Chapter 8 - THE COUNTDOWN
“Close your eyes, Mommy!” Grace screamed, hurling the small black cylinder straight at Daniel’s chest.
I squeezed my eyes shut and covered my ears.
BANG.
The explosion in the confined server room was deafening. A blinding flash of white light scorched the air.
Daniel shrieked, dropping his gun and clawing at his eyes. The mercenaries stumbled backward, temporarily blinded and disoriented.
I lunged forward, grabbing Grace and pulling her behind the heavy steel casing of the server racks.
Through the ringing in my ears, I heard the computerized voice from the terminal:
“BROADCAST COMPLETE. DATA PURGE INITIATED.”
It was done. The archive was in the hands of the authorities. The twelve families were effectively dead.
But Daniel was still alive.
He stumbled blindly, swinging a heavy metal wrench he had grabbed off a tool cart. “Elena! I’ll kill you! I’ll tear you apart!”
Luca, bleeding heavily from his shoulder, pushed himself up from the floor. He didn't have his gun, but he had something else.
As Daniel swung the wrench wildly in our direction, Luca tackled him from the side. They crashed into the main server bank. Wires ripped from their sockets, showering them in blue sparks.
“You’re finished, Cross!” Luca roared, pinning Daniel’s arm behind his back.
Daniel roared, driving his elbow backward into Luca’s wounded shoulder. Luca yelled in pain, his grip loosening just enough for Daniel to break free. Daniel spun around and slammed the wrench into Luca’s ribs.
Luca collapsed to his knees, coughing up blood.
Daniel stood over him, raising the heavy iron wrench like an executioner’s axe. “You were always a second-rate boss, Bellandi. Now you’re just dead.”
“Hey!” I screamed.
Daniel turned.
I was standing beside the main electrical breaker for the server room, holding the metal handle of the override switch.
“The archive is gone, Daniel,” I said, my voice cold and hollow. “And so are you.”
I ripped the handle downward.
The emergency sprinkler system, designed to extinguish electrical fires, erupted. Freezing water rained down on the room.
But I hadn’t just turned on the water. I had bypassed the grounding safety.
Water flooded the floor, rushing toward the exposed, sparking wires where Daniel stood.
Daniel looked down at his feet, realizing a second too late what was happening. “No—!”
The electricity hit the water.
A massive blue arc of current surged across the floor, striking Daniel. He convulsed violently, a horrifying scream tearing from his throat before he collapsed backward onto the flooded concrete, motionless.
The mercenaries, seeing their boss fall, didn’t stay to fight. They scrambled blindly for the open blast doors, fleeing into the subway tunnels.
I sprinted across the wet floor, careful to avoid the exposed wires, and slid to my knees beside Luca.
He was incredibly pale, his hand pressed against the gunshot wound in his shoulder.
“Luca, stay with me. Please, stay with me,” I begged, ripping a strip of fabric from my shirt to press against his wound.
Luca offered a weak, bloody smile. “You… you really are something, Elena.”
Grace ran over, wrapping her tiny arms around Luca’s neck. “Don’t die, Mr. Luca. You’re our friend.”
“I’m not going anywhere, piccola,” he whispered, his eyes fluttering shut.
Suddenly, the sound of heavy boots echoed from the tunnel. Dozens of flashlights pierced the darkness of the server room.
“FBI! DROP YOUR WEAPONS AND PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR!”
I didn’t raise my hands. I held onto Luca, burying my face in his uninjured shoulder as the tactical teams flooded the room.
The nightmare was over. But as the paramedics rushed in to take Luca from my arms, a terrifying thought crossed my mind.
I had destroyed the mafia. I had exposed the most dangerous men in the country.
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But I was still the wife of Daniel Cross. And Luca was still a boss.
As the FBI agent slapped handcuffs on my wrists, I realized our fight wasn't over. It had just changed battlegrounds.
