Chapter 5 - Blood on the Snow
"Get down!" Ethan roared.
He tackled me, throwing his massive body over mine and Ellie’s just as bullets chewed through the leather sofa where we had been sitting seconds before.
Ellie screamed—a terrified, piercing wail that tore my heart to shreds.
"Keep her head down!" Ethan yelled over the deafening roar of automatic fire.
He didn't fire back. Instead, he grabbed the collar of my coat and dragged us across the floor, away from the windows, toward the hallway. Glass rained down on us like deadly hail.
I crawled blindly, my body curled entirely over my screaming daughter.
We made it into the hallway. Ethan kicked the heavy steel security door shut behind us, locking it. The gunfire outside muffled slightly.
He leaned against the wall, breathing heavily. He looked at me, his eyes scanning for blood. "Are you hit?"
"No," I sobbed, rocking Ellie. "She's okay. We're okay."
Ethan nodded. He reloaded his weapon. The cold, calculating mafia boss was back.
"They tracked the bag," Ethan said rapidly. "Vance’s men. They think we’re trapped."
"Are we?" I asked, trembling.
"No." He reached out and touched Ellie’s head, a brief, tender gesture that felt wildly out of place in a gunfight. "I lost my family once. I am not losing my brother's family tonight."
He led us down a narrow set of stairs into a dark, concrete basement.
At the far end was a heavy steel door.
Ethan keyed a code into the keypad. The door hissed open, revealing a long, dimly lit tunnel.
"It leads to a garage a block away. There’s a car," Ethan explained. "Go."
"What about you?" I asked.
"I have to buy you time," he said, turning back toward the stairs.
"Ethan, they'll kill you!"
He stopped and looked back at me. In the dim light, the resemblance to my late husband was suddenly striking.
"Tell her about David," Ethan said softly. "Tell her he was a good man."
He slammed the steel door shut between us.
I was alone in the dark with my baby.
I ran.
The tunnel felt endlessly long, cold, and damp. Ellie’s cries eventually subsided into exhausted hiccups.
When I finally reached the end, I pushed open another door and stumbled into a dusty, detached garage. Sitting in the center was a beat-up silver sedan.
The keys were in the visor, just like David used to leave them.
I strapped Ellie into her car seat with shaking hands.
I started the engine and hit the garage door opener. The door rolled up, revealing the snowy alleyway.
I put the car in drive, ready to flee. Ready to disappear and never look back.
But as I pulled into the alley, a dark figure stepped out from the shadows, blocking my path.
He was holding a gun pointed directly at my windshield.
It wasn't one of Vance's thugs.
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It was the driver who had brought us here. Ethan’s trusted man.
He raised his free hand and tapped his earpiece. "I have the woman and the baby," he said clearly. "Bring Vance to the alley."
