Chapter 14
The Call From Owen
Owen was alive.
Mia heard that fact three different ways before she could process the rest of the sentence.
Not safe. Not free. Alive.
Enzo brought the phone into the safe room and handed it to her like a fragile thing. Dante stayed near the door, giving her as much space as he knew how to give while still watching the room like it might attack.
"Mia?" Owen's voice was rough and too fast. "Don't say anything. I don't know who has the line."
Her hand tightened around the phone. "Where are you?"
"Doesn't matter. Listen to me."
That alone made her go cold.
"I copied the whole ledger before I ran," Owen said. "Not just the pages Dante's people found. The real one. There are three routes, two shell charities, and a payment chain that goes back years."
Mia looked at Dante. He didn't interrupt. He was listening hard enough to be dangerous.
"Silvio?" she asked.
"Yes," Owen said. "But not just Silvio. Somebody above him. He was moving money for an outside crew and pinning the noise on the family. I saw the transfer notes. I think they were going to burn the warehouse and make Dante clean up the remains."
The room felt too still.
"Where are you?" she asked again.
Owen made a sound that might have been a laugh if it had not hurt. "Not important. Mia, if he tells you to leave, don't."
Her pulse jumped. "What?"
"He'll do it because that's how he thinks he keeps people alive. But if you leave now, the traitor wins the story."
The line crackled.
Mia stared at the phone as if she could force the signal to stay intact by will alone.
"Owen?"
He came back fast. "There was a woman at the harbor house. She knew Mom."
Mia froze.
"What woman?"
"I don't know. Older. Scared. She said your mother didn't vanish the way everyone said. Mia, I need you to hear me. Mom wasn't the mistake. She was the warning."
The line hissed.
Dante moved one step forward. "Mia, give me the phone."
She didn't look away from the screen.
"Owen," she said, voice thinning.
"Mia," he said, suddenly urgent. "If they call again, don't let them hear you alone."
Then there was a crack of static, a hard sound in the background, and someone else came onto the line.
Mia heard only one word before the call died.
"Found her."
The room went silent in the aftermath.