Chapter 7 - The Hostage Trade
The impact sounded like a bomb detonating inside the cabin.
The heavy armored SUV lifted off its wheels and skidded violently across the wet asphalt.
It smashed into a brick wall and finally came to a grinding halt.
Emily hung sideways in her seatbelt, her head spinning wildly.
The airbags had deployed, filling the vehicle with thick white smoke.
"Dante?" she choked out, unbuckling her belt and dropping onto the shattered window.
Dante groaned from the driver's seat.
He was bleeding heavily from a gash on his forehead, but he was conscious.
"Get out," Dante ordered, kicking his jammed door open with his heavy boots.
They stumbled out into the freezing rain.
The garbage truck driver was already dead, killed instantly by the impact.
"That was not an accident," Dante spat, wiping blood from his eyes.
"Clara is trying to slow us down so she can secure the railyard."
They abandoned the ruined SUV and ran down an alleyway to steal a parked sedan.
Dante hotwired the car in under thirty seconds, his criminal skills entirely intact.
They drove the rest of the way in tense, suffocating silence.
They arrived at the abandoned West Side railyard exactly on time.
The area was completely deserted, filled with rusted train cars and overgrown weeds.
Dante parked the car near a massive rusted warehouse and turned off the headlights.
"Stay behind me," Dante whispered, drawing his pistol.
They walked slowly through the muddy yard, the rain soaking through their clothes.
A single spotlight suddenly clicked on, blinding them completely.
Clara Marino stepped out of the shadows.
She was incredibly beautiful, wearing a tailored red trench coat and holding a silver umbrella.
She did not look like a woman who had been dead for nine years.
"Hello, my love," Clara smiled, her voice echoing in the empty yard.
Dante raised his weapon and aimed it directly at her heart.
"Where is the boy, Clara?" Dante demanded.
Two mercenaries stepped out from behind a rusted train car.
They were dragging Emily's brother, Leo, by his arms.
Leo looked completely terrified, shivering in his hospital gown.
"Leo!" Emily screamed, trying to run forward.
Dante grabbed her arm and held her back.
"The password, Emily," Clara said, extending her manicured hand.
"Let him go first," Emily yelled.
Clara sighed and nodded to her men.
They shoved Leo forward, and he stumbled into the mud.
Emily ran to him and wrapped her arms around his trembling shoulders.
"It is okay, Leo, I have you," she whispered, crying into his wet hair.
Dante kept his gun trained on Clara.
"Give her the password, Emily," Dante said without looking away.
Emily pulled a piece of paper from her pocket and wrote down the complex alphanumeric code.
She crumpled it up and threw it onto the wet ground.
One of Clara's men picked it up and read it to her.
Clara smiled triumphantly and tapped the code into her tablet.
"The funds are verified," Clara announced.
She looked at Dante with a cold, mocking expression.
"You always were too sentimental, Dante."
"That is why you failed to realize the truth about the car bomb nine years ago."
Dante froze.
"What truth?" he asked, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper.
Clara laughed, a cruel and heartless sound.
"I did not plant the bomb to fake my death," Clara revealed.
"I planted it to kill you, but you were running late that morning."
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Before Dante could process the ultimate betrayal, Leo suddenly stood up from the mud.
He grabbed the gun from the closest mercenary's holster with blinding speed.
