CHAPTER 9 Can You Buy This Painting?” Billionaire Mafia froze because He Thought the Woman in the Painting Was Dead—Until Three Starving Triplets Asked Him to Save Their Mother
CHAPTER 9 — THE DEVIL'S TRAP
The click of the pistol echoed through the underground gallery.
No one moved.
The emergency lights had gone dark, leaving only the faint glow of exit signs reflecting across hundreds of Elena's paintings.
Rainwater dripped somewhere in the distance.
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
The digital timer on the black detonator counted down relentlessly.
02:57
Rose instinctively wrapped both arms around Dante's leg.
She didn't cry.
Not this time.
She had learned something over the past week.
Whenever her father became completely still...
Someone else was about to make a mistake.
The man holding the pistol swallowed hard.
His name was Anthony Greco.
For twelve years he had served under Dante Russo.
He had celebrated victories beside him.
Buried friends beside him.
Shared meals with him.
Now...
He stood with trembling hands, the barrel aimed directly at the man who had once trusted him with his life.
Nico's voice was cold enough to freeze steel.
"Anthony."
"What have you done?"
Anthony refused to meet his eyes.
"I didn't have a choice."
"You always have a choice."
"They have my family."
Silence settled over the gallery.
Anthony's breathing grew uneven.
Victor's voice suddenly echoed from hidden speakers.
"See, Dante?"
"I've always believed loyalty has a price."
"The trick..."
"...is finding it."
The timer changed.
02:31
Dante didn't reach for his weapon.
Instead, he looked directly into Anthony's eyes.
"How long?"
Anthony closed his eyes.
"Three years."
Several Russo soldiers gasped.
Three years.
Three years of information.
Three years of betrayal.
Three years with a spy standing among them.
"I never wanted this."
Anthony's voice cracked.
"Victor took my wife."
"My son."
"He said if I stopped reporting to him..."
"...they would disappear."
Nico growled,
"You should've come to us."
"I was afraid."
The answer barely escaped his lips.
Rose looked at Anthony carefully.
She saw tears in his eyes.
She remembered something her mother had once said.
"Sometimes good people do terrible things because they believe there are no good choices left."
She stepped out from behind Dante.
"Daddy?"
Dante glanced down.
"What is it?"
She pointed toward Anthony.
"He's scared."
Anthony stared at the little girl.
She wasn't looking at him with hatred.
Only sadness.
It broke something inside him.
The timer continued.
01:58
Victor laughed through the speakers.
"Touching."
"Absolutely touching."
"But sentiment won't stop gasoline from burning."
Flames suddenly erupted along one side of the gallery.
Fuel had begun pouring beneath the floor.
Nico shouted,
"We're out of time!"
Dante slowly raised one hand.
Not toward Anthony.
Toward the pistol.
"Give it to me."
Anthony shook his head desperately.
"I can't."
"You can."
"They'll kill my family."
Dante took one careful step forward.
"So will Victor."
Anthony's hands trembled violently.
"You don't understand."
"No."
Dante's voice remained calm.
"I understand perfectly."
"I've spent the last week learning what it means to fear for your children."
The words landed with crushing weight.
Anthony began crying openly.
Victor's voice interrupted again.
"Anthony."
"If you lower that weapon..."
"...your wife dies first."
The gallery fell silent.
Rose suddenly frowned.
She looked toward the ceiling.
Then toward one of Elena's paintings.
The frame...
Was crooked.
Every other painting hung perfectly straight.
Only one leaned slightly to the left.
She tugged Dante's sleeve.
"Daddy."
He knelt.
"What is it?"
"The picture."
"What about it?"
"It's smiling."
Nico blinked.
"The painting is what?"
Rose pointed again.
"No."
"The wall."
"The picture is smiling."
Everyone looked.
Then Dante understood.
The crooked painting wasn't accidental.
It marked something hidden.
Elena.
She had left another message.
Without warning, Dante grabbed the frame and pulled.
The entire section of wall swung inward.
A narrow maintenance corridor appeared behind it.
Nico stared in disbelief.
"A secret passage."
Dante smiled faintly.
"Elena never painted without a reason."
Victor's laughter stopped instantly.
For the first time...
His plan had been disrupted.
The timer showed...
01:12
Dante looked toward Anthony.
