Chapter 26 Rescue or Trap.

Chapter 26 Rescue or Trap.
Aria's POV
Twelve hours became eleven, then ten, as we planned the impossible. Marco and Lucia returned from their reconnaissance, spreading photos across the table in our safe house. Luca's estate was a fortress, with high walls, armed guards and security cameras covering every angle.
"It's a death trap," Marco said bluntly. "Even with Sofia's intel, we're looking at a minimum of thirty guards, or maybe more and that's not counting whatever surprise Luca has waiting inside."
"We don't have a choice," I said, studying the photos. "Dahlia's in there and my mother's in there. We go in, we get them out and we end this."
"End all this? Or we die trying," Lucia added.
"That too." I looked up at Enzo, who'd been silent for the past hour, staring at the estate blueprints Sofia had provided. "What are you thinking?"
"I'm thinking this is exactly what Luca wants," he said slowly. "He wants us to be desperate and reckless, walking into his fortress. He has every advantage."
"So we take those advantages away." I pointed to the blueprints. "Sofia said there are blind spots in the security, also, the service entrance here and then the maintenance tunnel here. We split up in twos, two teams, and two entry points and converge on the location where he's holding them."
"And if Sofia's intel is compromised?" Marco asked. "If those blind spots are actually kill zones?"
"Then we adapt." I checked my weapon for the tenth time. "But we're running out of time. Eight hours now. We move in six, hitting them at dawn when their guard changes and when they're most vulnerable."
Enzo finally looked up from the blueprints and I saw the calculation in his eyes, the weighing of odds and possibilities. "Alright, guys, let's go and do this. We do this, but my way. Marco and Lucia, you take the maintenance tunnel and come up through the basement. Aria and I take the service entrance. We coordinate our assault and hit them from two directions simultaneously."
"What about extraction?" Lucia asked. "We improvise," Enzo said grimly. "Once we have Dahlia and Aria's mother, we fight our way out. I've got a contact with a helicopter standing by two kilometers away. Once we make it there, we're out of France within the hour."
"And Luca?" I asked. His smile was cold. "If we see him, we kill him. No hesitation and no mercy. This must end tonight."
Dawn came too fast and too slow. We approached the estate as the sky lightened from black to gray, moving through the manicured grounds like ghosts.
The service entrance was exactly where Sofia's blueprints indicated, a small door hidden behind decorative hedges, used by staff to move supplies without being seen by guests. Enzo picked the lock in under thirty seconds and we slipped inside.
The corridor beyond was dark and narrow, service passages that snaked through the mansion's guts. We moved silently, with our weapons ready and every sense screaming danger.
"In position," Marco's voice crackled through the earpiece. "Basement level. Multiple heat signatures above us."
"Same here," I whispered. "Moving to the second floor. That's where the holding cells should be."
We climbed a service stairway and emerged into a wider hallway. The décor here was expensive with marble floors, oil paintings and the kind of wealth that bought lives and destroyed them with equal ease.
"Contact," Enzo breathed and I saw them, two guards at the end of the hallway, stationed outside a heavy wooden door.
"That's it," I said. "Has to be." We moved fast. Enzo took the left guard with a silenced shot to the head. I then took the right, my bullet catching him in the throat before he could shout. They dropped silently and we dragged the bodies into a side room.
"Clear," Marco reported. "Working our way up." Enzo tried the door, locked and reinforced. "Breaching charge?"
"Too loud. Give me a second." I examined the lock, remembering the tools Dahlia had taught me to use. Thirty seconds later, I heard the click. "Got it."
We pushed through the door, weapons raised, ready for anything. The room beyond was large and well-lit, set up like some twisted throne room and at its center, bound to a chair, was Dahlia.
My heart leapt. "Dahlia!" But something was wrong. She wasn't struggling and wasn't calling for help. She just sat there, calm and composed, watching us with an expression I couldn't read.
"Hello, Aria," she said quietly. "Hello, Enzo." That's when I saw them, armed men emerging from the shadows, at least a dozen, surrounding us and at their head, smiling that poisonous smile, was Sofia.
She was pale, bandaged from the shoulder wound I'd given her, but very much alive and in control.
"Welcome," she said. "Right on time." "It's a trap," Enzo breathed.
"Obviously." Sofia gestured and more men appeared, cutting off our retreat. "Did you really think I'd let you shoot me and just walk away? Please, this was always the plan."
I stared at Dahlia, betrayal burning through me like acid. "Dahlia, you're working with them?"
"I'm working for myself," Dahlia said and now I heard the hardness in her voice that I'd missed before. "Luca made me an offer I couldn't refuse. Money, power and a new identity. All I had to do was feed him information about Enzo's operations and lead you here."
"Everything?" My voice cracked. "All of it was a lie?" "Not all of it." She had the grace to look uncomfortable. "I did care about you, Aria. But caring doesn't pay the fucking bills. Doesn't keep you alive in this world. Luca understood that."
"You bitch," I started forward, but Enzo caught my arm. "Don't," he said quietly. "That's what they want. For us to lose control."
"Smart man," Sofia said, moving closer. Her men kept their weapons trained on us with fingers on triggers. "But not smart enough. You walked right into this, Enzo. Just like I knew you would. Because you have a weakness now." Her eyes cut to me. "Her."
"Where's my mother?" I demanded, ignoring her provocation.
"Not here," Sofia said. "Never was. That was just bait too. Luca has her somewhere else, somewhere you'll never find her. Unless..." She smiled. "Unless you do exactly what we say." "And what's that?" Enzo asked, his voice deadly calm.
"You die," Sofia said. "Right here, right now. Aria watches, then she surrenders to Luca, simple and clean. Everyone gets what they want."
"Except us," I said. "Well, yes." Sofia's smile widened. "Except you."