Chapter 9 - The Exchange
Clara wiped the tears from her face, her sadness instantly transforming into fierce desperation.
"I am going with you," she demanded, picking her gun back up from the floor.
"Rourke will kill us both," Leo warned, reloading his weapon with mechanical precision.
"He is my brother, Leo, and I am not asking for your permission."
Twenty minutes later, they arrived at the rusted gates of the abandoned shipyard.
The rain was pouring down in thick, freezing sheets.
Leo parked the car, and they walked together into the massive, echoing warehouse.
Vincent Rourke stood on a high steel catwalk, surrounded by a dozen heavily armed men.
Evan was tied to a chair at the edge of the platform, looking terrified but unharmed.
"I said come alone, Caruso!" Rourke shouted down at them.
"She wanted to say goodbye to her brother," Leo called back, raising his hands to show he was unarmed.
"Let the boy go, Rourke."
"You have me now."
Rourke laughed, a dry, rasping sound that echoed off the metal walls.
"You really fell in love with this civilian, didn't you?" Rourke mocked.
"Toss your weapons onto the floor and kick them away, Leo."
Leo slowly removed three hidden pistols from his coat and dropped them onto the wet concrete.
He kicked them into the dark shadows.
"Now it's your turn to die," Rourke smiled, raising his own assault rifle to execute Leo.
Clara knew Leo had no backup plan and no hidden reinforcements.
He had genuinely surrendered his life to save her brother.
Clara raised her own pistol, her hands completely steady for the first time in her life.
She pointed the barrel directly at the center of Leo's back.
"I'm sorry, Leo," Clara shouted, her voice echoing loudly through the warehouse.
"But he is my brother, and I made a deal with Rourke before we arrived."
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Leo froze, his eyes widening in absolute shock as he looked over his shoulder at her.
Rourke lowered his rifle, bursting into hysterical laughter at the ultimate betrayal.
