Chapter 15 - Back To Lumina
Lumina looked exactly the same.
That offended me more than it should have.
The chandeliers still glittered.
The marble still reflected gold light.
The jazz quartet still played as though nobody had bled beneath those ceilings three nights earlier.
A new brass strip had been installed beside the VIP booth.
I stared at it from the service corridor.
"You okay?" Clara asked.
"No."
"Good answer."
We wore black server uniforms borrowed from a catering company working Vittorio's foundation gala.
My own Lumina uniform had been cut into pieces in a hospital.
This one fit better.
I hated that too.
"Your bandages?"
"Covered."
"Pain?"
"Manageable."
"Nico told me to ask."
"Nico tells everyone to do things."
Clara smiled.
"You like that less than he thinks."
"He knows exactly how much I like it."
"That may be why he keeps doing it."
We pushed a cart of champagne through the kitchen.
Nobody looked twice at us.
That was the old magic.
A server could cross a room full of secrets carrying clean glasses and disappear into the wallpaper.
Vittorio had spent decades believing people like me did not matter.
Tonight I intended to make that expensive.
Nico entered through the ballroom doors wearing a tuxedo and the expression of a man attending his own trial.
Every camera turned toward him.
That was intentional.
He wanted Vittorio watching the front.
Marco entered separately through the loading dock.
Bianca stayed with Grace in a secure vehicle two blocks away.
She hated it.
Nico hated it more.
The emergency custody hearing had been delayed until the next afternoon after Judge Marlowe claimed a medical issue.
Grace called the delay deliberate.
Vittorio called it unfortunate.
I called it exactly what it was.
Theft with paperwork.
At eight thirty, Vittorio stepped onto the ballroom stage.
The room quieted.
He smiled beneath a banner for the Valenti Children's Foundation.
The hypocrisy nearly made me dizzy.
"Friends, tonight we gather to protect the most vulnerable among us."
I almost dropped the champagne tray.
Clara muttered, "Do not throw it."
"I was not going to."
"Your face was."
Vittorio continued speaking about family, duty, and children deserving safe homes.
Every word felt designed to hurt Nico.
Then Leo appeared at the edge of the stage.
My heart stopped.
He wore a tiny navy suit.
His hair had been combed flat in a way he clearly hated.
Vittorio put one hand on his shoulder.
Leo stared at the crowd without smiling.
Nico's body went rigid across the ballroom.
Vittorio looked directly at him.
"Sometimes family is called upon to step forward when others cannot provide stability."
The crowd murmured.
Nico did not move.
I understood the effort that required.
Vittorio was daring him to create a scene.
He wanted photographs of the dangerous father.
Leo looked into the ballroom.
His eyes found me.
For one second, surprise lit his face.
I raised one finger to my lips.
He gave the smallest nod.
Smart kid.
Vittorio finished the speech.
A woman led Leo through a side door.
I followed thirty seconds later carrying an empty tray.
Clara covered the corridor camera by stopping beneath it with a tower of linen napkins.
I turned into the private elevator lobby.
A guard stood there.
"Staff entrance is the other way."
I lowered my eyes.
Old instincts returned effortlessly.
"Mr. Hart asked for fresh glassware in the penthouse."
"Hart is not here."
I pretended confusion.
"Then I am going to get yelled at twice."
The guard looked at the tray.
Then at me.
"Leave it."
"They said personally."
He sighed.
Invisible.
Disposable.
Unthreatening.
He opened the elevator.
"Two minutes."
"Thank you."
The doors closed.
I exhaled.
The penthouse level had changed since I last served a private event there.
Two guards stood outside suite three.
I could not pass them.
So I went to the linen room.
Behind the shelves was an old dumbwaiter used to send dishes from the prep kitchen below.
Julian hated it because it rattled.
I loved it now.
I climbed into the maintenance cavity beside it and pulled myself one level higher using the service ladder.
My back screamed.
I bit my lip hard enough to taste blood.
At the top, I pushed open a narrow access panel.
A storage closet.
