Chapter 8 - The Tunnel of Rats
The fake officer pressed the barrel of his service weapon directly against Nora’s forehead.
She squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for the fatal gunshot.
It never came.
Instead, a muffled, sickening crunch echoed through the tunnel.
The officer holding her suddenly went completely rigid.
His eyes rolled back into his head, and he collapsed forward onto the concrete.
Nora gasped and scrambled backward.
Tommy was standing right behind the fallen man.
He had used a heavy steel pipe to crush the back of the officer’s skull.
The remaining three fake cops instantly raised their weapons.
Roman stepped out from the shadows with terrifying speed.
Despite his severe injuries, he moved with the lethal grace of an apex predator.
He fired three rapid, silenced shots.
The three men dropped to the floor before they even realized they were under attack.
"I told you not to do that," Roman hissed, grabbing Nora by the arm and pulling her up.
"You were supposed to slip by!" she yelled back, her heart hammering.
"I do not leave what is mine behind," he growled.
He practically dragged her down the branching corridor.
They finally reached a heavily rusted iron door marked with a faded hazard symbol.
Roman punched a complex code into a modern keypad hidden seamlessly in the brickwork.
The heavy door hissed and swung open.
They stumbled into a brightly lit, impeccably clean underground bunker.
It looked like a high-end medical suite crossed with an armory.
Tommy locked the heavy vault door behind them.
Roman immediately collapsed onto a stainless steel examination table.
His charcoal overcoat was completely ruined, soaked black with his own blood.
"Tommy, the medical kit," Roman ordered, his voice tight with immense pain.
Tommy tossed a large red trauma bag onto the table.
"I have to check the perimeter cameras, boss," Tommy said.
"Make sure no one followed the blood trail."
Tommy disappeared into a side room filled with glowing monitors.
Nora was left completely alone with the man who terrified her more than anyone else in the world.
She approached the table, her hands trembling.
"Take your coat off," she ordered, her voice surprisingly steady.
Roman looked at her, a faint, arrogant smirk playing on his pale lips.
"Are you going to play doctor, Nora?"
"I am going to stop you from bleeding out so you can get me out of this nightmare," she snapped.
She helped him peel off the ruined coat and his shredded white shirt.
The laceration on his ribs was deep and jagged.
She cleaned the wound with agonizingly strong antiseptic.
Roman did not make a single sound.
He just stared intently at her face as she worked.
"Why did you run away three years ago?" he asked softly.
Nora paused, holding a needle and sterile thread.
"Because I found out what you did to my father," she whispered.
"I found the police report that said you ordered the hit."
Roman’s dark eyes softened with genuine sorrow.
"I did not order the hit, Nora."
"I found out Chicago was coming for him, and I tried to get there first to save him."
"I was too late."
He reached up and gently touched her cheek.
"I let you run because I knew they would come for you next, and it was the only way to keep you safe."
Nora stared into his eyes, desperately wanting to believe the man she had once loved.
She leaned in, the chemistry between them suddenly undeniable and electric.
May you like
Before their lips could meet, a loud, mechanical buzzing sound echoed through the bunker.
The heavy vault door began to slowly grind open from the outside.
