Chapter 5 - THE VAULT OF SECRETS
Before I could argue, the reinforced steel grate above the safe room’s ventilation outlet exploded inward in a shower of sparks and jagged iron.
A heavy smoke grenade dropped through the opening, hissing violently as thick, blinding white smoke began to pour across the floor.
"Get down!" Victor roared, shoving me and the stroller behind a massive steel filing cabinet just as automatic gunfire chewed through the drywall above our heads.
The guard returned fire, the deafening roar of the tactical shotgun shaking the small room, deafening my ears. Muzzle flashes strobed through the billowing smoke like lightning in a hurricane.
"Hannah! Now!" Victor yelled over the din of combat, his hand gripping my arm with irresistible strength as he hauled me to my feet. He unlocked a hidden floor panel beneath the computer desk, revealing a steep, concrete stairwell descending into absolute darkness.
"Take her!" I cried, clutching Lily’s carrier as the baby woke with a terrified, breathless shriek.
"Go! I’m right behind you!" Victor shouted, pushing us down the steps just as another mercenary dropped through the ceiling vent.
I scrambled down the cold concrete steps, the damp air of the drainage tunnel hitting my face like a wall of ice. Lily was crying hysterically now, her tiny body burning up with fever, her small hands clutching frantically at my collar. Every breath she took sounded like dry leaves scraping across stone.
I ran through the darkness, guided only by the faint red glow of emergency exit lights fifty yards ahead. The sound of gunfire echoed faintly behind me, muffled by the thick concrete walls, followed by the deep, terrifying boom of a secondary explosion.
He’s buying our time, the thought echoed in my mind, a heavy anchor dragging at my chest. The ruthless crime lord who ruled New York was bleeding in the dark so that a daughter he only learned existed twenty minutes ago could escape.
After what felt like a lifetime, the tunnel opened up into a massive underground concrete chamber where a sleek, black twin-engine motorboat idled quietly against a private dock connected to the freezing Hudson River.
Standing on the deck, holding a submachine gun and scanning the shadows, was a scarred man in a heavy wool coat—one of Victor’s senior lieutenants, a man named Dante.
"Over here!" Dante shouted, his voice cutting through the roar of the river water as he sprinted off the boat to help me.
I scrambled onto the deck, collapsing against a leather bench as I pulled Lily closer to my chest. "Dante—Victor is still back at the mansion. Julian’s men breached the safe room—"
"I know," Dante interrupted, his face grim as he unmoored the boat with fierce, rapid movements. "Mr. Moretti gave strict orders. Get you and the child to the safehouse in Montauk. No exceptions."
"I'm not leaving him!" I screamed, the engine revving to a deafening roar as Dante slammed the throttles forward, kicking up a massive spray of icy river water.
"If you go back there, you die, and the child dies," Dante shouted over the screaming engines as the boat surged out into the open, freezing expanse of the Hudson River, leaving the burning silhouette of the Moretti estate behind us in the snow. "And Moretti's sacrifice means nothing!"
We cut through the white-capped waves, the wind biting our faces like broken glass. I looked down at Lily. Her eyes were rolling back, her breathing growing alarmingly faint.
The locket around her neck rested against her chest, cold and silent.
As we sped away into the blinding snowstorm, the boat's radio crackled to life with a burst of static, followed by a cold, unfamiliar voice that made my blood run instantly cold.
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"Dante," Julian’s smooth, mocking voice purred over the encrypted frequency. "Tell the girl she can run across the ocean if she likes. But she forgot something very important in the safe room. Something that belongs to me... and her grandfather."
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