Lark caught his arm before he could take another step. "He wants you to be angry because angry people do stupid things."
"I don't care,” Dante said.
"I do,” Lark breathed. He looked down at her hand on his arm. "I can't lose you.” The words stopped him, not because she'd asked, but because she'd admitted what he meant to her.
His shoulders slowly relaxed. "Okay."
Rocco unfolded the county map across the kitchen table. "If Hale knows about Sofia, then he knows where she is," Rocco said.
"Probably,” Dante agreed.
Lark looked down at Isabella's journal. Something nagged at the back of her mind—something she'd overlooked. She opened the book again and stared at page after page of names, account numbers, and shipping routes. But near the back of the journal was a folded page corner. She hadn't noticed it before. Lark carefully unfolded the page, and she discovered a rough pencil sketch. It wasn’t a map, but a floor plan.
Dante walked closer. "What is it?"
"I don't know,” Lark admitted.
Rocco leaned over her shoulder. "Wait." His finger traced one section. "I've seen this before."
"You have?" Lark asked.
"It's not a building." Rocco looked up. "It's an underground bunker."
Lark frowned. "How do you know?"
"My father helped build emergency shelters during the nineties,” Rocco said. He tapped the drawing again. "This ventilation layout—the escape shaft and generator room- I've seen this design before."
Dante's pulse quickened. "You think Sofia's there?"
"I think—" Rocco turned another page. "That your mother wasn't drawing random buildings."
There was writing beneath the sketch that was almost too faded to read. Lark held the page closer to the light."The children are beneath Saint Michael's."
Dante looked up. "The church."
"No.” Rocco shook his head. "Saint Michael's Mission." He looked at Lark. "It’s about thirty miles from here, and it’s been abandoned for years."
Lark's heart began pounding. "My mother knew."
Rocco nodded. "I think Isabella found Keller's first holding site."
Dante grabbed his rifle. "We're going."
"We'll never make it through twelve mercenaries,” Lark said as she looked toward the window again.
Rocco smiled. "We're not going through them." He disappeared into the basement, and Dante and Lark followed him. He pulled a dusty tarp aside, and beneath it sat an old ATV.
Lark blinked. "You've been hiding that down here?"
"My dad believed every cabin needed two ways out." He looked toward the stone fireplace that sat in the corner of the basement. It looked completely out of place. "And one secret."He walked to the hearth and knelt in front of it. A loose stone came free beneath his hand, and a hidden latch clicked into place. The entire fireplace shifted several inches, and cold air rushed upward.
Lark laughed in disbelief. "Everybody has secret tunnels."
Rocco grinned. "It was the nineties. They loved hidden rooms." Even Dante laughed, and Lark realized that the sound eased some of the tension knotting her chest.
“I guess it’s time to head back into the creepy tunnels,” Dante said. “I’m driving.”
Within ten minutes, they emerged nearly half a mile from the cabin. The ATV remained hidden beneath fallen branches while the three of them climbed a ridge overlooking the road. From there, they watched Hale's men storm the cabin. Doors burst open, and windows shattered as Rocco muttered curses.
