Chapter 7 - Fire on the Mountain Road
The hotel fire was contained before it reached the upper floors.
Investigators found an open fuel container near the stairwell and a disabled security camera beside the service entrance.
It was arson.
Mateo’s face had not been clearly captured, but Adrian, Claire, and Gabriel had all seen him.
Captain Navarro sent officers to escort them back to the province.
Gabriel sat in the rear seat of an unmarked police vehicle, staring out the window as the city disappeared behind them.
“You don’t have to testify yet,” Adrian told him.
“Yes, I do.”
“You’re still recovering.”
“I have been recovering for seven years.”
His voice was quiet but firm.
Claire turned from the front seat.
“You can tell the truth without destroying yourself.”
Gabriel looked at her.
“I spent years not knowing why I was afraid. Now I know. I want him to be afraid instead.”
They stopped at a roadside restaurant shortly after noon.
Gabriel did not want to enter the crowded dining room, so they ate beneath a covered patio.
For a few minutes, they were simply a family.
Adrian told Gabriel about the construction company.
Claire described their apartment.
Gabriel spoke about the garden he had cared for at the residence and how he could grow tomatoes even in poor soil.
“You always had patience,” Adrian said.
Gabriel smiled faintly.
“You did not.”
“That hasn’t changed.”
Claire laughed.
It was the first normal sound any of them had made in days.
Then a police officer’s radio crackled.
A landslide had blocked the main highway ahead.
The convoy would need to take an older mountain road.
Adrian felt uneasy.
The rain had strengthened. Fog rolled between the trees. The road narrowed until cliffs rose on one side and dropped sharply on the other.
Halfway through the mountains, the lead police vehicle slowed.
A fallen tree blocked the road.
Two officers stepped out to inspect it.
Gabriel sat forward.
“This is wrong.”
Adrian saw fresh cuts on the tree trunk.
It had not fallen naturally.
“Back up!” he shouted.
Gunfire erupted from the hillside.
The rear window shattered.
Claire pulled Gabriel down.
Officers returned fire.
Adrian crawled across the floor of the vehicle as bullets struck metal.
A masked man appeared near the road carrying a rifle.
Another vehicle approached from behind, trapping the convoy.
Mateo’s pickup.
Captain Navarro was not with them, but the escort commander quickly understood the ambush.
He ordered the driver to ram the fallen tree.
The vehicle accelerated.
Branches scraped across the windshield.
The tree moved only a few inches.
A bullet struck the front tire.
The vehicle spun sideways.
Adrian’s shoulder slammed into the door.
Claire screamed his name.
He looked up and saw Mateo walking through the rain.
No mask.
No attempt to hide.
His rifle hung at his side.
“Gabriel!” Mateo shouted. “Come out, and the others live!”
Gabriel’s face became white.
Adrian grabbed him.
“Do not move.”
Mateo came closer.
“You already ruined enough,” he called. “Don’t make me kill Adrian too.”
Gabriel closed his eyes.
For seven years, fear had shaped his life.
Adrian saw him begin to rise.
“No.”
“This is because of me,” Gabriel whispered.
“This is because of him.”
Adrian held his brother down.
Outside, one of the officers threw a smoke canister.
White smoke spread across the road.
The driver shifted into reverse and slammed into the pickup behind them.
Metal crushed.
The passenger-side door opened.
“Move!” an officer yelled.
Claire crawled out first. Adrian pushed Gabriel after her.
They ran toward the forest.
Gunshots followed.
Adrian felt heat tear across his upper arm.
He stumbled but did not fall.
Claire saw the blood.
“You’re hit.”
“Keep moving.”
They descended a steep slope, sliding through mud and roots.
An officer guided them toward an abandoned ranger station several hundred yards below the road.
Inside, they barricaded the door.
Gabriel stared at Adrian’s arm.
Blood soaked his sleeve.
Claire tore fabric from her shirt and pressed it against the wound.
“The bullet passed through,” she said. “I think.”
Adrian clenched his teeth.
Above them, gunfire became less frequent.
Then stopped.
The silence was worse.
A police radio crackled.
The escort commander reported two officers wounded. The attackers had retreated.
Mateo had escaped again.
Hours later, a rescue team reached the ranger station.
Adrian was taken to a hospital.
The wound required surgery but had missed the bone and major arteries.
When he woke, Claire sat beside the bed.
Her clothes were still stained with his blood.
“Gabriel?”
“Safe.”
“My parents?”
“Safe.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
Claire leaned closer.
“You almost died.”
“I know.”
“No, Adrian. You keep acting as if you can stand between everyone you love and every bullet.”
“What should I do instead?”
“Trust other people to stand with you.”
He looked at her.
She was crying now, quietly and angrily.
“You shut me out of this part of your life for years,” she said. “Then when you finally opened the door, you tried to carry the entire family by yourself.”
“I left them once.”
“You were lied to.”
“I should have questioned it.”
“You were twenty.”
“I should have come back.”
“You are here now.”
Adrian looked toward the ceiling.
“That doesn’t repair sixteen years.”
“No. But what you do next can stop Mateo from stealing another day.”
Captain Navarro arrived later that evening.
He placed a plastic bag on the table.
Inside was a phone recovered from one of the attackers.
“Most of the messages were deleted,” he said. “But our technicians found an audio recording.”
He played it.
Mateo’s voice spoke first.
“After the road is blocked, take Gabriel. Leave the others.”
Another man asked, “What about Adrian?”
“If he resists, kill him.”
The recording ended.
Navarro looked at Adrian.
“We now have enough for attempted murder charges.”
“Who was the other man?”
“One of the local officers who responded to your hotel complaint.”
Adrian was not surprised.
“Did you arrest him?”
“He was wounded during the ambush. He is in custody.”
“Will he talk?”
“He already has.”
The officer claimed Mateo was hiding at a private resort owned by Mountain Crest Development.
Police raided it before dawn.
They found weapons, forged documents, and bundles of cash.
But Mateo had left minutes earlier.
In the bedroom, officers found Chief Villareal’s wallet.
And a blood-soaked jacket.
DNA testing later confirmed the blood belonged to the missing police chief.
Mateo was no longer only a fraudster and kidnapper.
He was now the main suspect in the disappearance—and possible murder—of the man who had protected him.
As Adrian recovered, Gabriel sat beside the window.
“Mateo will not stop,” he said.
“He’s running out of places to hide.”
“He has one place left.”
Adrian looked at him.
Gabriel’s eyes were distant.
“The cave above our old farm.”
“What cave?”
“We played there as children. Mateo used it to hide things from Papa.”
Adrian remembered.
A narrow opening near the waterfall, concealed by thick vines.
Their childhood hiding place.
Gabriel turned toward him.
“That is where he kept the original land titles.”
“How do you know?”
“I remembered during the ambush.”
Adrian reached for his phone.
Before he could call Navarro, Rosa entered the room in a wheelchair.
Ernesto pushed her.
They had traveled under police protection after learning Adrian was wounded.
Rosa saw the bandage on his arm and began crying.
Adrian stood despite the pain.
She embraced him carefully.
Behind her, Ernesto looked at Gabriel.
Father and son stared at each other.
Then Gabriel whispered, “Papa.”
Ernesto crossed the room and held him.
The family reunion lasted only a few seconds before the hospital lights went out.
Emergency alarms sounded.
In the darkness, a phone began ringing.
Rosa’s phone.
She answered.
Mateo’s voice filled the room through the speaker.
“You should not have brought everyone together,” he said.
May you like
Then a red light blinked beneath Adrian’s hospital bed.
A small digital timer counted down from thirty seconds.
