Back to the Tower

Back to the Tower
Selena's POV
The elevator was falling.
Selena grabbed the rail as the lights flickered. Her stomach dropped as they plunged down three floors before the emergency brakes kicked in.
"Someone cut the main cable," Rook said, checking his gun. "We're trapped."
They had made it back to her apartment building. The same golden tower where this nightmare started. Where Marco's men were probably waiting.
"Can you get us out?" she asked.
Rook looked up at the ceiling panel. "Maybe. But it will take time."
"How much time?"
"More than we have."
That's when they heard the voices above them. Men talking. Getting closer.
"They're coming down the stairs," Rook whispered.
Selena's heart pounded. They were stuck between floors twenty-three and twenty-four. No way up. No way down.
"There," she pointed to a service door she had never noticed before. "Can we get through that?"
Rook tried the handle. Locked.
"Stand back."
He shot the lock off. The door opened to a narrow hallway that ran behind the apartments.
"Service tunnel," Selena said. "I never knew this existed."
They crawled through the tight space. Pipes and wires hung from the ceiling. It smelled like dust and old metal.
"Where does this lead?" Rook asked.
"I don't know. I've never been back here."
Behind them, she heard the elevator doors being forced open. Heavy boots on metal.
"Found them!" someone yelled. "They went through the service door!"
"Move faster," Rook said.
The tunnel split into three paths. Selena picked the middle one without thinking. They crawled for what felt like hours but was probably only minutes.
Finally, they reached another door. This one opened into her apartment.
They were in her bedroom closet.
"How did you know?" Rook asked.
"I didn't. Lucky guess."
But that wasn't true. She had remembered something. A game she used to play as a kid. Hide and seek with her mother. Maria had shown her secret places in the building.
Places only family knew about.
"We need to get to my computer," Selena said.
"Why?"
"Because I think my mother left me something. Something Marco doesn't know about."
They crept through the apartment. It looked the same as always. Rich furniture. Clean walls. No sign that killers had been hunting them all night.
But something felt wrong.
Selena's computer was still on her desk. She sat down and started typing.
"What are you looking for?" Rook asked, watching the windows.
"Mom used to send me coded messages. Games, she called them. I thought they were just for fun."
She opened an old email folder. Messages from her mother. Hundreds of them.
"Look at this," she said.
The emails seemed normal. "How was school today?" "Don't forget your piano lesson." "I love you, baby girl."
But Selena had learned to see patterns. Hidden things.
She typed in a code her mother had taught her. The first letter of every sentence in every email.
H-E-L-P-M-E
"She was asking for help," Selena whispered.
"From who?"
"From me. But I was just a kid. I didn't understand."
She kept typing. More codes. More hidden messages.
M-A-R-C-O-K-N-O-W-S
U-N-C-L-E-L-I-E-S
D-A-N-G-E-R
Then she found something that made her blood freeze.
R-O-O-K-I-S-N-O-T
That message was incomplete. Like her mother had been stopped before she could finish typing.
"What does that mean?" she asked, showing Rook the screen.
He read it and went very still. "I don't know."
"Rook is not what? Not the killer? Not guilty? Not who we think he is?"
"I said I don't know."
But his voice sounded strange. Scared, maybe.
Selena kept digging. There had to be more.
She found another folder. Hidden deeper in the computer. Password protected.
She tried her birthday. Wrong.
Her mother's birthday. Wrong.
Then she remembered. Her mother's pet name for her.
Little Moon.
It worked.
The folder opened. Inside was a video file.
"Play it," Rook said quietly.
Selena clicked play.
Her mother's face appeared on screen. She looked scared but determined.
"Selena, if you're watching this, then I'm probably dead. And Marco probably killed me."
Selena's hands shook. Her mother's voice. After all these years.
"I found out what Marco has been doing. He's been selling information to our enemies. Getting our people killed. He made a deal with the FBI to bring down your father."
The video flickered. Like it had been damaged.
"But that's not the worst part, baby girl. Marco has been lying about everything. Even about—"
The video cut off.
"No!" Selena hit the screen. "Come on!"
She tried to restart it. Nothing.
"The file is corrupted," she said. "I can't get the rest."
"Maybe that's all there was," Rook said.
"No. She was about to say something important. Something about Marco lying."
Selena tried everything she knew. Different programs. Recovery software. Nothing worked.
That's when she noticed something else in the folder.
An audio file.
She played it.
Static. Then voices. Like a phone call being recorded.
"—done. The woman is dead," a man said.
"Good. And the girl?"
"Still alive. But she doesn't know anything."
"Keep it that way. If she ever finds out the truth—"
"She won't. I made sure of that."
"What about our inside man?"
"He played his part perfectly. She'll never suspect."
The recording ended.
Selena stared at the computer. "Inside man. They had someone working with them."
"Could be anyone," Rook said.
"No. It had to be someone close. Someone Mom trusted."
