“You finally ask.”
“Don’t make me regret it.”
“I know where Vale takes people.”
“Where?”
“An old winery near Hood River.”
“Send coordinates.”
“You go there, you die.”
“Send them.”
“Ramon—”
“Victor.”
Silence.
Then a location arrived.
Victor said, “My father knows the property.”
“He’s in federal custody.”
“Then get him on the phone.”
I did.
Tomas listened.
“Vale used that winery years ago.”
“Entrances?”
“Three.”
“Security?”
“Private road. Cameras. Underground cellar.”
“Where would Lucia be?”
“If he wants her alive, cellar.”
“Why alive?”
“Because he’ll want leverage.”
“Against me?”
“No.”
Tomas coughed.
“Against the evidence.”
I understood.
Lucia’s existence proved my mother had been hiding.
Proof that the official timeline around her death was false.
Vale needed her controlled.
Rachel assembled agents.
This time I did not argue about going.
I simply got into the vehicle.
She stared at me.
“You’re impossible.”
“So I’ve heard.”
Gabriel climbed in beside me.
Rachel sighed.
“Both of you are staying behind the entry team.”
We arrived after midnight.
The winery stood dark against the hills.
Federal agents moved through the vineyard.
Victor appeared from behind another vehicle.
Rachel raised her weapon.
“Hands!”
Victor raised both.
“I’m helping.”
I walked toward him.
Rachel snapped, “Ramon!”
Victor and I stopped three feet apart.
He looked exhausted.
“I’m sorry.”
“Not now.”
“For everything.”
“Not now.”
He nodded.
“Vale has twelve men.”
“How do you know?”
“I used to manage security here.”
That answer hurt.
“You worked for him.”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“After my father disappeared.”
“Why?”
“To find out what he knew.”
“And then?”
“I stayed too long.”
“That’s one way of saying it.”
He looked at me.
“I became what I told myself I was fighting.”
I thought about my father’s letter.
Do not become me.
Maybe every man in my life had spent years becoming what he feared.
“Help get Lucia out,” I said.
“Then we talk.”
Victor nodded.
The raid began.
No dramatic battle.
No heroic speeches.
Just noise, shouted commands, doors opening, men surrendering, others running.
I stayed behind the federal entry team until a radio call came.
“Cellar secured.”
“Female located.”
I ran.
Rachel shouted after me.
I didn’t care.
The cellar smelled like old wine and concrete.
Lucia sat tied to a chair.
Blood dried at her temple.
She looked up when I entered.
Those eyes.
My mother’s eyes.
“Lucia.”
She stared.
“You.”
I stopped several feet away.
Federal agents untied her.
“I’m Ramon.”
“I figured that out.”
“Are you hurt?”
“I’ve been better.”
Even frightened, she sounded sarcastic.
Definitely family.
She stood.
Then looked at me.
“So you’re actually my brother.”
“Yes.”
“Do you always bring federal agents to family reunions?”
“Only the important ones.”
She laughed once.
Then winced.
I almost did too.
A slow clap echoed from the stairs.
Senator Adrian Vale stood above us.
Two agents immediately raised weapons.
He held his hands out.
“Everyone relax.”
Rachel appeared behind me.
“Adrian Vale, you are under arrest.”
Vale smiled.
“For what?”
“Kidnapping is a promising start.”
“You have no idea what you’re touching.”
Rachel stepped forward.
“I’m hoping to find out.”
Vale looked at me.
“You resemble your father.”
“Everyone keeps saying that.”
“He was a coward.”
“He was afraid.”
“Same thing.”
“No.”
I looked at Lucia.
“Not anymore.”
Vale’s smile disappeared.
“You think one little collection of documents destroys me?”
“No.”
Rachel held up a recorder.
“Your people have been cooperating for the last twelve minutes.”
For the first time, Vale looked uncertain.
Victor stepped from the shadows.
Vale’s face changed.
“You.”
Victor nodded.
“Me.”
“You ungrateful—”
“I gave them access to your private server.”
Rachel looked almost pleased.
Vale stared at Victor with hatred.
“You think Ortega will forgive you?”
Victor looked at me.
“No.”
Then back at Vale.
“But that isn’t why I did it.”
Vale was handcuffed.
Lucia watched silently.
When the agents led him away, she turned toward me.
“Okay.”
“Okay what?”
She folded her arms.
“You have approximately five minutes to explain why my entire life is suddenly an organized-crime family drama.”
Gabriel laughed behind me.
Lucia pointed at him.
“And whoever Grandpa Armani is, he can wait.”
Gabriel looked offended.
“I’m your uncle.”
“That somehow makes it worse.”
For the first time in weeks, I laughed.
A real laugh.
Lucia stared at me.
Then she smiled.
May you like
It was my mother’s smile.
And for one second, I felt twelve years old again.
