Chapter 9 - The Surrender
The roaring blades of the helicopter drowned out everything else in the clearing.
Red laser sights danced across my chest, Leo's back, and Julian's face.
"Drop your weapons and get on the ground!" a voice boomed over a megaphone.
I looked at Julian, who slowly raised his hands, a grim expression on his face.
"They are not on my payroll, Dominic," Julian yelled over the noise.
"We cannot fight this many."
I dropped my bloodied knife into the mud and slowly fell to my knees, lacing my fingers behind my head.
Leo did the same, groaning as the SWAT officers aggressively tackled him to the dirt.
Rough hands grabbed me, slamming my face into the cold mud and tightly cuffing my wrists.
As they dragged me toward the police cruisers waiting on the access road, I saw a black town car pull up behind the barricade.
A tall man in an immaculate gray suit stepped out, holding an umbrella over a woman.
It was Elena.
Aria was asleep in her arms.
"Wait!" Elena shouted, running toward the police line.
"He is innocent! The man on the ground is the one who attacked us!"
The police captain ignored her, shoving me into the back of a heavily armored transport van.
"Elena, stay back!" I yelled, pressing my face against the wire mesh of the window.
"Take care of our daughter!"
The doors slammed shut, plunging me into darkness.
For hours, I sat in an interrogation room in an undisclosed federal facility.
I refused to speak, refused a lawyer, and stared blankly at the metal table.
I had failed them.
I had finally gotten my family back, only to spend the rest of my life in a concrete box.
The heavy steel door suddenly clicked open, and a man walked in.
It was the federal judge I was supposed to meet at the restaurant hours ago.
He set a large brown folder on the table and smiled thinly.
"Mister Vance drives a very hard bargain, Mister Valenti," the judge said, opening the file.
"It appears the late Vincenzo Valenti was a notorious terrorist, and you were acting in self-defense while assisting a federal investigation."
He slid a piece of paper across the table.
"Sign this, and you are a free man."
I looked at the paper, realizing Julian had just bought my freedom with his endless wealth.
I signed my name without hesitation.
The judge unlocked my cuffs, gesturing to the door.
May you like
"Your family is waiting for you outside."
I pushed past him, breaking into a run down the sterile hallway toward the exit doors.
