Chapter 5 - The Trap Springs"Mommy!"
Hearing Lily’s voice broke the last remaining barrier of my endurance. I threw all my weight against the jammed door, but the metal frame was warped from the impact, refusing to budge.
"Step back, Elena," Vincent said.
His voice was calm, but there was an absolute authority in it that made me obey instantly. Vincent stepped up to the deformed door, braced his foot against the side panel, and with a violent, adrenaline-fueled heave, he ripped the entire door off its hinges, sending it clattering onto the wet asphalt.
Inside the dark, smoky cabin, my little girl was strapped into a booster seat, sobbing uncontrollably, surrounded by shattered glass.
I dove inside, unbuckling her straps with trembling fingers, and pulled her tight against my chest. She buried her face in my neck, wrapping her small arms around my shoulders so hard it hurt.
"I got you, baby. Mommy's here. I've got you," I cried, kissing her forehead over and over again while tears mixed with the pouring rain.
Vincent stood guard outside the wreckage, his eyes scanning the surrounding darkness. The highway was completely deserted, blocked off by his men. But something felt wrong. The ease with which they had intercepted the vehicle... it felt too calculated.
Marco jogged up to Vincent, holding a bloodied cell phone recovered from one of the captured thugs.
"Boss," Marco said, his face grim. "We checked their communications. This wasn't just an extraction team sent by Julian."
Vincent turned slowly, his dark eyes narrowing. "Explain."
"The call logs show they were receiving direct coordinates from inside your own mansion," Marco reported quietly. "Someone tipped them off the second we left. And... boss, Julian Vance isn't even at the precinct or the local holding cells anymore."
Vincent’s head snapped toward Marco. "What do you mean he's not in the holding cells?"
"The cell we locked him in was empty when the transport team went to check," Marco said, his voice dropping. "He had a secondary team waiting underground. They blew the service elevator fuse box from the outside. Julian used the chaos to escape."
A cold realization washed over me as I held Lily tighter.
Julian hadn't just walked into the lion's den by accident. He had planned this from the very beginning. He knew Vincent would capture him. He knew Vincent would bring him inside the mansion. And while Vincent was interrogating him in the study, Julian’s digital operatives had successfully hacked the Moretti estate's security mainframe, downloading classified files and tracking Lily’s exact location.
"It was a diversion," Vincent said softly, his voice dangerously low.
Before he could finish his sentence, the distant sound of police sirens began to wail through the night air—dozens of them, converging rapidly from every direction toward our exact location on Route 94.
At the same time, the massive digital billboard towering over the highway suddenly flickered, cutting away from its regular advertisement to display a live news broadcast.
An anchorwoman’s panicked voice echoed across the empty highway:
“Breaking news: State Senator Julian Vance has just released an emergency public statement accusing notorious crime lord Vincent Moretti of kidnapping his estranged wife and infant child. Federal authorities have issued an immediate shoot-on-sight warrant for Moretti’s arrest...”
On the screen, a clip played showing security footage from inside the Moretti mansion foyer—the exact moment Vincent had held a gun to Julian’s chin.
The trap hadn't just sprung. We were right in the middle of it.
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Vincent looked down at me, his face carved from stone, the dark storm in his eyes reflecting the flashing red and blue lights of the approaching police cruisers.
"They want a war," Vincent said, pulling his weapon from his holster and cocking it with a sharp, metallic click. "Let's give them one."
