Page 74 of The Broker
“No, come with us.” We get out of the car. I squeeze her hand and kiss her forehead. “Stay behind me, though, please? It would wreck me if anything were to happen to you.”
“Same,” she says softly. “You be careful, okay?”
Leo clears his throat. “If the two of you are done—”
That’s when a shot rings out. Leo clutches his side and dives to the ground. I drag Valentina down and fire my gun in the direction where the shot came from. A man screams and crashes to the ground, and then. . .
Nothing.
“Leo?” My heart is racing. That was too close. I need to be more careful. I can’t let my worry for Angelica make me lose my focus.
“I’m okay. The bullet just grazed my side.” He moves over to me, taking care to say low. “You think you got him?”
“There’s only one way to find out.” I get to my feet, gesturing for Valentina and Leo to stay where they are. I make my way as silently as possible to the thicket of trees where I heard our attacker cry out.
Sitting on the ground, holding his bleeding shoulder, is the last person I expected to see.
Romano Franzoni, Salvatore Verratti’s missing second-in-command.
I keep my weapon pointed at him. “Franzoni, what the fuck are you doing here?”
“Colonna?” he asks, his voice threaded with pain. “Is that you?”
“Yeah. Put your gun on the ground and kick it away.”
He does that. I pick up his weapon, tuck it behind my back, and move closer. “How badly are you hurt?” I ask, shining my flashlight at his wound. I only clipped him. His shoulder is a mess, but he’ll live. “Are you working for Revenant now?”
“Not willingly,” he replies through gritted teeth. “The bastard kidnapped my mother.” He jerks his head toward the farmhouse. “He has her in the cellar. Says he’ll kill her if I don’t do as he asks. What are you doing here?”
“He kidnapped my niece,” I say grimly, giving Leo and Valentina the all-clear. Romano inhales sharply in response. “Where is he now?”
“I don’t know. Not here. He put the child in the cellar and left.”
“And you didn’t attack him while he was doing this because. . .?”
Leo and Valentina join us. I shine my flashlight at Leo’s wound, which isn’t as minor as he suggested. He needs to get to a hospital soon. But Leo blames himself for Angelica’s kidnapping. Knowing him, he won’t go anywhere until he sees this through.
“The cellar is booby-trapped,” he replies. “That’s what he told me. If Revenant doesn’t check in every hour, it’s rigged to explode.”
That’s why Franzoni hasn’t just taken out Smith. Damn it all to hell.
“He keeps the door locked,” Franzoni continues. He needs to get to a hospital, too. And I need to get Angelica. We’re running out of time. “Some kind of complicated digital lock.”
I glance at Valentina, and she nods. “Let me at it.”
“I can’t do it.” Valentina stares at her codebreaker in defeat. “He used a ten-character code, and I can’t brute force it.”
“Help me understand. You were able to get inside the last time we were here. Why is this different?”
“Last time, I didn’t brute force it,” she explains. “I had to guess a ten-digit passcode that Salvatore Verratti used. I tried his birthday and then his wedding date. That gave me eight of the ten digits I needed. I don’t know any of Neil Smith’s personal details, and even if I did, he wouldn’t make the same mistake. His password would be random and include uppercase letters and special characters.”
My heart sinks. “How long will it take to break in?”
Her face crumples. “Anywhere from one month to fifty years.”
Angelica is on the other side of this cellar door. We can’t lose hope now. “Let’s work the problem. Can we break into the cellar?”
Franzoni answers. “You think I haven’t thought about it? The bastard warned me against it when he forced me to do his bidding. If I try to break in, the place will blow.”