Chapter 5 - NO WAY OUT
Two men kicked through the remains of my door. They weren't the men from the hotel. These men wore tactical gear, their faces hidden behind dark masks.
Dominic fired twice. The sound was deafening in the small apartment. The first man dropped, a bullet catching him in the shoulder.
“Fire escape! Now!” Dominic roared over the gunfire.
I didn’t hesitate. I sprinted into the bedroom, snatched Matteo from his bed, and wrapped him in his worn blanket. He woke up crying, confused and terrified.
“Shh, baby, I’ve got you,” I whispered, hauling him to the window. I pushed the rusty pane up and climbed out onto the metal grating just as bullets tore through the bedroom wall, showering us in drywall dust.
Dominic came through the window a second later, blood dripping from a fresh cut on his cheek. He slammed the window shut and pointed down the fire escape. “Move!”
We scrambled down the rusted stairs in the pouring rain. Matteo buried his face in my neck, sobbing quietly. My broken shoe finally gave out, twisting my ankle, but adrenaline numbed the pain.
We hit the alley just as a black SUV screeched to a halt at the end of the block.
“My car!” I yelled, pointing to the Honda.
“Keys!” Dominic demanded. I tossed them to him. We piled in. Dominic slammed it into reverse, the tires smoking on the wet asphalt, and we shot backward out of the alley just as men began pouring out of the SUV.
Bullets shattered the back windshield. I covered Matteo with my body, praying the metal would hold.
Dominic spun the wheel, executing a flawless J-turn, and we rocketed down the empty streets of the city. He drove like a madman, taking corners at impossible speeds, losing the SUV in a maze of industrial warehouses.
When we finally stopped in an abandoned parking garage, the silence in the car was suffocating.
Matteo was trembling in my arms. “Auntie Sarah, who is that man?”
“A friend,” Dominic said before I could speak. He turned around in the driver’s seat, his face shadowed. “I’m sorry, kid. I didn’t mean to wake you up like that.”
He looked at me, his eyes filled with a raw, agonizing guilt. “Sable traced my burner phone. He knows about you now. He knows about the boy.”
“What does he want with us?” I cried. “We don’t know anything!”
“Sable knows I care about you. He knows Elena was my biggest failure.” Dominic gripped the steering wheel so hard his knuckles turned white. “He’ll use you to make me surrender.”
“So what do we do?” I demanded, holding my nephew tighter. “My sister is dead because of your war. I’m not letting Matteo die for it.”
Dominic reached for the glovebox, pulling out a heavy, secure satellite phone. He dialed a number from memory.
“I’m calling in my markers,” he said, his voice dropping an octave. “We’re ending this tonight.”
He waited for three rings, then spoke one sentence.
“The wolf is awake.”
The person on the other line paused, then replied in a voice so loud I could hear it.
“Sable has the hotel secured. He’s holding the charity guests hostage until you show yourself.”
Dominic’s face went pale. “All of them?”
“Yes. And Dominic? He has the pharmacy records. He knows the kid needs medicine.”
I stopped breathing.
May you like
Dominic slowly turned his head to look at me, and in his eyes, I saw the one thing more terrifying than a mafia boss.
A man who had run out of time.
