Chapter 7 - The Desperate Strike
The heavy metal pipe connected violently with the back of Julian's armored knee joint.
He let out a sharp cry of sudden pain and stumbled awkwardly forward onto the metal grating.
His protective grip loosened for just a fraction of a second, but it was absolutely enough for me.
I snatched Leo desperately from his arms, clutching my crying baby fiercely to my chest.
"Run, Mariah!" Ethan roared from below, charging aggressively up the stairs completely unarmed.
Julian recovered terrifyingly fast, pulling a massive combat knife from his tactical belt with a furious snarl.
He lunged fiercely toward me, the jagged blade aimed directly at my vulnerable back.
Ethan threw himself violently in front of me, absorbing the brutal, deadly strike intended for me.
The heavy blade plunged deeply into Ethan's shoulder, spraying dark blood across the industrial walkway.
Ethan grunted in agonizing pain but refused to fall, grabbing Julian's wrist in an iron-tight grip.
"Get to the service elevator, now!" Ethan screamed, headbutting his brother viciously in the face.
I sprinted frantically down the narrow metal catwalk, clutching Leo so tightly my arms ached.
Gunfire erupted in a chaotic, deafening symphony as Ethan's loyal men finally breached the warehouse doors.
The building transformed instantly into a massive, heavily contested warzone of flying lead and shattering metal.
I reached the rusty service elevator at the far end of the catwalk and slammed my bloody hand against the call button.
The ancient metal doors groaned loudly before slowly sliding open to reveal a dark, empty carriage.
I threw myself inside, frantically pressing the button for the ground floor as bullets ricocheted dangerously off the steel frame.
As the heavy doors began to close, I looked back to see Ethan fiercely battling his older brother on the catwalk.
Julian managed to pull a secondary pistol from his holster, aiming it directly at Ethan's bleeding chest.
Before Julian could pull the trigger, the entire metal catwalk suddenly groaned and buckled violently.
Salvatore Romano, severely injured and completely forgotten in the chaos, had crawled to the main structural support beam.
He had placed a massive block of explosive C4 directly on the primary load-bearing pillar.
Salvatore smiled a bloody, insane smile and pressed the red detonator switch.
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The massive explosion ripped through the upper levels of the warehouse, completely destroying the metal catwalk in a brilliant flash of fire.
I screamed Ethan's name as the elevator dropped rapidly into the darkness, leaving me with absolutely no idea if the man I loved was dead or alive.
