Chapter 5 - THE MAN IN THE COAT
We ran.
Dante dropped the gun, sprinting across the manicured lawns toward the tree line faster than I could keep up. I was right behind him, my uniform shoes slipping on the damp grass. Ruth stayed behind to watch Leo and Vivienne, picking up Dante’s dropped gun with surprising ease.
The smell of smoke hit me before we even reached the trees. It wasn’t the clean smell of a wood fire. It was acrid, toxic, burning rubber and pesticide.
As we broke through the tree line, the old greenhouse loomed ahead.
It was a Victorian glass structure, overgrown with ivy. But half the glass panes were shattered, and flames were licking up the wooden framework on the far side. The brush fire Vivienne had ordered hadn’t just burned the weeds; it had caught the dry timber of the building itself.
“LILY!” Dante screamed, throwing himself against the heavy iron doors at the front.
A heavy steel padlock held them shut.
I grabbed a large landscaping rock from the garden bed and smashed it against the glass pane next to the door. The glass shattered inward. Thick, black smoke immediately billowed out, stinging my eyes and burning my throat.
“Lily! Can you hear me?!” Dante shouted into the smoke.
A faint, muffled cough echoed from somewhere deep inside the structure.
“Daddy?”
The voice was tiny, choked with ash.
“I’m coming, baby! Stay low!” Dante yelled.
He didn’t wait for the padlock. He wrapped his tuxedo jacket around his fist and punched out the remaining jagged glass in the frame, ignoring the deep cuts on his arms. He climbed through the broken window into the burning building.
I pulled my apron up over my mouth and nose and climbed in after him.
The heat was suffocating. Racks of old terracotta pots and bags of toxic fertilizer were catching fire, releasing noxious fumes. Visibility was zero.
“Lily!” I called out.
“Over here!”
I crawled on my hands and knees, following the sound. Underneath an overturned metal potting table, curled into a tight ball, was Lily. Her beautiful dress was covered in soot, and she was clutching her knees to her chest, coughing violently.
I reached under the table and pulled her into my arms. She felt so small, trembling like a leaf.
“I’ve got you,” I coughed, hugging her tight. “We’re going to get out of here.”
Dante emerged from the smoke, his face blackened. He saw us, and a sob tore from his throat. He scooped Lily out of my arms, burying his face in her hair.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” he wept.
“Daddy, the bad man locked me in,” Lily cried, clinging to his neck. “He said my new mommy didn’t want me.”
Dante’s eyes hardened over the top of her head. The sorrow was instantly replaced by a terrifying, cold rage.
“Let’s get out of here,” he commanded.
We climbed back out through the shattered window just as the roof of the greenhouse began to cave in. The glass crashed to the floor inside, sending a fireball roaring up into the night sky.
We collapsed onto the cool grass, coughing up black soot.
I looked down at my hands. They were covered in Lily’s silver charm bracelet. She was still holding it tightly.
Suddenly, the wail of police sirens pierced the night. Blue and red lights began to flash through the trees. Leo hadn’t been able to stop the original call Dante made.
Dante stood up, carrying Lily in his arms. He looked like an avenging angel, covered in blood and ash.
“Emily,” he said, his voice raspy from the smoke. “Thank you. You saved my world tonight.”
“We need to make sure Vivienne doesn’t escape in the chaos,” I said, standing up on shaking legs.
We walked back toward the south gate.
When we arrived, the police were already swarming the area. They had Leo in handcuffs, pressed against the hood of a cruiser. The fixer was sitting on the curb, being treated by paramedics.
But Vivienne was nowhere to be seen.
“Where is she?” Dante roared at one of the officers.
Ruth walked out from the shadows. She handed the gun back to an officer.
“She ran,” Ruth said calmly. “When the sirens started, she took off her jewelry, threw it in the bushes, and ran toward the service road.”
“Why didn’t you shoot her?” Leo spat from the hood of the car.
Ruth looked at him with absolute disgust. “Because a bullet is too quick. She deserves to lose everything.”
Dante handed Lily to a paramedic to be checked for smoke inhalation. He turned to the lead detective.
“Find her. I don’t care if you have to tear this city apart. Find the woman who tried to murder my daughter.”
I looked down at the gravel. Near the tire of the gray car, something glinted in the police lights.
I bent down and picked it up.
It was a small, antique pocket watch. Gold, with an intricate crest engraved on the front.
Dante saw it in my hand and froze.
“Where did you get that?” he asked, his voice suddenly hollow.
“It was on the ground,” I said, handing it to him. “Is it yours?”
Dante clicked the watch open. Inside the lid was a picture of a beautiful woman with dark hair. Lily’s mother.
“No,” Dante whispered. “It belonged to my late wife’s father. He gave it to Vivienne as an engagement present.”
I frowned. “Why would Vivienne have a watch from your dead wife’s family?”
Dante looked at me, a sickening realization washing over his face.
“Because Vivienne didn’t hire the fixer. The fixer works for my former father-in-law.”
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The cliffhanger dropped like a stone.
Vivienne hadn’t been trying to send Lily away to a facility. She had sold Lily back to the very people Dante had spent seven years protecting her from.
