Chapter 6 - The Blood Feud
The halogen lights blinded me for a second, but I forced my eyes to adjust.
Six assault rifles were pointed directly at our chests.
Larkin pushed me slightly behind his back, his body acting as a human shield without a moment of hesitation.
"This is a mistake, Thomas," Larkin said, his voice carrying the lethal calm of a true boss.
"The Commission will string you up by your throat when they find out you staged a coup."
Thomas chuckled, twirling the silver revolver on his finger.
"The Commission is going to receive a very tragic report tomorrow morning."
"It will state that you lost your mind, tried to embezzle syndicate funds, and forced your poor, unstable secretary to hack the accounts."
Thomas leveled his gun at Larkin’s chest.
"They will thank me for putting down a rabid dog."
I looked around the loading dock, my eyes scanning the industrial barrels stacked against the brick wall.
They were labeled with the exact chemical codes I processed every single month.
Industrial-grade bleach and concentrated ammonia.
Larkin squeezed my hand behind his back, a silent, final goodbye.
"When I move, you run," Larkin whispered so faintly only I could hear.
Thomas pulled the hammer back on his revolver.
Larkin lunged forward, firing his pistol twice before Thomas could react.
Two of the guards dropped to the concrete, clutching their bleeding chests.
Thomas panicked and fired blindly.
A deafening crack echoed through the alley, and Larkin stumbled backward.
Blood blossomed across the shoulder of Larkin’s pristine white tuxedo shirt.
"Larkin!" I screamed as he collapsed to one knee.
The remaining four guards raised their rifles to finish him off.
I didn't run.
I grabbed the heavy metal crowbar resting on the loading dock platform.
With all my strength, I hurled it directly at the valves of the chemical barrels stacked above the guards' heads.
The crowbar shattered the plastic nozzles.
Hundreds of gallons of bleach and ammonia poured out, mixing violently on the concrete floor.
A massive, choking cloud of toxic chloramine gas erupted instantly.
The guards dropped their weapons, clawing at their throats and eyes as they suffocated in the deadly chemical smoke.
Thomas hacked violently, stumbling backward blindly into the street.
I grabbed Larkin by his uninjured arm, hauling him to his feet.
"Keep breathing through your jacket," I choked out, dragging him toward the dark alleyway.
We stumbled through the shadows, leaving Thomas and his treasonous guards drowning in the toxic fog.
But as we reached the end of the block, Larkin’s knees buckled.
He collapsed entirely against me, the blood from his shoulder soaking through my black silk dress.
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"I can't drive, Penny," Larkin gasped, his eyes rolling back in his head.
I caught his heavy frame, realizing that the most powerful man in New York was now completely at my mercy.
