Chapter 8 - The Phoenix SunriseThe desert air outside the hospital hit Cara like a blast furnace as she tumbled through the rusted emergency exit into the alleyway behind Mercy Ridge Medical Center.
Dawn was breaking over the horizon, painting the jagged peaks of the McDowell Mountains in bruised shades of violet and burning orange. The sky above Phoenix looked like a wildfire waiting to ignite.
Cara ran blindly down the asphalt alley, her lungs burning, her student-loan-debt-ridden shoes crunching over gravel. In her hand, she clutched the encrypted flash drive like a lifeline.
Suddenly, a pair of headlights blinded her.
A sleek black sedan jumped the curb, blocking the mouth of the alley. The passenger door swung open, and a gloved hand reached out, grabbing Cara by the collar of her scrubs before she could scream.
She was yanked violently into the back seat of the car.
"Keep your voice down unless you want a bullet to match your scrubs," a smooth, calm voice said from the driver's seat.
Cara gasped, scrambling back against the door, her eyes wide with terror. It wasn't Lorenzo's men. It wasn't Detective Vance.
It was Dominic Russo.
He was pale, wearing a dark trench coat thrown over his bandages, but he was breathing steadily, his hands resting easily on the steering wheel.
"You..." Cara choked out, clutching the flash drive to her chest. "You're supposed to be lying on that cot playing a corpse for Vance!"
"Vance is an ambitious man, but he’s predictable," Dominic said without looking back, stepping on the gas as the sound of police sirens wailed closer from the front of the hospital. "He thinks he’s hunting a criminal empire. What he doesn't realize is that the empire was built on quicksand."
"Why did you give me this?" Cara asked, holding up the flash drive. "If the feds get this, you go to prison for the rest of your life."
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Dominic finally turned his head, his pale blue eyes meeting hers in the rearview mirror. There was no menace in them now—only a strange, unsettling clarity.
"Because the men who really burned Phoenix to the ground tonight aren't in the mob, Jennings," Dominic said softly, pulling onto the interstate as the sun crested the desert horizon. "They wear badges and judicial robes. And with what’s on that drive, we’re going to burn them all down first."
