Chapter 6 - The Flight through the City
The industrial kitchen was a maze of stainless-steel counters, hanging copper pots, and roaring exhaust hoods. Hotel staff had already fled into the alleyways, leaving abandoned trays of hors d'oeuvres and burning stoves behind.
Victoria, Elena, and Agent Vance burst through the rear exit doors into the rainy afternoon alley behind the luxury hotel. Rain pelted down instantly, soaking Victoria’s lace gown, turning the white fabric heavy and gray.
A sleek black armored SUV screeched to a halt at the mouth of the alley, its tires burning rubber against the wet asphalt.
"Is that yours?!" Victoria shouted, raising her pistol.
"That's my tactical team!" Vance yelled back, waving his badge at the driver.
The rear doors swung open, and two more federal agents leaned out, providing covering fire toward the hotel exit as two mercenaries burst through the kitchen doors behind them. Vance pushed Elena into the back seat, followed by Victoria, before diving in himself and slamming the heavy door shut.
"GO! GO! GO!" Vance ordered.
The SUV accelerated wildly, swerving out into the heavy Mexico City traffic, its emergency sirens blaring.
Inside the vehicle, Victoria slumped against the leather seat, breathing heavily, rain and sweat dripping from her hair onto the stolen financial ledger in her lap. She looked down at her hands—her manicured nails were chipped, her diamond engagement ring was coated in grease and gun powder.
Slowly, deliberately, Victoria slipped the multi-carat diamond ring off her finger. She didn't look at it with grief or sadness; she looked at it with absolute disgust. She rolled down the reinforced bulletproof window an inch and tossed the ring into the storm drain as the SUV sped down the Avenida de la Reforma.
"Good riddance," Elena whispered, watching her.
Victoria turned to Elena, offering a small, genuine smile. "Now... let's go get your brother."
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"We can't go straight to the hospital," Agent Vance said, checking his tactical tablet on the wall of the SUV. "The Moretti family has eyes everywhere—including the municipal police force and local health authorities. If we show up at that private facility in Guadalajara without heavy backup, they'll execute Julian before we reach the front desk."
"Then we don't go as federal agents," Victoria said, her eyes flashing with clever intensity. "We go as the press."
