Chapter 5 - Blood is Thicker Than PoisonFor three long seconds, absolute silence hung inside the panic bunker. Even the heavy thudding of gunfire outside seemed to fade into the background.
Gabriel stared at the monitor, his face completely drained of color. The man who had survived a dozen assassination attempts, who ruled the New York underworld with an iron fist, looked suddenly older, heavier, and profoundly tired.
"My sister," Gabriel whispered, the words tasting like ash in his mouth.
"She's been moving funds behind your back for six months, Boss," Carmine said grimly, pulling up financial trails on the secondary terminal. "She partnered with Julian to siphon off the drug and port revenues. When you started auditing the books last month, they realized you were going to cut them off permanently. So... they hired Cole to eliminate you quietly."
"And when I didn't die," Gabriel added coldly, his eyes turning back into chips of glacial ice, "she tried to finish the job herself with a bomb."
I stared at the screen, watching Elena stride through the smoke like a queen surveying her conquest. There was no hesitation in her eyes, no remorse. Just pure, unadulterated ambition.
"She thinks we're dead," I said softly, breaking the heavy silence.
Gabriel looked down at me. "What?"
"The blast hit right outside the east wing library. The security feeds in this bunker are routed on an independent, analog closed-circuit line that doesn't register on their tactical tablets. To them, we're trapped under rubble."
A slow, terrifying smile spread across Gabriel's face. It was the smile of a predator playing possum.
"Carmine," Gabriel said quietly, his voice dropping into the register of command. "Open the secondary escape tunnel leading to the boathouse."
"Boss, you're still recovering—"
"Open it," Gabriel cut him off with absolute finality. "Then prep the private yacht. We're going to pay my sister a little family visit."
Ten minutes later, we slipped out of the estate through the damp, subterranean tunnels that opened directly onto the Hudson River. The cold night air hit my lungs like ice water. The distant sirens of the NYPD were finally wailing in the distance, blocked from entering the private estate roads by Julian's legal barricades.
As we boarded the sleek, black speedboat moored in the private slip, Gabriel turned to me.
"You didn't have to come, Maya. You could have stayed behind in the bunker until the police arrived."
I looked up at him, the wind whipping my hair across my face. I thought about my mother's hospital debts, the dirt I used to scrub off my knees, and the invisible life I used to lead.
"If I stay behind, I'm just a maid hiding in a closet," I said, my voice steady. "If I go with you... I help settle the score."
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Gabriel stared at me for a long beat, then nodded slowly. He reached out, his thumb gently brushing a smudge of soot from my cheek.
"Hold on tight, Maya," he murmured as Carmine fired up the twin engines. "We're going hunting."
