Chapter 4 - Shadows of the Past
The freight elevator shuddered as it descended toward the sub-basement garage.
The lights inside the elevator flickered once, twice, before going out entirely, leaving Emily and Santino enveloped in pitch blackness, save for the red emergency light on the control panel.
Emily’s breath was shallow, her back pressed against the metal wall. Santino sat beside her, his gun held low and ready, his breathing perfectly calm, as if an armed ambush were a casual appointment on his calendar.
“There is an old tunnel beneath the boiler room,” Santino said softly in the dark. “It leads out to the coal yards three blocks south. Rafe is meeting us at the exit with an unmarked car.”
“Why would Enzo move tonight?” Emily whispered. “He’s served your family for forty years.”
“Enzo didn't serve my family. He served my father,” Santino corrected grimly. “When my spine was fractured in the car accident four years ago, Enzo believed the empire should have passed to him and Victoria. He regards my survival as an inconvenience.”
BANG!
A heavy thud rattled the roof of the elevator shaft above them. Dust fell from the ceiling vents.
“They’ve cut the main power lines,” Santino noted coldly. He reached out, grabbing Emily’s hand in the darkness. His grip was broad, solid, and reassuring. “When those doors open, drop to the floor immediately.”
The elevator ground to a sudden halt two feet above the sub-basement concrete line. The manual release lever on the outside creaked, and the doors were pried open by two inches.
A barrel of an automatic rifle slipped through the gap.
Before the shooter could aim, Santino fired twice through the steel gap.
Two sharp cracks echoed in the enclosed space. A heavy body hit the concrete outside with a wet thud.
Santino slammed his hand against the emergency override button, forcing the doors open fully. He wheeled himself out into the dimly lit garage, his weapon covering the perimeter with terrifying speed and precision.
Emily scrambled out behind him, grabbing the handles of his chair to help push him over the uneven concrete threshold.
“Left corridor! Move!” Santino commanded.
They sprinted—Emily pushing with all her strength—down the narrow, pipe-lined service hallway. Bullets whined off the brickwork behind them, showering them with sparks and concrete dust.
At the end of the hallway stood an ancient reinforced oak door. Emily slammed her shoulder against the iron latch, throwing it open into the rain-soaked night air of the abandoned coal yard.
A black SUV tore through the rusted chain-link fence, skidding to a halt three feet from them. The passenger door swung open, and Rafe stood there, a heavy tactical rifle tucked against his shoulder, firing a suppressing spray back down the hallway.
“Get in! Get in!” Rafe roared.
Emily helped Santino transfer into the front leather seat before scrambling into the back alongside Rafe.
The SUV accelerated wildly, its tires screaming against the wet asphalt as they burst onto the main avenue, leaving the burning lights of the corporate estate behind.
Santino pulled off his rain-drenched jacket, tossing it onto the floorboards. He turned to look at Emily in the back seat. Her hair was soaked, her hands covered in brick dust, but her eyes were wide, clear, and utterly fierce.
“You didn’t panic,” Santino observed, his voice dropping into a quiet register.
“Panicking takes too much time,” Emily replied, wiping a smear of soot from her cheek.
Santino’s eyes held hers for a long moment. Then he reached into his pocket, pulled out a small silver key, and held it out to her.
“What’s this?” she asked.
May you like
“The key to my private estate in Cliff Walk, Newport,” Santino said. “No one knows about the safe house beneath the library—not Enzo, not my sister, not the commission. That is where we go now.”
He leaned back against his headrest, his grey eyes fixing on the rainy road ahead. “And while we are there, Miss Taylor... you are going to tell me why a girl from Atwells Avenue has digital photos of a twelve-year-old embezzlement file in her leather bag.”
