Chapter 5 - The Marina Massacre
The rain began to pour, heavy and relentless, washing the blood off the hood of Roman’s SUV as they screeched into the private marina.
The cargo yacht, The Black Sovereign, was already untying its lines. Standing on the deck, surrounded by armed guards, was Marco Marcone, holding a struggling Mia by her hair. Silvio was nowhere to be seen—the coward had likely stayed behind to secure his new kingdom.
"We have two minutes before they pull out of range," Elena said, her laptop open on her lap, tracking the yacht's internal automated system. "The explosives are tied to a GPS geofence. The moment the yacht crosses the three-mile harbor line, the hull blows. Marco doesn't know. Silvio is double-crossing him too! He wants to wipe out both you and the Marcones in one clean sweep!"
Roman slammed the SUV to a halt at the edge of the dock. He grabbed an assault rifle from the back seat, along with several magazines.
"Elena, listen to me very carefully," Roman said, turning to look at her. For the first time in three years, he reached out and gently cupped her cheek. His thumb wiped away a smudge of soot from her skin. "If I don't come back, the accounts under your name have enough money to ensure you can disappear anywhere in the world. You don't owe me anything."
Elena gripped his wrist, her eyes fierce. "Don't talk like that. You told me I was safe with you. Don't make me a liar, Roman. Go get your sister. I'll handle the software."
Roman gave her a rare, devastatingly handsome smirk. "Good girl."
He threw himself out of the car and into the rain, a one-man army.
The dock erupted into chaos. Roman fired with terrifying precision, dropping Marcone soldiers as they tried to untie the ship’s lines. He leaped onto the moving deck of the yacht just as it began to drift away from the pier.
On the dock, Elena’s fingers were a blur on the keyboard. She was fighting against Silvio’s encrypted firewall, trying to deactivate the geofenced detonator. Come on, come on! she prayed.
On the yacht's deck, Roman was a force of nature. He took a bullet to the thigh but didn't even flinch, driving his knife into the throat of a guard who rushed him. He cleared the deck until only he and Marco remained.
Marco pulled Mia in front of him, pressing a gun to her temple. "Drop it, Valtieri! Or her brains paint the deck!"
Mia looked at her brother, her eyes screaming for him to shoot.
Suddenly, the yacht’s engines groaned and sputtered. The lights on the ship flickered and died.
"What the hell?" Marco yelled, distracted for a split second by the sudden black-out.
In the marina, Elena had successfully hacked the ship's main power grid, shutting down the engines and buying them time.
That split second was all Roman needed. He dropped his rifle, pulled a concealed pistol from his ankle holster, and fired. The bullet pierced Marco right between the eyes. The psychopathic heir tumbled backward over the railing, sinking into the dark, freezing ocean.
Roman rushed forward, cutting Mia’s ropes. "Are you okay?"
"I am now," Mia sobbed, hugging him tightly.
But the victory was short-lived. On the dock, Elena saw the laptop screen turn bright red. Silvio had anticipated a hack. A hard-coded backup timer had triggered.
The yacht wasn't going to explode at the harbor line anymore. It was going to explode in sixty seconds.
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"Roman! Get off the boat! Now!" Elena screamed through the comms. "It’s going to blow!"
HOOK: Roman grabbed Mia and ran toward the edge of the deck, but a figure stepped out from the bridge. It was Silvio. And he had a shotgun aimed directly at Roman’s chest.
