Chapter 6 - IN THE DARK
The gunshot deafened the room. The glass of the massive spotlight exploded in a shower of sparks, plunging the warehouse into near-total darkness.
"Kill them!" Silas roared, blinded by the sudden loss of light.
Chaos erupted. Lorenzo didn't hesitate. He dove for the rifle he had kicked away, rolling as bullets from Silas’s men chipped the concrete where he had just been standing. Evelyn scrambled on her hands and knees, the heavy wool coat tangling around her legs, crawling toward the metal stairs leading up to the catwalk.
Gunfire lit the dark warehouse in flashing, terrifying strobes. She could hear Lorenzo moving like a shadow, taking down Silas’s men with ruthless, silent precision.
Evelyn reached the base of the metal stairs. She could hear the heavy boots of the guard up top, completely disoriented in the dark.
"Leo!" Evelyn whisper-shouted, creeping up the metal grates.
"I'm here!" a tiny voice whimpered.
Evelyn reached the catwalk. The guard was blindly sweeping his gun back and forth. Evelyn didn't have a weapon, but she had a lifetime of carrying heavy trays and surviving Cicero bar fights. She unbuttoned the heavy wool coat Lorenzo had given her, gripped it by the collar, and threw it completely over the guard's head just as he turned.
The man panicked, his gun firing wildly into the ceiling. Evelyn lunged, tackling him at the knees. The heavy man lost his balance and tipped over the railing, plummeting with a scream to the warehouse floor below.
Evelyn scrambled to Leo, pulling a shard of glass from her pocket that she had picked up in the restaurant. She sawed frantically through his zip-ties.
"Come here, sweetie," she gasped, pulling the trembling boy into her arms. "I've got you. You're safe."
"Where's Papa?" Leo sobbed, burying his face in her shoulder.
"He's right below us. We have to hide."
Evelyn picked the boy up, rushing off the catwalk and into a maze of towering shipping containers on the second-level mezzanine. It was pitch black, a labyrinth of steel. She ducked behind a stack of wooden crates, holding Leo tight against her chest to muffle his crying.
Silence fell over the warehouse. The gunfire had stopped.
"Lorenzo?" Silas’s voice echoed, dripping with malice. "You got a few of my men. But I still have the exits. You're trapped. Come out, and I'll make it quick."
Evelyn held her breath. Suddenly, a bright, flashing neon light illuminated their hiding spot in the pitch black.
It was Leo’s mechanical toy car. The button had been bumped in the struggle, and it was now whirring and flashing bright blue and red, a beacon in the dark.
"No, no, no," Evelyn panicked, frantically trying to turn the toy off.
"Well, well," Silas’s voice echoed, much closer this time. Heavy footsteps crunched on the catwalk above them. "Found the rat."
Evelyn shoved Leo into a narrow gap between two crates, blocking him with her own body. A flashlight beam swept over her face. Silas stood ten feet away, his gun raised, a victorious smirk on his face.
"Such a brave, stupid girl," Silas sneered. He leveled the gun at her head.
"Evelyn!" Lorenzo’s voice roared from the shadows.
A single gunshot rang out. Silas stumbled forward, his shoulder exploding in a spray of blood. He dropped his gun, screaming in agony, clutching his arm.
Lorenzo stepped out of the shadows, a demon bathed in the moonlight filtering through the broken roof. He walked up to Silas, kicking the fallen gun away.
"You touch my son," Lorenzo whispered, pressing the barrel of his rifle to Silas’s forehead, "you die."
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Silas coughed, a bloody, wicked smile spreading across his face. He held up a small remote detonator in his left hand. His thumb was resting heavily on the trigger.
"Kill me," Silas wheezed. "But if my thumb slips off this dead-man's switch, the C4 I wired to the warehouse support columns detonates. We all burn."
