Chapter 6 - The Ticking Clock
Gabriel stared at the letter, his mind struggling to process the devastating truth.
He turned to look at Claire, who was rocking the feverish baby in the pouring rain.
"You were married to him?" Gabriel asked, his voice cracking with unbearable emotion.
Claire broke down sobbing, leaning her head against the wet brick wall of the alley.
She confessed that she was forced to marry Cross when she was just eighteen years old.
It was a cruel arrangement designed to unite two massive crime families.
She ran away because she refused to be the wife of a sadistic monster.
Gabriel walked over and pulled her into a fierce, protective embrace.
He realized that her past did not change the pure, selfless soul he had fallen in love with.
He kissed her passionately, tasting the rain and the salt of her tears.
"Cross is a dead man, and nobody is ever going to hurt you again," Gabriel promised.
They stole a new vehicle and drove to a cheap, rundown motel on the edge of the city.
Gabriel spent the next hour gently cleaning and bandaging the terrible wounds on Claire's body.
The baby's stolen heart monitor suddenly began to beep erratically on the nightstand.
Eli's breathing became shallow, and his tiny face turned a terrifying shade of pale blue.
Claire looked at her watch, wiping fresh tears from her exhausted face.
"The dialysis is wearing off, Gabriel, we only have two hours left," she whispered.
Gabriel loaded every single weapon he had salvaged from the clinic.
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They had no choice but to launch a suicidal assault on Cross's downtown skyscraper.
They walked out into the storm, entirely prepared to die for the little boy in Claire's arms.
