Chapter 5 - The Trap Ethan Built
The storage building looked abandoned.
It wasn’t.
Police waited around the block while Grant’s team prepared to enter.
Sophia remained inside Adrian’s SUV.
“That wasn’t the agreement,” she said.
Adrian sat beside her.
“The agreement was that you came.”
“You said I could identify the collection.”
“After the building is secure.”
“You always redefine agreements?”
“Only poorly negotiated ones.”
She glared at him.
He almost smiled.
Then Sophia’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
Adrian’s expression changed.
“Don’t answer.”
She did.
“Hello?”
Ethan.
“You brought Moretti.”
Sophia looked toward the building.
“Where are you?”
“Close enough.”
Adrian silently activated the speaker.
Ethan continued.
“You embarrassed me.”
“You broke into my home.”
“You were supposed to give me the files.”
“No.”
“You owe me.”
Sophia laughed once.
Ethan went silent.
“What’s funny?”
“That sentence.”
“Sophia—”
“I spent two years believing I owed you for everything. The apartment. Dinner. Your patience. Your approval.”
Adrian watched her.
Sophia continued.
“But you know what you never understood?”
“What?”
“I was talented before you.”
Ethan’s voice hardened.
“I made you.”
“No. You delayed me.”
Silence.
Then Ethan said:
“Look across the street.”
Sophia did.
A black sedan was parked beneath an awning.
Its headlights flashed.
Adrian reached for his phone.
Ethan said, “Don’t.”
Sophia saw movement inside the sedan.
Ethan was there.
He had never been in the storage building.
It was a trap.
“He wanted police focused on the warehouse,” Adrian said quietly.
The sedan moved.
Adrian opened the SUV door.
“Stay here.”
Sophia grabbed his sleeve.
“Adrian.”
He looked back.
“Don’t do something stupid.”
His eyebrow lifted.
“That is surprisingly broad.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Yes.”
He closed the door.
The sedan stopped twenty yards away.
Ethan stepped out into the rain.
He looked exhausted and furious.
“Moretti!”
Adrian walked toward him.
No rush.
No theatrical threat.
That somehow made him more intimidating.
Ethan shouted, “You ruined everything!”
Adrian stopped.
“No. She did.”
Ethan looked toward Sophia inside the SUV.
“She was nothing when I met her.”
Sophia opened the door.
Adrian turned.
“Sophia.”
She stepped into the rain.
“I need to hear this.”
Ethan pointed at her.
“I gave you everything.”
“You gave me fear and called it protection.”
“I loved you.”
“You monitored me.”
“I protected you.”
“You isolated me.”
“You needed me.”
“No.”
Sophia walked closer but remained behind Adrian.
“That was what you needed me to believe.”
Police vehicles appeared at both ends of the street.
Ethan looked around.
His confidence collapsed.
Adrian spoke quietly.
“It’s finished.”
Ethan stared at Sophia.
“You think he’s different?”
Sophia didn’t answer immediately.
Then she looked at Adrian.
“He listened when I told him he didn’t get to decide where I lived.”
Adrian glanced back at her.
Sophia looked at Ethan again.
“You never did.”
Detective Grant approached.
“Ethan Cole, turn around.”
This time, he did.
As Grant led him away, Ethan shouted:
“Sophia!”
She watched him disappear into the police car.
Then she realized her hands were not shaking.
Adrian noticed too.
“You okay?”
Sophia looked at him.
“No.”
He nodded.
“That makes sense.”
She smiled faintly.
May you like
“But I think I will be.”
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