Chapter 7 - The Lion's Den
I pulled the delivery van over into a dark, abandoned industrial lot near the waterfront.
I gently took the stuffed rabbit from Lily, apologizing profusely as I ripped open the stitched seams on its back.
I dug through the cotton stuffing and pulled out a blinking red tracking beacon, completely horrified that Marco had planted it while we were in the lobby.
Dominic snatched the beacon from my hand and hurled it through the open window of a passing freight train rolling slowly along the nearby tracks.
Silas's hitmen would spend the rest of the night chasing a cargo train halfway to New Jersey.
Dominic's strength had completely returned, and his dark eyes burned with a dangerous, calculating intensity.
He told me we couldn't keep running forever, and that the only way to end this was to cut the head off the snake tonight.
We needed to infiltrate Silas's private warehouse headquarters, access the mainframe, and broadcast the document proving Silas's treason to the Five Families.
We drove to the heavily fortified compound on the edge of the docks, abandoning the van a few blocks away.
I used my old Chicago syndicate skills to bypass the exterior security cameras, short-circuiting the electronic gate lock with a simple wire splice.
We moved silently through the shadows of the massive shipping crates, knocking out two perimeter guards with coordinated, silent precision.
Dominic used his master biometric override to open the heavy steel doors leading directly to Silas's executive office overlooking the warehouse floor.
We stepped into the lavishly decorated room, completely prepared for a brutal, desperate firefight.
Instead, the office was entirely empty, except for a single, small object sitting perfectly centered on Silas's mahogany desk.
It was the worn, familiar shoebox filled with my letters, completely unsealed and waiting for us.
Before Dominic could reach for the box, the heavy steel doors behind us slammed shut and locked magnetically.
May you like
The overhead lights flared to a blinding brightness, revealing Silas stepping out from behind a hidden bookcase, flanked by ten heavily armed men.
Silas smiled warmly, raised a silver revolver, and aimed it directly at Lily's tiny head.
