Chapter 7 - THE BURNING STAIRS
A deafening roar consumed the warehouse.
The floor beneath them violently violently shook as multiple explosive charges, rigged along the support columns below, detonated simultaneously. A massive fireball erupted from the center of the building, instantly turning the cold, damp air into a blistering furnace.
The glass in the supervisor’s office blew inward.
Lorenzo threw himself over Mia, shielding her small body with his own as shards of glass rained down on his back. The heat was immediate and suffocating. Thick, acrid black smoke began to pour through the broken floorboards.
“We have to go! Now!” Lorenzo yelled over the roar of the flames, pulling Mia to her feet.
He scooped his daughter into his arms. She buried her face in his neck, terrified, clutching her teddy bear between them. It was the first time he had held her in three years, and the feeling gave him a surge of superhuman strength.
Clara led the way out of the office. The catwalk was a nightmare. Flames licked up the metal supports, painting the warehouse in a hellish orange glow.
“Leo!” Lorenzo shouted, scanning through the smoke.
Leo emerged from the stairwell, his face covered in soot, limping heavily. A stray bullet from the firefight below had caught his leg, but he was still holding his weapon.
“The main exit is blocked by the roof collapse!” Leo coughed, pointing to the far end of the building where a mountain of burning debris blocked the heavy steel doors. “We have to take the freight elevator shaft down to the loading dock!”
They ran. Every step felt like running through liquid fire. The structural steel of the warehouse groaned in agony, buckling under the intense heat.
As they reached the top of the stairwell leading down to the loading dock, a massive overhead support beam snapped. With a screech of tearing metal, it plummeted directly toward the stairs, blocking their path.
Leo didn’t hesitate.
He dropped his gun, stepping forward, and caught the burning beam with his bare hands and shoulders before it could crash onto the stairs.
The heavy metal hissed against his skin. Leo roared in agony, his knees buckling under the immense weight, but he held it up. He created a small, two-foot gap beneath the burning steel.
“Go!” Leo screamed, his face contorted in pain.
“Leo, no! I’m not leaving you!” Lorenzo yelled, trying to hand Mia to Clara so he could help his friend.
“You have to!” Leo gritted his teeth, the muscles in his arms trembling violently. He looked at Lorenzo, his eyes filled with absolute, unwavering loyalty. “You’re a father now, Boss! Get her out of here!”
With his remaining strength, Leo kicked something across the metal floor toward Lorenzo.
It was a heavy, silver coin. Leo’s lucky medallion. The one he had carried through every war they had ever fought together.
“Buy her something nice!” Leo choked out, tears of pain streaming down his soot-stained face.
Lorenzo grabbed the coin, his heart breaking in half. “I swear to God, I’ll honor you, brother.”
Clara crawled under the beam first, reaching back to take Mia from Lorenzo. Lorenzo squeezed under last, the heat from the beam singeing the fabric of his coat.
The moment Lorenzo cleared the gap, Leo’s strength finally gave out. The beam crashed down, taking the stairs and the loyal bodyguard with it into the inferno below.
Lorenzo didn’t have time to mourn. The fire was eating the oxygen in the room. He grabbed Clara’s hand, holding Mia tightly against his chest, and kicked open the door to the loading dock.
They rushed into the lower chamber, coughing uncontrollably. The air here was slightly cooler, but the dock was completely sealed. The heavy, industrial steel bay doors were locked from the outside.
Lorenzo set Mia down, rushing to the doors. He threw his weight against the iron bars. They didn’t budge an inch. He pulled his gun and shot the padlock three times. The lock shattered, but the heavy steel bar holding the doors shut was too thick to move by hand.
The fire was roaring down the elevator shaft behind them, quickly filling the loading dock with black smoke.
“We’re trapped!” Clara yelled, covering Mia’s mouth with her apron to filter the smoke.
Lorenzo looked around wildly. His eyes landed on a massive, yellow industrial forklift parked in the corner of the dock. The keys were still in the ignition.
He didn’t think. He acted.
Lorenzo sprinted to the forklift, jumped into the driver’s seat, and turned the key. The diesel engine roared to life. He dropped the heavy steel forks to floor level, slammed the gear into drive, and floored the accelerator.
The machine surged forward.
Lorenzo braced himself as the forklift slammed into the center of the steel bay doors with the force of a battering ram.
The metal shrieked. The heavy iron bar buckled, but the doors held.
Lorenzo threw it into reverse, backed up twenty feet, and floored it again.
CRASH.
This time, the iron bar snapped. The heavy steel doors blew outward, violently expelled from their hinges.
The cold, freezing rain poured into the loading dock, washing away the smoke and the heat.
Outside, the wail of police sirens pierced the night air. The glow of red and blue lights illuminated the wet pavement.
Lorenzo jumped off the forklift, grabbing Clara and Mia, and pulled them out into the torrential rain. They collapsed onto the wet concrete, gasping for clean air.
Mia clung to Lorenzo’s neck, burying her face in his chest, finally understanding that he had fought through hell to save her.
“I’ve got you,” Lorenzo cried, kissing the top of her wet head. “I’ve got you.”
Suddenly, the roar of a high-powered boat engine echoed from the docks, fifty yards away.
Lorenzo looked up through the rain.
Celeste was standing at the helm of a sleek, black speedboat, untying the final mooring line. She was escaping.
Lorenzo handed Mia to Clara. His eyes were cold, hollow, and utterly lethal.
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“Keep her safe,” Lorenzo said to the waitress.
He turned and began to run toward the docks.
