Chapter 5 - EXTRACTION IN THE RAIN
The blinding white light and concussive blast sent diners screaming beneath tables. Ceramic plates shattered, and smoke rolled across the ceiling in thick, choking waves.
Emma stumbled, her ears ringing violently, but Daniel was already there. His massive frame shielded her and Lily instantly. With his left arm, he forced Emma down behind the heavy oak bar counter; with his right, he drew a matte-black Glock 19 from a concealed holster beneath his flannel shirt.
“Keep her head down!” Daniel shouted over the screams.
A man in a tactical vest rounded the corner of the bar, raising a submachine gun. Daniel didn't hesitate. He stepped into the line of fire, grabbed the operative’s weapon barrel, redirected it toward the ceiling as two rounds chewed into the plaster, and drove the heel of his palm upward into the man’s chin. The bone cracked with sickening finality. The operative dropped instantly.
Daniel caught the falling weapon, stripped the magazine, racked the slide, and discarded it behind the bar in a fluid, two-second motion.
“Marcus!” Emma cried out, panic finally breaking through her composure. “My driver—”
“Marcus is engaged outside. He’s holding the perimeter, but we need to move before they collapse the exits,” Daniel said. He looked down at Lily, who was trembling violently, her face buried in Emma’s shoulder. Daniel touched the child’s hair with surprising tenderness. “Close your eyes and count to ten, Lily-bug. Like a game of hide-and-seek. Can you do that for me?”
Lily nodded bravely against Emma’s neck, her muffled voice starting: “One... two... three...”
Daniel kicked open the kitchen swinging doors. The kitchen staff had already evacuated through the rear alley. Grease sizzled on the flat-top grills; fluorescent lights flickered erratically.
At the rear exit, the steel door was kicked inward from the outside. A second operative stepped through, weapon raised.
Daniel fired twice through the industrial stainless-steel prep table. The rounds punched clean through the metal, striking the operative in the chest plate and driving him backward into the rain-soaked alley.
Daniel pushed Emma through the door. “Run for the blue sedan at the end of the alley!”
Rain lashed against Emma’s face as they burst into the dark, narrow corridor behind the restaurant. The blue sedan—an unassuming, ten-year-old Japanese car—unlocked with a click as Daniel hit a remote fob.
Behind them, engine roars echoed from the main street. Marcus’s Mercedes broke through the roadblock, tires screeching as the heavily armored luxury car engaged the second SUV, drawing the remaining attackers away from the alley.
Daniel shoved Emma and Lily into the back seat, slammed the door, vaulted behind the steering wheel, and fired the ignition. The engine roared to life with the unmistakable rumble of a modified twin-turbo V8 hidden beneath a rusted hood.
Daniel slammed the car into reverse, whipped the wheel around, and shot out of the alley onto Beacon Street just as a volley of automatic gunfire chewed into the brickwork where they had been standing seconds before.
In the back seat, Emma held Lily with an iron grip. Her heart felt as though it would burst through her ribs. She looked at the man driving—his eyes checking every mirror, his jaw set, bleeding slightly from a glass cut on his forehead.
“Where are you taking us?” Emma demanded, her voice shaking.
May you like
Daniel met her gaze in the rearview mirror. “To the only place in Massachusetts they can't touch you. A place Julian built before he died.”
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