Chapter 7 - The Underground RunThe concrete tunnel smelled of damp earth, rust, and stagnant river water.
Anna stumbled blindly through the dark, her breath coming in ragged, painful gasps, her fingers scraping against the rough, cold walls. Behind them, muffled by feet of reinforced stone, the dull thud-thud-thud of suppressed gunfire echoed through the drainage pipes like a distant heartbeat of war.
"Keep moving!" Thomas hissed, holding a small tactical flashlight low to the ground as he propelled them forward through the claustrophobic corridor. "If Vance’s men find the access hatch, we’re dead in the water."
"He's back there alone!" Anna cried out, her voice cracking as tears finally broke free, hot and furious down her cheeks. "The guards are dead, the house is burning, and he can't even walk! Why did you leave him?"
"Because Cedric Spedaro didn't survive a landmine in the Balkans and a coup in his own family by being stupid," Thomas snapped over his shoulder, his voice strained with exhaustion. "He knows every inch of that house. That wheelchair isn't a cage, Anna—it's a blind. They think he's helpless because he can't stand. They’re about to find out why men in Philadelphia whisper his name in the dark."
They reached the end of the tunnel where a heavy iron ladder led straight up to a rusted hatchway half-hidden by thick river reeds.
Pushing the hatch open, the damp, cold night air of the Delaware River rushed over them. A sleek black motorboat bobbed gently against a wooden pier, its engine already idling in near-silent electric mode.
Thomas pushed Anna up the ladder and onto the deck of the boat, handing her a heavy canvas duffel bag.
"Take this. Inside are passports, cash, and the original encrypted flash drive your father left behind—the one Mira tried to steal," Thomas said, his face grim as he unmoored the bow line.
"Where are you going?" Anna asked, clutching the duffel bag to her chest as she stood on the rocking deck. "Aren't you coming?"
"My job is to make sure you get to Atlantic City alive," Thomas said, stepping back onto the pier and letting the boat drift out into the dark current. "Cedric has people waiting there. Trust no one, Anna—not even the police."
"Wait!" Anna screamed over the hum of the electric engine. "What about Mira?"
Thomas gave a grim, humorless smile.
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"Let her enjoy her five hundred thousand dollars while she can," the old lawyer said, pulling his coat tight against the river wind. "Because when Cedric finishes cleaning house, nobody who betrayed his family stays breathing for long."
The boat surged forward, cutting through the black water of the river toward the open bay, leaving the burning silhouette of the Spedaro estate behind them in the dark.
