Chapter 5 - THE DEVIL'S BARGAIN
The trap was set at the opulent Chicago Symphony Center. Gabriel rented the entire venue under a shell corporation, ostensibly for a high-level mafia sit-down. It was neutral ground, highly visible, a place where Daniel would feel his ego massaged by forcing the mighty Gabriel Russo into public submission.
I remained in the bunker, surrounded by six of Gabriel's most lethal, fiercely loyal guards. The baby was kicking frantically, responding to the adrenaline that coursed through my veins. A bank of monitors in the bunker displayed the hidden camera feeds from the Symphony Center. I watched as Gabriel sat alone in the center of the grand stage, bathed in a single spotlight.
The doors swung open. Daniel Shaw walked down the aisle, flanked by a dozen heavily armed mercenaries. He looked triumphant, a smug grin plastered across his face.
"Look at you, Gabriel," Daniel’s voice echoed through the empty auditorium, picked up by the hidden mics. "The great butcher of Chicago. Defeated by a few well-placed whispers and a dead woman's ghost."
"She isn't dead," Gabriel said softly, his voice carrying a lethal weight.
Daniel paused, his smugness faltering for a fraction of a second. "What?"
"She isn't dead," Gabriel repeated, rising slowly from his chair. "And you didn't defeat me, Daniel. You just signed your own death warrant."
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The trap snapped shut. The heavy velvet curtains in the balconies dropped, revealing dozens of Gabriel's snipers. But Daniel had one last card to play. He pressed a detonator in his hand. "Go ahead, shoot!" Daniel screamed, panic edging into his voice. "I have a crew at your steel mill right now. You pull that trigger, and I send the signal to breach the bunker. They'll finish the job they started on her stomach!"
My blood ran cold. The monitors flickered. Above me, in the bunker, the heavy steel reinforced doors groaned. A massive explosion rocked the ceiling, raining concrete dust over my head. Daniel hadn't brought all his men to the parley. He had sent an execution squad to finish me off.
