Chapter 7 - A DESPERATE BARGAIN
Before the operation, Rostova allowed me five minutes inside Sarah’s heavily guarded room. The rhythmic hum of the ventilator was the only sound. I sat beside her, gently brushing a stray lock of hair from her bruised forehead.
Her eyelids fluttered. Slowly, painfully, they opened.
“Charles,” she breathed through the oxygen mask, her voice barely a whisper. Panic immediately clouded her eyes as she tried to sit up. “You... you shouldn't be here. They’ll hurt you.”
“Shh, don't move,” I murmured, leaning down to kiss her forehead. “I know everything, Sarah. I found the drive. I know what Marcus did, and I know what you sacrificed to keep me safe.”
Tears spilled down her cheeks, catching in the plastic rim of the mask. “I was so scared when you showed up at the bar. I had just been attacked the night before. I thought I was dead. I just... I just wanted one last night with you before it all fell apart.”
My chest ached with a profound, shattering grief for the time we had lost and the pain she had endured alone. “You don't have to protect me anymore. It’s my turn to protect you. The FBI is here. They’re keeping you safe.”
“Marcus is dangerous,” she choked out, gripping my hand with surprising strength. “He’s bringing the cartel enforcer, a man named Vargas. Promise me you won't do anything stupid, Charles. Just give the FBI the drive.”
“I promise this ends tonight,” I lied smoothly, squeezing her hand. I couldn't tell her I was walking into the lion’s den. If she knew, her heart rate would spike, and she needed every ounce of strength to heal. “I love you, Sarah. I never stopped. We’re going to get our second chance.”
She closed her eyes, a weak, exhausted smile touching her lips. “Come back to me.”
I walked out of the room, my resolve hardening into steel. I met Rostova in the hallway. They taped a microscopic wire to my chest and handed me a heavy Kevlar vest to wear beneath my jacket.
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“The perimeter will be secured,” Rostova briefed me as we walked to the extraction van. “We’ll have snipers on the cranes, but they can't shoot unless you are in immediate, lethal danger. You have to get Marcus to confess to the laundering on tape, and you have to get Vargas to accept the drive. That ties the cartel directly to the domestic fraud.”
I nodded, stepping out into the suffocating Miami heat. It was time to burn my own company to the ground.
