Chapter 15 - The Final Circuit
The sound of gunfire shattered the quiet of the estate.
Dominic’s Beretta barked twice. Marcus gasped, stumbling sideways as a round caught him in the shoulder, his pistol clattering across the Persian rug.
But Marcus managed to slam his fist down onto the manual override button on the timer casing anyway.
0:12... 0:11...
“Elena, run!” Dominic screamed, diving across the room toward the steel chair.
I didn't run.
Instead, I lunged toward the mahogany desk where the estate’s main network switchboard was wired into the wall. My fingers tore the casing open, exposing a mess of fiber-optic cables and copper wires.
0:06... 0:05...
Which one? Which one carried the relay loop for the seismic charge?
In my mind, I wasn't in a mafia library anymore. I was back in the hospital room with Leo, staring at the ventilator monitor, knowing that a single wrong move meant everything went dark.
0:02...
I grabbed a fistful of thick blue cables and ripped them straight out of the motherboard with a violent wrench.
Click.
The digital timer blinked out. The red numbers vanished into absolute black.
Silence descended upon the library, broken only by the ragged breathing of the men in the room.
Dominic reached the steel chair in two strides, tearing the straps away and lifting Lorenzo into his arms. The baby let out a startled wail, perfectly healthy, perfectly safe. Dominic clutched his son to his chest, burying his face in the infant’s blanket, before looking up across the room at me.
On the floor, Marcus was bleeding heavily from his shoulder, clutching his arm and glaring up at us with pure, unadulterated hatred.
“You missed, little brother,” Marcus spat, blood pooling on the rug.
Dominic stood up slowly, handing the crying baby gently to Viktor, who had just rushed into the room with half a dozen guards behind him.
“I didn't miss,” Dominic said coldly, walking over and standing above his brother. “I just didn't want to kill you too quickly.”
“Boss,” Viktor panted, holding up a secure encrypted phone. “The perimeter is secure. Marcus’s loyalists have all been rounded up. The estate is completely ours.”
Dominic looked down at Marcus one last time. “Take him to the lowest sub-level of the meatpacking plant. Lock him in solitary. Let him spend the rest of his miserable life wondering how it feels to be buried alive.”
“No! Dominic, you can't—” Marcus screamed as Viktor and two guards hauled him up by his collar, dragging him screaming out of the library.
The heavy oak doors slammed shut.
May you like
The room grew quiet again.
Dominic turned around, walking slowly back toward where I stood by the ruined desk, my hands still shaking slightly from the adrenaline crash.
