Chapter 6 - The Judas Kiss
I instantly shoved Elena hard to the left, sending her crashing into a metal shelving unit.
The suppressed sniper round hissed past my ear and shattered a glass jar of medical alcohol behind us.
"Move!" I shouted, grabbing Mia by her collar and dragging her behind a concrete support pillar.
Heavy, rhythmic footsteps echoed down the narrow tunnel.
"There's nowhere left to run, Boss," Marcus's voice boomed through the subterranean acoustic space.
He was wearing night-vision goggles, walking confidently alongside two heavily armed mercenaries.
I checked my weapon's magazine, calculating the grim odds of surviving a close-quarters firefight.
"Elena, the explosives," I whispered, remembering the tactical supplies on the walls.
She nodded weakly, reaching beneath a nearby cot and pulling out a brick of C4 attached to a clacker.
She had rigged this tunnel for a suicide defense long before we ever arrived.
"I never wanted it to end like this, Adrian," Marcus said, stepping into the dim beam of my flashlight.
"Then why are you working for a dead man?" I yelled, trying to buy Elena time to arm the detonator.
Marcus stopped walking and let out a dark, humorless laugh.
"Dante isn't pulling the strings, Adrian," Marcus revealed casually.
"Dante is just a ghost being used to terrify the commission into submission."
My mind raced, trying to comprehend the massive web of lies.
"If Dante isn't in charge, who ordered the hit on me?" I demanded.
Marcus lowered his rifle slightly, allowing a sickening grin to spread across his face.
"Your own mother," he stated plainly.
"The Matriarch wants the syndicate consolidated, and she considers you entirely too soft."
The devastating truth hit me like a physical blow to the chest.
My own mother had orchestrated the return of Dante, the assassination attempt, and the hunt for Lorenzo's heir.
She wanted absolute, unquestioned power over the entire criminal underworld.
Marcus raised his rifle again, aiming the laser directly at my forehead.
Before his finger could squeeze the trigger, a loud metallic clang echoed through the tunnel.
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Mia had slipped through the shadows and viciously swung her heavy metal wrench into the back of Marcus's knee.
Marcus screamed in agonizing pain and collapsed forward onto the hard concrete floor.
