Chapter 9 - We Went Back to the Mountain
Snow had melted from the lower slopes.
Higher ridges remained white.
My cabin looked untouched.
That scared me.
Evan had been there.
Adrian too, likely.
Yet nothing was broken.
The door opened easily.
Inside, everything remained where I left it.
Except one thing.
My mother’s photograph sat on the kitchen table.
I had packed it.
I knew I had.
Someone returned it.
On the back:
Everyone has something they refuse to lose.
Luca read it.
His face darkened.
“Adrian?”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Evan.”
My ex knew that photograph.
He once threw it against a wall during an argument.
Then apologized while buying me a more expensive frame.
That was Evan.
Break.
Replace.
Call it love.
Agents searched the property.
No explosives.
No people.
Then Rafael found a device beneath the porch.
Camera.
Live feed.
They had been watching.
Luca looked toward the tree line.
“He wants us to move.”
“To where?”
I knew.
The ravine.
The place I found Luca.
We went anyway.
Not alone.
Agents spread through the woods.
Rafael stayed close.
The ravine looked different without a blizzard.
Smaller.
Almost ordinary.
That offended me.
Places that change your life should look important forever.
A speaker sat on a rock.
It clicked.
Adrian’s voice.
“Welcome home.”
Luca stared at the woods.
“Come out.”
“No.”
“You wanted me.”
“I wanted you to understand.”
“Understand what?”
“You always got chosen.”
Luca became still.
There it was.
The wound beneath greed.
Adrian continued.
“Father chose you.”
Luca said nothing.
“Mother trusted you until I made her afraid.”
No response.
“The men followed you.”
Luca finally spoke.
“So you shot me?”
“I corrected an imbalance.”
Even I almost laughed at the phrase.
People justify cruelty with sophisticated words when simple ones would expose them.
I called out:
“You were jealous.”
Silence.
Luca looked at me.
The speaker crackled.
Adrian said:
“You really are irritating.”
“I’ve heard.”
“You think Luca loves you?”
I felt Luca stiffen.
Interesting choice of weapon.
“I think that isn’t your business.”
“He needs you because you saved him.”
“And?”
“Gratitude feels like love to wounded men.”
That hit.
Not because I believed Adrian.
Because part of me had wondered.
Luca turned toward me.
“Nora.”
“Later.”
The speaker laughed.
Then Evan’s voice joined.
My blood froze.
“She always does that.”
Luca’s face changed.
Evan continued.
“Deflect.”
My hands shook.
I hated that he still knew where to aim.
“She’ll leave you too, Luca.”
Luca said:
“Come say it in person.”
Evan laughed.
“No.”
Then a gunshot.
Not at us.
A tree beside Rafael exploded.
Agents moved.
Chaos.
Another shot.
The speaker died.
I dropped behind rock.
Luca covered me.
“Stay down.”
“I know.”
Movement across the ravine.
Evan.
I saw him.
Then Adrian behind him.
They separated.
Two directions.
Luca watched Adrian.
I watched Evan.
Old instincts rose.
Freeze.
Obey.
Wait.
Then I remembered Denver.
Courtroom.
My own voice saying what he did.
I stood just enough to shout:
“Evan!”
He turned.
Mistake.
Federal agents saw him.
“Hands!”
He raised a weapon.
Luca moved toward me.
I grabbed him.
“No.”
One shot.
Evan fell.
Hit in the leg.
Alive.
Agents swarmed him.
He screamed my name.
I did not answer.
Across the ravine, Adrian ran.
Luca followed three steps.
Stopped.
Then looked at me.
Old Luca would chase.
New Luca stayed.
Rafael pursued with agents.
Minutes passed.
Then radio.
“Suspect in custody.”
Luca closed his eyes.
No triumphant smile.
No revenge.
Just exhaustion.
Adrian was brought back in handcuffs.
Blood on his forehead.
He looked at Luca.
“You let them take me.”
“Yes.”
“You coward.”
Luca almost smiled.
“No.”
He stepped closer.
“I finally stopped confusing violence with courage.”
Adrian’s face changed.
That line hurt more than a bullet.
Agents led him away.
Evan followed on a stretcher.
He looked at me.
“You think this makes you free?”
I stepped closer.
“No.”
He smiled.
Then I said:
“I was free before you called.”
His face collapsed.
Checkmate.
They took him.
Silence returned to the mountain.
Luca looked at me.
“Now?”
I stared at the ravine.
“Now we go home.”
He looked toward my cabin.
“Here?”
I looked at him.
“Eventually.”
He understood what I meant.
May you like
Not building.
Us.
