Chapter 4 - The Shadow Over Gray Hollow
The sound of heavy tactical boots splintered the wooden stairs leading up to my small apartment.
I tucked the legal ledger into my dark winter coat, locking the closet door from the inside just as the primary entrance to the apartment was violently kicked open.
"Elena!" Marco’s voice was closer now, panting heavily as he cleared the doorway, his black coat stained with rain and plaster dust.
He stood in the center of my ruined living room, his amber eyes scanning the space until they landed on the closet door where I stood holding a weapon.
"They're clearing out the back alley, we need to move," he said, his hand reaching out toward me, his fingers covered in light soot from the gunfire below.
"I don't trust you, Marco," I said, keeping the firearm level with his chest despite the desperate pleading in his gold-gold eyes.
"You sat in that house with her. You let her take my name."
"She told me you were dead, Elena!" Marco shouted, his voice cracking with a raw, genuine agony that made the weapon in my hand heavy.
"She showed me a dental report from a vehicle fire in Indiana three years ago. I built a monument for you in the family cemetery."
"The only reason I came to West Virginia was because one of my old customs agents flagged a signature on a bakery lease that matched your handwriting."
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I looked past his shoulder at the street below, where two secondary syndicate vehicles carrying the official Bellini colors were currently blocking the collection squad.
The conflict wasn't just happening in my apartment; the entire town of Gray Hollow was currently watching the unmasking of the Chicago throne.
