Chapter 9 - The Maid's Gambit
"Drop the gun right now, Ronan, or the maid dies!" Tomas roared desperately into the darkness.
Ronan stood completely still behind his wooden desk, calculating his next move.
He could barely see the dark silhouette of Tomas holding Mave hostage in the gloom.
Mave felt the cold steel of the weapon pressing painfully hard against her skin.
She was terrified, but she firmly refused to be a helpless victim ever again.
"Do not listen to him, Mr. Castellano!" Mave shouted bravely into the silent room.
Tomas struck her viciously across the face with his heavy free hand.
"Shut your mouth," he hissed, his brutal grip tightening like a vice around her neck.
Ronan slowly stepped out from behind the desk, lowering his weapon toward the floor.
"Let her go right now, Tomas," Ronan said smoothly, trying to de-escalate the situation.
"This fight is strictly between you and me."
"Kick the gun away," Tomas demanded, stepping backward slowly toward the exit.
Ronan tossed his heavy pistol across the wooden floor, leaving himself completely unarmed.
Tomas laughed loudly, a cruel and victorious sound that echoed off the walls.
"You always were entirely too soft for this brutal business, brother," Tomas mocked.
He raised his gun to finally deliver the fatal shot to Ronan's unprotected chest.
Mave knew instinctively that this was her one and only chance to act.
She remembered the heavy gold cufflink she still held hidden tightly in her pocket.
With lightning speed, she pulled it out and jammed the sharp pin directly into Tomas’s left eye.
Tomas screamed in absolute, blinding agony, dropping his weapon to clutch his ruined face.
Before he could ever recover, Ronan lunged aggressively out of the shadows like a panther.
He tackled his treacherous former friend to the ground, ending the fight instantly with one brutal strike to the jaw.
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The undisputed king of Chicago had finally reclaimed his stolen throne.
But as the emergency backup lights suddenly flickered on, a new, unexpected shadow loomed in the doorway.
