Chapter 10 - Bloodlines and Broken Vows
The drainage tunnel was pitch black, damp, and smelled of stagnant river water, but Ava ran through it with a primal, ferocious energy she didn't know she possessed. Every footstep echoed like thunder, and the distant sounds of automatic gunfire from the mansion above sounded like a war zone.
She clutched the green duffel bag in one hand and pressed her other hand fiercely against her abdomen. Survive, she chanted silently to her unborn child. We are going to survive.
When she finally burst out of the concrete exit grate near Lincoln Park, a sleek black sedan was idling quietly by the curb. The rear door clicked open instantly, and Mateo—Daniel’s burly, scarred enforcer—pulled her inside.
"Get down, Mrs. Choi," Mateo barked, slamming the door shut and flooring the accelerator just as three unmarked SUVs screeched around the corner behind them.
"Daniel?" Ava gasped, peering out the rear window as the mansion receded into the distance, smoke beginning to billow from its second-story windows.
"The boss is right behind us," Mateo lied, his jaw tight as he swerved through the empty downtown streets at breakneck speed. But Ava saw the look in Mateo’s rearview mirror—the grim, desolate acceptance of a soldier whose general had stayed behind to hold the line.
The drive to the private airstrip north of the city felt like an eternity. Bullets pinged off the rear quarter-panel once during the chase, but Mateo managed to lose their pursuers in the industrial shipping yards near the river.
When the car finally skidded to a halt beside a waiting twin-engine Gulfstream jet with its propellers already spinning, dawn was just beginning to streak the eastern sky with pale violet and bruised orange.
Ava stumbled out of the car, clutching the duffel bag. The pilot was frantically waving her toward the open boarding stairs.
"Where is he, Mateo?" Ava screamed over the deafening roar of the jet engines. "Where is Daniel?!"
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Mateo looked away, unable to meet her eyes. "He stayed to clear the board, ma'am. He gave us an open window. We have to go now, or all of this was for nothing."
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