Chapter 5 - Fire on the HarborThe snow was falling in dense, blinding sheets as they scrambled down the iron emergency fire escape on the side of the cliffside mansion. Below them, the dark, furious waves of the North Atlantic crashed against the jagged black rocks of the shoreline.
Behind them, Mayor Vance’s mansion was burning, bright orange flames licking the sky, lighting up the blizzard like a apocalyptic beacon.
"Where are we going?!" Nora yelled over the roaring gale, her hands raw and bleeding from the icy iron railings.
"To the docks!" Silas barked, dragging the hysterical Mayor down the steps. "The evidence isn't at the bank, Nora! I lied to you on the ice! I had to see if you were brave enough to hold that knife!"
"You lied to me again?!" she screamed in fury.
"I protect what's mine!" Silas yelled back. "The ledger that proves Miller, Vance, and the Boston cartel murdered your father is locked on my boat—the Iron Queen! It's the only thing that can send every politician in Maine to federal prison!"
They reached the bottom of the cliff, where a narrow wooden footbridge connected the estate to the private docks of Ironwood Bay.
Suddenly, a gunshot echoed through the storm.
Julian, who was guarding their rear, stiffened. He gasped, dropping his pistol, and collapsed onto his knees in the snow. A dark red stain blossomed across his chest.
"Julian!" Silas roared.
From the dark tree line at the top of the stairs, three men in dark tactical gear stepped into view. Leading them was a tall man with a shaved head and a deep scar running across his mouth—Nikolai, the head of the Boston syndicate.
"End of the line, Cade," Nikolai shouted over the wind, his voice laced with a thick Russian accent. "You had a good run. But the Bay belongs to us now."
Julian looked up at Silas, spitting blood onto the snow. "Go... boss... take the girl..."
Before Silas could reach for him, Julian raised a hidden grenade, pulled the pin with his teeth, and shoved himself backward off the stairwell into the oncoming hitmen.
BOOM!
The explosion shattered the stairwell, throwing snow, wooden beams, and bodies into the air. The path behind them was destroyed.
Silas closed his eyes for a fraction of a second, mourning his oldest friend, then grabbed Nora’s arm. "Move! Now!"
They ran across the slippery wooden docks toward the far end of Dock Nine, where a massive, black-hulled commercial fishing trawler—the Iron Queen—was moored.
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Mayor Vance, seeing his chance in the chaos, suddenly lunged forward, shoving Nora hard toward the edge of the dock.
Nora slipped on the black ice, her arms flailing as she plummeted toward the freezing, churning ocean below!
