“Who?”
Royce hesitated.
“Say it.”
“It was one of Salcedo’s people. Woman named Mara Velez. She works directly for Aurelio.”
Cormack’s grip on Brin’s hand tightened.
Brin looked at him.
“You understand now,” she whispered.
He did.
Yara had betrayed her father by feeding Luca files.
But Aurelio had built something far darker behind everyone’s back.
And Cormack’s newborn daughter had become leverage.
Cormack leaned close to Brin. “Where would Luca go?”
Brin stared at him for a long time.
This was the moment, he knew.
The moment when she decided whether the man who had abandoned her deserved even the smallest piece of trust.
Finally, she whispered an address.
“Old St. Agnes Chapel. Lower Wacker. He said if everything went wrong…”
Her breath hitched.
“…he’d take her where sins go to be confessed.”
Cormack bent and pressed his lips to Brin’s knuckles.
“I’m bringing her back.”
Brin’s eyes filled.
“You bring yourself back too,” she whispered. “She doesn’t need a ghost for a father.”
It was the first mercy she had given him, and he did not deserve it.
But he took it like a starving man takes bread.
PART 7 — The Chapel Beneath the City
Old St. Agnes Chapel had been abandoned for twelve years, swallowed by concrete, rust, and the endless thunder of traffic overhead.
Rainwater dripped through cracks in the ceiling. Candles burned in crooked rows near the altar, their flames trembling in the damp air.
Luca Moretti stood beneath a broken stained-glass window, cradling the baby with surprising tenderness.
Cormack entered alone.
No Royce.
No soldiers.
No gun in hand.
Just a man walking into the dark after his child.
Luca looked exhausted. “You came alone.”
“Brin asked me to bring myself back.”
A faint smile touched Luca’s mouth. “That sounds like her.”
Cormack’s eyes went to the bundle. “Give me my daughter.”
“Not yet.”
Cormack’s body went rigid.
Luca lifted one hand. “Listen before you become exactly the man everyone thinks you are.”
The baby made a tiny sound, offended by the cold.
Cormack’s expression cracked.
Luca saw it.
“She has Brin’s mouth,” he said.
Cormack’s voice was rough. “And my temper.”
“Poor kid.”
A sound almost like laughter broke from Cormack, but it died quickly.
Luca shifted the baby carefully. “Aurelio put a tracker in the hospital bracelet.”
Cormack’s blood chilled.
Luca nodded toward the floor. The tiny bracelet lay crushed beneath his shoe.
“He wanted me followed. Or whoever took her. Didn’t matter. He wanted the baby in motion so he could flush out everyone with the files.”
“You stole her to protect her.”
“I borrowed my niece,” Luca said. “Very briefly. With dramatic timing.”
Cormack stepped closer. “Where are the files?”
Luca’s face changed.
Behind Cormack, a voice echoed through the chapel.
“With me.”
Cormack turned.
Yara stood at the entrance, soaked from the rain, holding a black flash drive between two fingers.
Behind her came Aurelio Salcedo.
And behind him, four armed men.
Cormack’s heart dropped.
Yara’s face was pale, but her hand did not shake.
Aurelio sighed. “My daughter has always loved theater.”
Yara looked at Cormack. “I gave Luca the files because I thought they would destroy you.”
Cormack said nothing.
“I wanted you ruined,” she continued, voice breaking. “I wanted you crawling back to the alliance with my father because you had nowhere else to go.”
Aurelio smiled faintly. “Ambitious girl.”
Yara turned on him. “Then I found the second ledger.”
Aurelio’s smile faded.
Yara lifted the drive. “Not Cormack’s shipments. Yours. Names of girls. Ages. Payments. Police protection. Burial sites.”
The chapel went silent except for the rain.
Cormack looked at Aurelio.
Something ancient and merciless moved through him.
“You used my docks,” he said.
Aurelio shrugged slightly. “Your empire was useful. Your conscience was not.”
Luca tightened his hold on the baby.
Aurelio’s men raised their guns.
Yara swallowed. “I sent copies.”
Aurelio laughed softly. “To whom? Reporters? Police? Half of them eat from my table.”
“No,” Yara said.
She looked past him.
“To Brin.”
Aurelio’s face emptied.
Cormack turned sharply. “What?”
