Chapter 7 - The Ambush at the Docks
Muzzle flashes strobed through the dim basement corridor like violent lightning strikes!
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
The thunderous roar of gunfire echoed deafeningly off the concrete walls as Matteo and Gabriel returned fire, dropping two of Silas’s mercenaries as they tried to rush down the iron stairs!
Concrete dust and drywall fragments filled the air, thick and choking.
“Cover the rear!” Matteo shouted over the noise, pushing me behind a heavy concrete pillar. “Gabriel, toss a smoke canister onto the stairwell!”
Gabriel pulled a gray cylinder from his vest, pulled the pin, and hurled it up the iron steps. Thick, dense white smoke billowed out instantly, filling the stairwell and blinding the shooters above.
“Move! To the service elevator!” Matteo commanded, grabbing my arm and pulling me through a narrow side door that opened into the cargo loading bay.
We sprinted through the dark bay toward a heavy freight elevator near the rear dock. Sparks flew from the overhead steel beams as bullets tore through the metal siding of the warehouse around us.
We reached the freight elevator just as four more armed men burst through the main loading doors!
Matteo turned, firing four precise, rapid shots through the dim light. Three men fell instantly; the fourth dived behind a forklift, firing a wild spray of automatic rounds toward us!
PING! PING! CHUNK!
A bullet slammed into Matteo’s left shoulder!
He let out a low, sharp grunt, staggering back a step as blood instantly soaked through the dark fabric of his coat!
“Matteo!” I screamed, dropping to my knees beside him, catching his arm before he could fall.
“I’m fine!” Matteo growled through gritted teeth, his jaw clenched in agony. “Get into the elevator!”
Gabriel pressed the call button, and the heavy iron gate slammed shut just as the remaining shooters reached the loading bay floor. The freight elevator groaned, slowly descending toward the subterranean parking tunnel beneath the docks.
Inside the rattling elevator, I immediately tore off my wool scarf, pressing it firmly against the bullet wound on Matteo’s shoulder to stem the heavy flow of crimson blood.
Matteo leaned his head back against the steel wall of the elevator, breathing heavily, his face pale under the harsh fluorescent light. But despite the agonizing pain, his eyes remained locked onto mine with a fierce, unyielding focus.
“Did you keep the binder?” he rasped out.
I held up the black leather book, wrapped tightly inside my jacket. “I have it. It’s safe.”
A faint, breathtaking smile touched the corner of Matteo’s lips. “Good girl.”
The elevator came to a halt with a heavy shudder. The iron gates slid open, revealing the subterranean parking tunnel where our blacked-out SUV was waiting with its engine purring.
Marco opened the rear door, helping Matteo into the leather interior while Gabriel took the wheel, slamming his foot onto the accelerator as we burst out of the tunnel into the pouring rain of the Brooklyn waterfront.
As the vehicle sped toward the highway, I sat beside Matteo, pressing his hand against the makeshift bandage on his shoulder, feeling the warm, rapid beat of his pulse beneath his skin.
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He turned his head, looking down at our joined hands, then up into my eyes.
“Tonight, Silas thinks he trapped us,” Matteo murmured, his voice rich with a quiet, terrifying conviction. “Tomorrow night at the Hudson Club... he finds out what happens when you try to kill a Varela.”
