CHAPTER 6 — ROSA'S FINAL TRAP
The first flashbang shattered every window.
Smoke poured inside.
Marco led everyone through a hidden escape hatch beneath the fireplace.
The tunnel emerged inside an abandoned church nearly a mile away.
Saint Gabriel Church.
Elena froze.
"My mother's letter..."
"The key beneath Saint Gabriel."
Marco nodded.
"This is where she wanted us to come."
Deep beneath the old chapel, hidden behind loose stone, they uncovered a second vault.
Inside wasn't gold.
It wasn't money.
It was something far more dangerous.
Hundreds of original documents.
Bank transfers.
Secret recordings.
Photographs linking powerful officials to Raphael Cain's criminal network.
Enough evidence to destroy careers across the country.
Then Elena noticed one final envelope.
Addressed to Marco.
He opened it slowly.
Rosa's familiar handwriting filled the page.
Marco,
If you're reading this, then I've already lost my fight.
Don't waste your life chasing revenge.
Give Elena something neither of us ever had.
A future that doesn't belong to criminals.
Marco silently folded the letter.
For the first time since Elena had met him...
He cried.
Not loudly.
Not dramatically.
Just quietly.
The grief of a promise carried for nearly twenty years finally caught up with him.
Elena stepped forward.
Without saying a word...
She hugged him.
Neither of them noticed the tiny blinking red light hidden inside the vault.
A tracker.
Miles away, Lucien Cain watched its signal appear on a digital map.
He smiled.
"I knew Rosa would leave one last gift."
He turned toward dozens of armed mercenaries gathered inside an abandoned airfield.
"Prepare the helicopters."
One of the mercenaries asked,
"What about the evidence?"
Lucien looked out across the runway.
"I don't care about the evidence anymore."
"I want Marco alive."
"And I want Elena to watch him die."
As helicopters lifted into the night sky, Marco looked toward the church doors.
The sound reached them only seconds later.
Rotors.
Many of them.
He slowly stood.
Checked his weapon.
Then smiled for the first time in years.
"Good."
Elena looked at him in disbelief.
"Good?"
Marco nodded.
"They've finally come to the only place your mother ever wanted them."
He looked at the stone walls surrounding the ancient church.
"They think they're trapping us."
"They have no idea..."
"...Rosa designed this place as a fortress."
Outside, the first helicopter landed.
Inside the church, Marco pulled a hidden lever.
May you like
The ancient floor began to move.
And every exit sealed shut.
