Chapter 8 - the pink backpack
The door to the study opened with a soft creak.
Lila stood in the doorway, holding her pink backpack by one strap. Her eyes were wide, taking in the tension between her mother and Luca.
"Mommy," Lila said quietly. "My rabbit is hungry. Do you have the crackers from the plane?"
Claire quickly wiped her cheeks and walked over to her daughter, kneeling down to hug her tightly. "We'll get some crackers, baby. In a minute."
Luca watched the two of them. The raw, instinctual bond between mother and daughter hit him in a place he thought had died years ago. He stepped out from behind the desk and walked slowly toward them.
He knelt down beside Claire, bringing himself to Lila’s eye level.
"Lila," Luca said gently. "Can I see your backpack for a second?"
Claire looked up, alarmed. "Luca, there's nothing in there. Just her toys."
Luca didn't answer. He held out his hand. Lila looked at his face, then looked down at her bag, unzipping the front pocket. "There's a secret pocket inside," she whispered conspiratorially. "Uncle Julian showed me how to hide pennies in it."
The air in the room stopped cold.
Claire froze. Her head snapped toward her daughter. "What did you say?"
Lila blinked, surprised by her mother’s sharp tone. "Uncle Julian. From the playground in Ohio. He gave me the rabbit with the long ears."
Luca took the backpack from Lila’s hands with absolute stillness. His fingers were steady, but inside, a dark, lethal fury was igniting.
He turned the backpack over. In the inner lining of the back panel, hidden beneath a layer of synthetic foam, was a slit barely two inches wide.
Luca slid two fingers into the slit.
He pulled out a tiny, black rectangular disc no larger than a coin. A small green LED light blinked rhythmically every three seconds.
A military-grade GPS transponder.
Claire put her hand over her mouth, a silent scream trapped in her throat. "No... no, Julian never came to Ohio. I never saw him!"
"He didn't come to see you," Luca said, his voice terrifyingly calm. "He found Lila at her school or the park. He gave her the rabbit. He put the tracker in her bag. He's been watching both of you for months."
"Why didn't he kill us then?" Claire sobbed, clutching Lila against her chest. "Why wait?"
Luca crushed the small black tracker beneath the heavy heel of his leather shoe until the plastic shattered and the green light died.
"Because in Ohio, your death wouldn't serve him," Luca said, rising to his full height. "He needed you here. In my city. Near my operations."
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Marco burst through the study doors, his gun drawn in a low-ready position.
"Boss," Marco said, his voice tight. "The perimeter alarms at the gate just tripped. Four black SUVs just breached the lower parking garage. They cut the main power grid to the lower levels."
