PART 7 — THE CHURCH WHERE MONSTERS PRAYED

St. Agnes had been shut for eight years, but the front doors still opened for me.

Most people believed I had bought the old church because I wanted to turn it into condos.

I let them believe that.

The truth was both uglier and softer.

My mother had prayed there when I was a child. She used to light candles beneath a cracked statue of Mary and ask for protection from men who never came. After she died, I bought the place so no one could tear it down.

I never prayed.

But I kept the roof fixed.

That had to count for something.

We came in through the side door just before sunset: Emily, Oliver, Claire, Nico, and three men I still trusted. Rain came with us, dripping from our coats onto stone floors smoothed by generations of knees.

Oliver looked up at the stained glass.

“Is this where God lives?”

Nico muttered, “Not exclusively.”

Emily shot him a look.

He cleared his throat. “Probably yes.”

For the first time that day, Oliver smiled.

That small smile nearly broke me.

We settled him in the old rectory with blankets, inhalers, and a portable air purifier the doctor had sent. Claire stayed with him while Emily and I stood in the nave under colored light.

The church smelled of dust, candle wax, and memory.

Emily brushed her fingers over the back of a pew.

“You own a church.”

“I own the building.”

“That distinction matters to you?”

“Yes.”

She looked at me. “Why bring us here?”

“Because Anton knows my businesses. He knows my hotels. He knows my houses. He doesn’t know this matters.”

“Does it?”

I glanced toward the altar.

“More than I admit.”

Emily watched me for a long while.

Then she said, “Tell me about your mother.”

I almost refused.

The words rose by instinct.

No.

Not your business.

Not now.

But Emily had been taken, beaten, betrayed, and still stood there asking not for money, not for revenge, but for truth.

So I gave her part of it.

“She cleaned offices at night. Took buses before dawn. Saved quarters in a jar for my school lunches.”

Emily’s expression softened.

“One winter, she fell behind on rent. Landlord locked us out while I was at school. She begged in the hallway.”

My own voice sounded far away.

“I watched through the stairwell window. I was twelve. I promised myself no one would ever decide whether I slept warm again.”

“And did that help?”

I looked at her.

“No.”

She nodded as though the answer made complete sense.

“David used to say poverty made people small,” she said quietly. “I think it made you sharp.”

“What did it make you?”

She looked toward the rectory where Oliver was sleeping.

“A door.”

I frowned.

Her eyes shone. “Everything hits me first. So it doesn’t hit him.”

I had no answer.

Because that was motherhood in a single sentence.

A phone rang from the altar.

Not mine.

The old church landline.

No one had used it in years.

Nico appeared from the side aisle with his gun drawn.

The bell rang again.

Slow.

Patient.

I walked to the altar and picked up the receiver.

Anton’s voice filled the dead church.

“Sentimental. I should have guessed.”

“You always hated history.”

“I hated weakness disguised as memory.”

“Where are you?”

“Close enough.”

Nico moved toward the doors, signaling to the men.

Anton continued. “You know what your problem is, Marcus? You built an empire on fear, then forgot fear has to be maintained.”

“I remember now.”

“No. You’re emotional. That makes you predictable.”

I looked at Emily.

She stood perfectly still.

Anton said, “Give me the Carter evidence. Give me the woman and boy. I’ll make the federal mess disappear and leave you one hotel, one restaurant, and your pride.”

“Generous.”

“I learned from you.”

“You learned poorly.”

He sighed. “Then I’ll burn the church.”

The line went dead.

For one heartbeat, nobody moved.

Then the first window shattered.

A bottle burst against the far wall, and flames began crawling up the old wood.

Emily ran for the rectory.

I grabbed a fire extinguisher from behind the altar and struck the flames. Nico fired toward the broken window. My men dragged pews against the doors.

Smoke spread quickly.

Too quickly.

Anton had planned well.

The church collapsed into chaos.

Glass breaking.

Men shouting.

Oliver coughing.

That sound cut through everything else.

I found Emily in the rectory pressing a wet cloth over Oliver’s mouth.

“He can’t breathe!” she shouted.

The rear exit was blocked. Flames climbed the hallway walls.

Claire stood beside them, pale but steady. “There’s a cellar door!”

I stared at her.

“How do you know?”

She swallowed. “David brought me here once.”

Emily turned sharply.

Claire’s voice shook. “He said he was meeting someone. I waited in the car. I saw him enter from the alley.”

David.

Here.

My church.

My dead mother’s church.

Anton had not found this place.

David had sold it.

That miserable man kept discovering new ways to be useful.

Claire led us through the sacristy to a trapdoor hidden under old carpeting. Nico lifted it, exposing stone steps sinking into darkness.

“Go,” I said.

Emily clutched Oliver. “Not without you.”

I almost smiled.

“Arguing in a burning church?”

“Apparently.”

Nico shouted from the nave, “Boss!”

I looked back.

Through the smoke and flame, shapes moved near the shattered windows.

Anton’s men were coming in.

I handed Emily my phone.

“Take Oliver down. At the bottom, there’s a tunnel leading to the rectory garage. Code is 0117.”