Chapter 6 - Fire and Ivory
The black SUV tore through the blinding rain of the Chicago shoreline, its headlights cutting through the sheets of water like lasers.
Inside, the atmosphere was thick enough to choke on. Luca sat in the back seat beside Anaëlle, his hand gripping the grip of a suppressed Sig Sauer P226 as he checked the magazine for the third time. In the front seat, Dante drove with lethal, focused precision.
"If this goes sideways," Luca muttered without looking at her, his voice rough with suppressed emotion, "Dante puts you in the vehicle and drives straight into the lake if he has to. You do not look back. You do not fight."
"I am not a liability," Anaëlle whispered, adjusting the collar of her dark trench coat. "My father left me more than debts, Luca. He left me a mind. And right now, your empire needs it."
Luca turned his head, looking at her through the dim green dashboard glow. For a fraction of a second, the iron fortress he maintained around his heart fractured entirely, revealing a raw, terrifying depth of feeling that made his breath catch.
"God help me," he murmured, reaching out to cup her cheek with his gloved hand. "If anything happens to you tonight, I will burn this city to ash."
The SUV skidded to a halt in the shadows of the abandoned loading bay behind the North Avenue warehouse. Thick plumes of gray smoke billowed from the loading dock doors, mingling with the heavy rain.
They moved with silent, lethal speed. Dante secured the perimeter, while Luca led Anaëlle through a side maintenance corridor into the smoke-filled accounting office of the warehouse.
The room was a disaster zone—filing cabinets kicked open, papers scattered across the floor, and the smell of burning paper hanging heavy in the air. In the corner, a small office safe hung open, its digital keypad sparking and smoking.
"Here," Anaëlle said, dropping to her knees beside the safe, ignoring the soot and water pooling on the concrete floor. "They didn't burn the backup hard drive. They tried to wipe it with a magnetic degausser, but they didn't know my father's override sequence."
She pulled a small leather-bound notebook from her pocket—her father’s old journal—and began typing a rapid sequence of alphanumeric keys into the portable terminal Luca handed her.
Outside the office door, the sharp, distinct crack of gunfire echoed down the corridor.
Luca spun around instantly, raising his weapon toward the doorway, his body forming an impenetrable human shield between Anaëlle and the threat.
"Dante status?" Luca barked into his lapel radio.
"Two down, boss! Four more pushing up the eastern stairwell!" Dante’s voice crackled back over the static.
"Hold the line!" Luca roared back.
"I'm in!" Anaëlle gasped, her fingers flying across the terminal keys as the green progress bar hit one hundred percent. The encrypted database of the entire 2014 syndicate audit downloaded onto the secure flash drive in her hand. "I have the files! The ledger is secure!"
Luca didn't hesitate. He grabbed her by the arm, hauling her to her feet with fierce urgency. "We move. Now."
Before they could reach the exit, the doorway exploded inward. A masked man in tactical gear stumbled into the office, an automatic rifle raised and pointed straight at Anaëlle’s chest.
"Drop it Moretti!" the gunman screamed.
Time seemed to slow down to a crawl.
May you like
Luca didn't blink. With terrifying, inhuman speed, his pistol rose, and a muffled thud echoed through the room. The gunman crumpled instantly, slumping against the doorframe.
Before another shooter could appear through the smoke, Luca grabbed Anaëlle around the waist, lifting her almost effortlessly as he sprinted out the back exit toward the idling SUV.
