Chapter 5 - The Devil’s Bargain
Dozens of armed men poured out of the black SUVs.
Their weapons were all trained on Mateo and Tessa.
Mateo grabbed Tessa by the waist and pulled her behind a stack of wooden crates.
Gunfire erupted, shredding the wood and sending splinters flying like shrapnel.
"You set us up!" Tessa screamed over the deafening noise.
"I didn't know David was a rat!" Mateo yelled back, firing blindly around the corner.
Tessa pressed her hands over her ears, terrified by the sheer volume of the violence.
Mateo’s gun clicked empty.
He cursed in Italian and dropped the magazine, quickly sliding a fresh one into place.
"They have us pinned," he assessed grimly.
Tessa looked around frantically for a way out.
She noticed a heavy construction crane parked just a few yards away.
A massive steel shipping container was suspended directly above the SUVs.
"Mateo!" she yelled, pointing at the crane's control box.
He followed her gaze and understood instantly.
"Cover me," he ordered.
"With what?!"
"The gun I gave you!"
Mateo didn't wait for her to argue.
He sprinted out from behind the crates, drawing the immediate fire of the Romano men.
Tessa squeezed her eyes shut, raised the heavy pistol over the crate, and pulled the trigger.
The recoil nearly snapped her wrist, but the loud crack made the attackers duck.
Mateo reached the control box and smashed the glass panel with the butt of his gun.
He violently yanked the primary release lever downward.
The hydraulic brakes screamed in protest.
The massive steel container plummeted from the sky.
It crashed directly on top of the two lead SUVs, crushing them like tin cans with a deafening metallic roar.
The impact sent a shockwave through the pier, knocking the remaining gunmen off their feet.
"Run!" Mateo shouted, grabbing Tessa's hand.
They bolted toward the edge of the pier, diving into the dark, freezing waters of the Chicago River just as more bullets chewed up the concrete behind them.
The cold hit Tessa like a physical blow, driving the air from her lungs.
Mateo dragged her to the surface, pulling her under the wooden pylons of the dock to hide in the shadows.
Flashlights swept over the dark water above them.
They waited in freezing silence for what felt like hours until the sirens echoed in the distance and the cars sped away.
Mateo pulled her onto a muddy embankment a mile downstream.
Tessa collapsed onto the grass, coughing up dirty water and gasping for air.
She looked over at Mateo, who was leaning heavily against a concrete pillar.
His face was deathly pale.
A fresh, dark stain was spreading rapidly across his abdomen.
"You're shot," she gasped, crawling toward him.
Mateo tried to wave her off but ended up sliding down the pillar to the ground.
"It is nothing," he managed to say before his eyes rolled back.
Tessa tore open his ruined shirt.
The bullet had passed straight through his side, but he was losing blood too fast.
She used her hands to apply agonizing pressure to the wound.
Mateo groaned, his eyes fluttering open.
"We need a hospital," she cried.
"No hospitals," he breathed out, gripping her wrist with surprising strength.
"They own the police in this district."
"Then you will die right here in the mud!"
Mateo reached into his soaked pocket and pulled out a burner phone.
He handed it to her, his hand trembling.
"Call the only number in the contacts."
Tessa snatched the phone and hit send.
A woman answered on the first ring.
"Where is he?" the woman asked coldly.
Tessa gave her their location under the bridge.
Ten minutes later, an unmarked black van screeched to a halt above them.
Two massive men rushed down the embankment with a stretcher.
They loaded Mateo in, and Tessa climbed into the back with him.
The woman sitting in the passenger seat turned around.
She had striking green eyes and a scar running down her neck.
"Keep him alive, nurse," the woman ordered.
"Who are you?" Tessa asked, her hands covered in Mateo's blood.
May you like
The woman smiled without a trace of warmth.
"I am the sister Mateo thought died twenty years ago."