She thought about everyone who had been around when her mother died. Uncle Marco, obviously. Detective Vance. Her father's other men.
And Rook.
She looked at him. Really looked.
"How old were you when you started working for my father?"
"I told you. I was young."
"How young?"
"Does it matter?"
"Yes. It matters."
Rook was quiet for a long time. Then he said, "Fifteen."
"Fifteen? But my mother died when I was twelve. That was fourteen years ago."
"I know."
"So you would have been eighteen. Not fifteen."
Rook turned to face her. Something had changed in his eyes.
"You're good at math," he said.
"Don't lie to me. Not now."
"I'm not lying."
"Then explain it. How were you fifteen when you started working for Dad if you were already eighteen when Mom died?"
Rook pulled out his gun. But he didn't point it at her.
He pointed it at himself.
"Because," he said quietly, "I didn't start working for your father when I was fifteen. I started working for Marco."
The words hit her like ice water.
"What?"
"Marco found me first. When I was just a kid on the streets. He trained me. Fed me. Gave me a purpose."
"No."
"He told me your father was the enemy. That the Rossi family had killed my sister. That I needed to get revenge."
Selena backed away from him. "You're lying."
"I wish I was."
"So what? You've been working for Marco this whole time?"
"At first, yes. He sent me to get close to your father. To learn his secrets."
"And then?"
"Then I met your mother."
Rook's gun hand was shaking now.
"She was kind to me. The first person who ever was. She treated me like I was human instead of a weapon."
"So you killed her?"
"No!" The word came out like a scream. "I tried to protect her. When Marco ordered the hit, I tried to warn her."
"But you still pulled the trigger."
"Marco had my sister. The real one, not the dead one I told you about. He said if I didn't do it, he would kill her slowly. Make her suffer."
Selena felt sick. "So you chose her over my mother."
"Yes. And I've regretted it every day since."
They stared at each other across the room. The truth hanging between them like a blade.
"Where is she now?" Selena asked. "Your sister."
"Dead. Marco killed her anyway. Right after your mother died. He said I knew too much to be trusted with leverage."
"And you still work for him?"
"No. I've been planning to kill him for thirteen years. I just needed the right moment."
"And what's the right moment?"
"When he has something to lose. Something that matters to him more than his own life."
Rook looked at her with eyes full of pain.
"That's you, Selena. You're the only thing Marco fears losing. Because without you, he can't control your father. And without your father, his whole plan falls apart."
Before she could respond, her phone rang.
Marco's number.
She answered it.
"Hello, sweetheart," Marco's voice was cheerful. Fake. "I hope you're having a nice chat with your boyfriend."
How did he know they were here?
"I'm not playing games anymore, Uncle Marco."
"Oh, but the game is just getting started. You see, I have something that belongs to you."
"Luna."
"Smart girl. But not just Luna."
The phone switched to video. Marco's face appeared on screen. Behind him was the warehouse.
But now there were more chairs. More people tied up.
Her father. Still alive.
Luna. The little girl she had never known existed.
And someone else.
Someone who made Selena's heart stop.
A woman with dark hair and familiar eyes. Older now. Scared but alive.
"Surprised?" Marco asked. "Say hello to your mother, Selena. Turns out she's been very much alive all these years."
The phone went dead.
Selena stared at the black screen. Her mother. Alive.
Everything she thought she knew was wrong.
Everything.
She looked at Rook. He was staring at the phone too, his face white.
"Did you know?" she whispered.
"No. I thought she was dead. I saw her die. I killed her."
"Then who did you kill?"
Before he could answer, the apartment door exploded inward.
Armed men poured through. At least six of them.
Rook raised his gun but there were too many.
"Don't move!" one of them yelled.
But Selena was already moving. She grabbed her laptop and dove behind the couch.
Gunshots filled the air.
When the noise stopped, she looked up.
Rook was on the ground. Blood spreading across his shirt.
The men were gone.
But they had left something behind.
A note on her coffee table.
"Come alone to the warehouse at midnight. Bring the laptop. If you're not there, everyone dies. Starting with your mother. Again."
Selena looked at Rook. He was still breathing but barely.
"Stay with me," she whispered, pressing her hands against his wound.
"Go," he said weakly. "Save them."
"I'm not leaving you."
"You have to. It's the only way."
"No. There has to be another way."
Rook grabbed her hand with bloody fingers.
"Selena. Listen to me. Your mother... if she's really alive... ask her about the ghost bullet."
"What's the ghost bullet?"
"The one that was supposed to kill you."
His eyes closed.
Selena checked his pulse. Still there. But weak.
She looked at the laptop in her hands. Then at the note on the table.
Everyone she loved was going to die unless she walked into Marco's trap.
But if her mother was really alive, then everything had been a lie.
Which meant maybe there was still a way to win.
She kissed Rook's forehead and whispered, "I'll be back."
Then she grabbed her guns and headed for the door.
Time to face the ghosts.