Chapter 6 - THE SISTER
I shoved myself as far back against the opposite door as possible, shielding Leo with my body.
The woman standing in the rain looked so much like Daniel’s dead wife it was terrifying. But where Camille’s face in photographs had been warm and bright, this woman’s expression was an empty, calculating mask.
“Give me the baby,” she said, extending her free hand. The suppressed pistol in her other hand remained perfectly steady, aimed right at Michael’s chest.
“Elena,” Michael gasped, clutching his bleeding side. “Don’t do this. You already killed your own sister.”
Elena tilted her head, her smile never wavering. “Camille was weak. She fell in love with Daniel when she was supposed to be spying on him. Our father arranged that marriage to absorb the Russo territory, not to have her play house. When Camille got pregnant, she decided she wanted a normal life. She was going to run. That was unacceptable.”
“So you ambushed her,” I said, my voice trembling with disgust. “You murdered her and blamed Silas.”
“Silas was a dinosaur,” Elena sneered. “He was easy to frame. I leaked the information about the baby’s heart murmur to Silas. I knew Silas would threaten her. It gave Camille the perfect motive to run, and it gave Daniel the perfect suspect when she died.”
She took a step closer, the rain dripping from her expensive coat.
“Now, hand over the baby. Daniel is currently bleeding out in the warehouse, entirely convinced Silas’s men shot him. Once I have the child, I control the Russo bloodline. The empire merges with mine.”
Leo whimpered against my chest. He felt my panic.
“I’m not giving him to you,” I said.
Elena sighed, looking genuinely bored. “Rachel, you’re a nurse. You save lives. Don’t throw yours away. If you don’t hand him over, I will shoot your brother in the head, and then I will take the baby anyway.”
She raised the gun, aiming it squarely between Michael’s eyes.
Michael looked at me. His face was pale, his breathing shallow, but his eyes were entirely calm.
“Don’t give him to her, Rach,” Michael whispered. “Always find your way home.”
It was the phrase engraved on the back of his St. Christopher medal. The medal that had fallen on the ground earlier.
The medal that I had picked up.
I realized what Michael was doing. He was reminding me of the gold lighter Daniel had given me. It was still clenched tight in my right hand, hidden beneath the baby blanket.
Press the bottom twice.
I didn’t hesitate. I jammed my thumb into the bottom of the heavy gold lighter. One. Two.
Nothing happened visibly. No light. No sound.
Elena cocked her head. “What are you doing under that blanket?”
“Nothing,” I said, my voice cracking.
She rolled her eyes. “Time’s up.”
Elena’s finger tightened on the trigger.
Suddenly, a massive spotlight flooded the alley, blindingly bright.
Elena flinched, throwing her arm up to shield her eyes.
The deafening roar of a heavy diesel engine filled the narrow space. An armored tactical truck smashed through the chain-link fence at the end of the alley, barreling straight toward us.
“Marcus,” Michael laughed weakly.
Elena fired blindly toward the truck, the suppressed pfft-pfft-pfft barely audible over the roaring engine.
The truck didn’t slow down.
Elena realized she was about to be crushed between the SUV and the incoming truck. She cursed, spun around, and sprinted back into the labyrinth of shipping containers.
The tactical truck slammed the brakes, skidding to a halt inches from our bumper.
The doors flew open. Four men in tactical gear poured out, weapons raised. Leading them was a massive man with scars across his jaw. Marcus.
He ran to the open door of the SUV.
“Daniel’s beacon went off,” Marcus barked, his eyes scanning the blood in the car. “Where is he?”
“Warehouse three!” Michael shouted over the engine noise. “Elena set him up! Silas is dead!”
Marcus didn’t ask questions. He understood instantly. He tapped his radio. “Breach warehouse three. Heavy resistance. The boss is pinned.”
He looked at me and the baby. “You’re coming with us. I’m not leaving you exposed in this vehicle.”
He grabbed Michael, practically lifting my brother over his shoulder, and escorted me to the heavily armored back of the tactical truck.
Inside, it was a mobile command center. Screens, radios, medical supplies.
I immediately went into nurse mode. I laid Leo safely in a padded transport bin, securing him, then grabbed a trauma kit. I tore open Michael’s shirt. He had a through-and-through gunshot wound on his side, and severe blunt trauma to his head.
“Hold still,” I ordered, packing the wound with gauze.
“You’re bossy when you’re terrified,” Michael winced, managing a weak smile.
The radios cracked to life.
“Warehouse three breached. We have Silas’s men down. But we can’t find the boss.”
My heart stopped.
Marcus grabbed the mic. “What do you mean you can’t find him? Check the perimeter!”
“Perimeter is clear, sir. There’s a blood trail leading to the river access doors. But he’s not here.”
I looked down at the floor of the truck.
Lying near Marcus’s boot was a small, delicate object.
I picked it up.
It was Camille’s silver bracelet with the angel charm. Daniel had put it in his pocket back at the garage. It must have fallen out when they were searching the area earlier.
But the clasp wasn’t just broken. It was smeared with fresh blood.
Before Marcus could issue another order, his radio buzzed with a different frequency.
A voice came through. Cold. Female.
“Marcus.”
May you like
Marcus went rigid. “Elena.”
“I have Daniel,” Elena’s voice echoed through the metal cabin. “He’s losing blood fast. I’ll make a trade. The empire, the baby, and the nurse. In exchange, you get his body to bury. Meet me at the old shipyard dry dock in ten minutes. Or I put a bullet in his head.”
