Chapter 5 - The Safehouse in the Ridge
The underground drainage tunnel stretched for half a mile beneath the forested hills of Lake Forest, emptying into a dense ravine near the edge of the Varric property lines.
By 2:00 AM, the rain had softened into a steady, freezing drizzle.
A dark, heavily armored SUV sat idling beneath the canopy of pine trees in the ravine, its lights completely doused.
Liana stumbled out of the concrete tunnel opening, her red maid dress soaked through, mud caked up to her knees. She held Nico tightly against her chest, wrapping her arms around him to shield his tiny body from the biting wind.
The driver’s side door of the SUV opened.
A tall woman with short, silver hair and a sharp, scarred jawline stepped out, holding an automatic shotgun low at her side.
"Liana Graves?" the woman called out, her voice crisp and disciplined.
Liana backed up against the muddy slope, her heart pounding against her ribs. "Who are you?"
"My name is Captain Evelyn Reed," the woman replied, lowering her weapon slightly. "I am Matteo Varric’s chief of security for non-syndicate assets. Matteo called me three minutes before the power grid was cut. Get in the truck."
"Where is Matteo?" Liana gasped, her knees trembling from exhaustion. "He was behind me... he was at the ladder—"
Before Evelyn could answer, a dark figure burst out of the drainage tunnel.
Matteo stumbled into the ravine. His white shirt was torn and covered in soot, blood dripping from a deep graze along his left temple. He held his submachine gun in his right hand, his breathing heavy and ragged.
"Matteo!" Liana cried out, moving forward despite her exhaustion.
Matteo met her halfway up the slope. He didn't look at his wound. His eyes swept over Nico first, checking the boy’s head, his arms, his feet, before his gaze rose to lock onto Liana’s face.
"Is he hit?" Matteo panted, grabbing her shoulder to steady her.
"No... no, he’s safe," Liana wept, reaching up instinctively to wipe a streak of blood from Matteo’s forehead. "You’re bleeding!"
"It’s not my blood," Matteo growled softly.
He turned to Evelyn. "Is the ridge cabin secure?"
"Completely dark, boss," Evelyn reported, opening the rear door of the armored SUV. "No electronic signals, no GPS tracking. My team swept the ridge an hour ago. It’s clean."
"Get us there," Matteo ordered.
Ten minutes later, the armored vehicle was winding its way up a steep, muddy mountain trail, deep into the pine forests bordering Wisconsin.
Inside the rear cabin, the heater blasted warm air, melting the frost from Liana’s skin. She sat on the leather bench, wrapped in a heavy wool blanket that Evelyn had provided, feeding Nico a bottle of warm infant formula from the emergency kit.
Nico drank hungrily, his dark eyes fixed on Liana’s face, his tiny hand resting securely against her wrist.
Matteo sat across from them, applying a sterile bandage to his cut temple in the dim red cabin light.
"Who were those men?" Liana asked softly, her voice barely audible over the hum of the engine.
"Valenti’s private strike team," Matteo answered, tossing a bloody gauze pad into a trash bin. "They weren't trying to rescue Nico. They were sent to liquidate the nursery. If Valenti can't control the Varric heir, he wants the boy dead so the Commission will force a partition of my territory."
Liana felt a cold terror seize her throat. "He tried to kill his own grandson?"
"Nico isn't his grandson," Matteo reminded her, looking up, his grey eyes piercing her through the dark. "And Valenti knows it. To him, Nico is nothing more than a dangerous loose end that connects his family to a stolen child and a dead night nurse."
Liana looked down at her son. Tears spilled over her cheeks, dripping onto the wool blanket. "I spent nine months mourning him... and now that I have him back, the whole world wants to destroy him."
Matteo leaned across the narrow space separating their seats. He reached out, his hand wrapping gently around Liana’s trembling fingers, pulling her hand toward his chest until she could feel the powerful, steady beat of his heart.
"Listen to me, Liana," Matteo said, his voice dropping into a solemn, unbreakable vow. "I spent my whole life building an empire on blood and violence. I thought power was about controlling territory. But tonight, I realized power is protecting what is inside this truck."
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He looked at Nico, then back into Liana’s eyes.
"Don Valenti took nine months of your life," Matteo swore. "He lied to me. He used my grief to build his war. But I swear on my life, he will not take another breath after I am finished with him."