Beyond it, voices.
Leo.
"I want Papa."
A woman's voice answered.
"I know."
Bianca?
I opened the door one inch.
Leo sat on a couch.
A dark-haired woman knelt in front of him.
Bianca.
My mind reeled.
She was supposed to be two blocks away with Grace.
Then I saw the bruise on her temple.
Her hands were bound in front with a plastic restraint.
This was not the Bianca who had been with us.
Wait.
Impossible.
The woman turned her face.
I understood.
Clara.
No.
Clara had been downstairs with me.
The resemblance between the sisters was stronger than I realized.
But this was Bianca.
Which meant the woman in Grace's vehicle -
My earpiece crackled.
Clara's voice.
"Emma, where are you?"
Relief flooded me.
So Bianca had somehow been taken after arriving in the city and substituted at the secure vehicle?
No.
That made no sense.
Then Bianca saw me through the crack.
Her eyes widened.
I stepped out.
Leo gasped.
"Emma."
I crossed the room.
"Quiet."
He ran to me.
I hugged him carefully.
Bianca stared.
"How did you get here?"
"How did you?"
"They grabbed me from the underground garage after Grace moved locations."
My stomach dropped.
"When?"
"An hour ago."
"Grace thinks you're still with her?"
"They forced me into another vehicle before her team noticed the switch."
The corruption ran deeper than security.
It touched traffic routes, uniforms, garage access, everything.
"Can you walk?"
"Yes."
I pulled a small knife from my apron.
Every Lumina server carried one for boxes and wine foil.
I cut her restraint.
"We go through the service cavity."
Leo looked at the narrow panel.
"Cool."
"Not the word I would use."
Footsteps approached.
Bianca grabbed my arm.
"Too late."
The suite door opened.
Salvatore entered.
His scarred hand held a pistol.
He looked at me and sighed.
"Eleanor's granddaughter."
"You keep saying her name like you knew her."
"I did."
He closed the door.
"She was more troublesome than you."
Bianca moved in front of Leo.
"Salvatore."
"Bianca."
"Vittorio will kill you when this fails."
Salvatore smiled.
"Vittorio kills everyone eventually."
I looked at him.
"Did you put the gel on the floor?"
His eyes came to mine.
"Not personally."
"Coward."
"Efficient."
"You tried to kill a six-year-old with falling glass."
"I arranged an accident."
"Same cowardice, better vocabulary."
His face hardened.
"Eleanor had that mouth too."
I felt a chill.
"What did you do to my grandfather?"
Bianca looked at me sharply.
Salvatore's smile returned.
"You know about that."
"Answer."
"I followed orders."
"Whose?"
"You know whose."
Vittorio.
Leo pressed against Bianca.
Salvatore lifted the gun.
"Now we are going downstairs."
"No," I said.
He laughed.
"Do you believe bravery changes physics, Emma?"
"No."
I picked up the silver water pitcher from the sideboard.
His eyes flicked toward it.
"But I know distraction changes aim."
I threw it at the lights.
Glass exploded from the chandelier.
Darkness swallowed the suite.
Leo screamed.
Bianca pulled him behind the couch.
I ran toward the service panel.
Salvatore fired.
The bullet hit the wall beside me.
I reached the panel.
Then a hand closed in my hair.
Salvatore yanked me backward.
Pain tore across my scalp.
"Enough."
The emergency lights came on.
His pistol pressed against my ribs.
"You want to fly again?"
I stared at him.
"Only if you're underneath me."
His jaw tightened.
He dragged me toward the door.
Bianca shouted.
Leo screamed my name.
Then the elevator opened.
Nico stood inside.
Behind him was Marco.
Salvatore shoved the gun harder into my side.
"One step and she dies."
Nico froze.
The elevator doors remained open.
Marco looked past us and saw Bianca.
His face changed.
"Let them go," Nico said.
Salvatore smiled.
"Vittorio wants everyone downstairs."
"Why?"
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"Because after four years of ghosts, he thinks the family deserves dinner."
