Chapter 9 - The Devil's Bargain
The sharp, pungent smell of gunpowder and blood saturated the stale air of the collapsed tunnel.
Tessa desperately ripped the fabric of her white uniform shirt, creating a crude, tight tourniquet for Gabriel's shredded shoulder.
"You have to get up," Tessa pleaded, hauling his massive frame upward with every ounce of strength she possessed.
Gabriel groaned in agony, his face entirely devoid of color in the flickering light of the dropped flashlight.
"I can't walk, Tessa," he rasped, his breathing dangerously shallow.
"Leave me."
"I am not leaving you down here to die," she screamed, slapping his face hard enough to force his eyes open.
She grabbed the heavy iron rebar sticking out from the collapsed concrete rubble behind them.
With a feral scream of exertion, she used the pipe as a lever, prying a massive chunk of stone just far enough to reveal a narrow ventilation grate.
It was a tight squeeze, barely wide enough for a human body.
"Crawl," she ordered, shoving him toward the rusty iron grate.
They squeezed through the opening just as a colossal, earth-shattering explosion detonated behind them.
The concussive force blew them out into the freezing night air, tumbling down a steep, muddy ravine into the dense forest.
Tessa lay in the mud, gasping for oxygen as the entire wing of the Rossi compound above them collapsed in a spectacular plume of fire.
She dragged Gabriel into the cover of the thick pine trees, hiding them from the searchlights that were beginning to sweep the property.
Gabriel was losing consciousness rapidly, his body shivering uncontrollably from blood loss and shock.
Tessa pulled his cell phone from his jacket pocket, her hands coated in his sticky blood.
She had only one option left to save his life.
She scrolled through his encrypted contacts and pressed dial on the number labeled 'Ilvento Private'.
The line rang twice before a voice answered in gruff, rapid Italian.
Tessa did not speak English.
She spoke in the harsh, guttural Sicilian dialect of the Palermo slums.
"This is the heir to Vincenzo Lupatti," Tessa commanded, her voice terrifyingly steady.
"Bring a trauma doctor to the safehouse at the docks in twenty minutes, or I will hand Gabriel Rossi over to the feds."
The man on the other end went completely silent.
"Do you understand me?" she barked, channeling the authority of the ghost who had taught her.
"Yes, Madam," the voice finally replied, trembling with newfound fear.
Tessa hung up the phone and looked down at Gabriel, who was watching her with a hazy, awe-struck expression.
"You really are a monster in disguise," Gabriel whispered before passing out entirely.
May you like
Tessa wiped the blood from her face and began dragging him toward the highway.
She had finally embraced the darkness, but she had no idea what it was about to cost her.
