Chapter 17 - The Cost of Escape
Victor escaped during a courthouse transfer, using a stolen maintenance vehicle and an access badge. No one was seriously hurt, but the news spread through Pittsburgh by afternoon.
Roman wanted Claire at a secure hotel. Claire wanted to return to the bakery.
“Victor knows the bakery,” Roman said.
“So do I.”
“This is not a joke.”
“Neither is my business.”
He closed his eyes. “You are impossible.”
“You keep saying that as if you’re surprised.”
They compromised. Claire reopened Bennett’s Oven with Ellis and Mateo outside, while Elena placed an unmarked car nearby. Susan remained at the mansion with Lily and Daniel, who had been discharged from the hospital.
Customers returned cautiously. Some brought flowers. Others brought stories about Roman’s family that Claire did not ask to hear. She concentrated on the ovens, the cash register, and the comfort of familiar work.
At noon, a man in a delivery uniform entered carrying a package.
“Where do you want this?” he asked.
Claire looked at the label. The sender was listed as Daniel Bennett.
Her father stood in the office doorway. “I did not send that.”
The delivery man dropped the package and ran.
Mateo intercepted him outside. Ellis opened the box with tongs. Inside was a phone and a single pastry cutter shaped like a crown.
The phone rang.
Claire answered. Victor’s voice filled the bakery. “Bring Roman to the old steel mill by sunset.”
“Why would I help you?”
“Because Lily is with me.”
Claire turned cold. “She is at the mansion.”
“Not anymore.”
Victor sent a photograph. Lily sat in a chair beneath a hanging lamp, frightened but unharmed. Beside her stood Peter.
Roman arrived within minutes. He looked at the photograph, then at Claire. “This is my fault.”
“No. Victor did this.”
“I built the world he is using.”
Claire took his hand. “Then help me dismantle it.”
Elena wanted to command the operation, but Claire noticed a flaw in Victor’s message. The old steel mill had been demolished years earlier. The photograph showed a wall behind Lily marked with faded blue stars. Claire recognized the pattern from the recipe notebook.
“It is not the mill,” she said. “It is the old union hall in Homestead.”
Roman called Elena. They agreed to let Victor believe they would come through the main entrance while agents entered from the river side.
Claire insisted on going inside. Roman objected.
“You are not bait,” he said.
“I am not asking to be bait. I am the person Victor expects to see.”
“That is why I hate the plan.”
“You are allowed to hate it. You are not allowed to change it without me.”
He looked at her for a long moment. “I will not.”
At the union hall, Claire entered carrying the crown-shaped pastry cutter. Roman followed six steps behind, unarmed. The building smelled of damp plaster and rust.
Victor stood on the stage with Peter and Lily. A second man held a gun near the girl.
“You came,” Victor said.
Claire raised the cutter. “You left this for me.”
Victor’s eyes shifted to Roman. “You brought her because she gives you courage.”
“No,” Claire said. “He came because I told him to.”
Roman’s mouth twitched despite the danger.
Victor demanded the ledger. Claire held up a copy. “You want this? Tell me why the dates are wrong.”
“What?”
“The pages you took from the warehouse. Three dates don’t match the code. You never understood the records.”
Victor stepped toward her. “Give it to me.”
“You need me to decode it.”
The distraction worked. Behind Victor, Lily kicked the chair leg against Peter’s ankle. Peter stumbled. Roman moved, knocking the gunman’s hand aside as agents burst through the side doors.
Victor grabbed Lily and backed toward the stage stairs.
Claire saw the old lighting controls beside her. She slammed the main switch. The hall plunged into darkness.
Lily screamed, but Claire called her name. “Follow my voice!”
Lily ran toward her. Victor fired once, striking the stage curtain. Roman caught Lily and shielded her while Claire pulled the emergency lever, dropping the safety curtain between Victor and the exits.
Victor was trapped.
When the lights returned, Roman held Lily close, waiting until she pushed away on her own.
She looked at him. “You came.”
“Always.”
“Don’t say it like a promise you can’t keep.”
Roman nodded. “Then I will prove it.”
May you like
Victor was arrested.
But Peter had vanished during the confusion, carrying the original ledger.