"Bring your family."
Anthony looked confused.
"What?"
"When this is over..."
"We'll find them."
Anthony's shoulders collapsed.
The pistol slipped from his hands.
It hit the floor harmlessly.
Nico immediately picked it up.
No one spoke.
Anthony fell to his knees.
"I'm sorry."
Dante placed one hand on his shoulder.
"You can spend the rest of your life making it right."
The rescue team rushed into the hidden corridor.
Behind them, flames raced across the gallery floor.
The tunnel twisted sharply beneath the mansion.
Concrete shook from repeated explosions overhead.
Rose held Dante's hand tightly.
"Daddy?"
"Yes?"
"Will Mommy like that I'm home?"
He smiled.
"She hasn't stopped waiting for you."
Rose squeezed his hand.
"I missed everybody."
"I know."
Halfway through the tunnel...
The passage split into two directions.
One led upward.
The other descended deeper underground.
Nico checked the blueprint.
"This wasn't on Elena's map."
Dante noticed fresh footprints in the dust.
One set.
Large.
Victor's.
"He went down."
Nico frowned.
"Forget him."
"We have Rose."
"We leave."
Dante looked toward the descending tunnel.
Something felt wrong.
Very wrong.
Then...
A weak cough echoed from below.
Elena.
Dante froze.
Nico heard it too.
"No..."
Another cough.
Followed by chains rattling against metal.
Victor's final trap.
They hurried downward.
The tunnel opened into an old wine cellar converted into a prison.
A single light bulb swayed overhead.
In the center of the room...
Elena hung suspended by heavy chains attached to the ceiling.
Her wrists were bound.
A timer beneath her counted down.
00:45
Rose screamed.
"Mommy!"
Elena looked up weakly.
"Rose..."
Relief flooded her tired face.
"You got her back."
Dante rushed forward.
The chains were attached to an electronic locking system.
Nico searched frantically.
"No key."
"No override."
Then Victor's voice filled the room once more.
"I did tell you..."
"...there would be one final choice."
A large screen flickered to life.
Victor appeared on the monitor.
He was no longer inside the mansion.
He sat aboard a helicopter lifting into the stormy night.
"Hello again, Dante."
His smile was gone.
Only exhaustion remained.
For the first time...
Victor looked old.
Very old.
His skin had turned pale.
Dark veins spread beneath his eyes.
Elena stared at the screen.
"You've gotten worse."
Victor chuckled weakly.
"I suppose there's no point hiding it anymore."
He removed a medical folder from beside him.
Terminal pancreatic cancer.
Stage IV.
Only months to live.
The room fell silent.
Nico whispered,
"He's dying."
Victor nodded slowly.
"Yes."
"I've already lost."
He looked directly at Dante.
"So I decided..."
"...to choose the ending."
He pointed toward the timer beneath Elena.
"When that reaches zero..."
"The chains release."
Elena looked down.
Beneath her...
An open fuel pit burned with bright orange flames.
Victor continued calmly.
"You can free Elena."
"Or you can escape with Rose."
"The mechanism only allows one."
Rose burst into tears.
"No!"
Dante stared at the locking system.
His pulse remained steady.
Victor smiled one last time.
"I've spent seven years taking your family apart."
"Now..."
"...you decide which half survives."
The countdown reached...
00:20
Nico's fingers flew across the control panel.
"I can't hack it!"
Anthony searched desperately for another release.
Nothing.
Rose clung to Elena's legs, sobbing.
"I don't want to lose you again."
Elena smiled through tears.
She looked at Dante.
The same look she had given him years ago.
The one that always meant...
"Trust me."
Dante suddenly noticed something.
Elena wasn't looking at him.
She was looking at one of her own paintings hanging on the far wall.
A painting of a lighthouse.
Its beam pointed...
Not at the sea.
But toward the floor.
Dante followed the direction of the painted light.
There.
A rusted metal drain cover.
Hidden beneath years of dust.
He smiled.
Even now...
Elena had left one last secret.
One last escape.
One last chance.
He stepped toward it just as the timer dropped into its final seconds.
00:09
The Devil had built his perfect trap.
But he had forgotten one thing.
May you like
Elena Ward had been quietly rewriting the maze for six years.
TO BE CONTINUED...
