Chapter 5 - The Price of Loyalty
Declan set Mason down behind a steel pillar and pulled a secondary small knife from his boot, hurling it with terrifying accuracy into the throat of the guard on the left.
The guard collapsed with a choked gasp. Declan lunged forward, grabbing the second guard's weapon before the man could pull the trigger, twisting the barrel upward as a burst of automatic fire shattered the rusted utility lights above us.
Sparks rained down like dying stars. Darkness engulfed the room, punctuated only by the blinding, periodic flashes of gunfire.
"Elena! Take the kids and run through the left pipe!" Declan yelled through the roaring darkness.
I didn't hesitate. I grabbed Mason under his arms, helping him limp forward while keeping my arm locked around Sophie. We scrambled through the narrow metal drainage pipe as the sounds of violent hand-to-hand combat echoed behind us.
Iron clashed against iron. Bones snapped. Nolan screamed in rage.
We burst out onto the rocky, windswept shoreline of Lake Michigan. The cold night air whipped against my face, smelling of pine, wet stone, and pure freedom. Fifty yards down the dark beach, half-hidden inside a concrete drainage cove, sat a massive black armored SUV.
"Mom... I can't walk," Mason gasped, collapsing onto the frozen pebbles. His face was ghostly pale.
"I know, baby, I know," I sobbed, lifting him onto my back, my legs screaming with exhaustion as I trudged through the heavy stones toward the vehicle.
Behind us, a heavy metallic thud echoed from the tunnel exit.
I spun around, terrified that Nolan had prevailed.
Out from the dark concrete opening stepped Declan Rourke. He was bleeding from a deep cut above his brow, his dark shirt soaked in blood and sweat, but he was standing tall. In his hand, he carried Nolan’s silver-plated pistol.
He had walked through hell, but he was still standing.
He hurried across the beach, unlocking the heavy armored doors of the SUV with a remote key fob. He gently lifted Mason into the leather back seat, then pulled Sophie and me inside before slamming the heavy reinforced door shut.
"Where is your brother?" I asked, my chest heaving as I looked through the bulletproof glass toward the dark tunnel entrance.
Declan sat in the driver's seat, resting his hands on the steering wheel for a brief second. His knuckles were bruised and bloody.
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"Nolan will live," Declan said quietly, his voice heavy with a deep, tragic weight. "I left him tied to the iron pipes for the federal marshals to find. I spent three years trying to save him from his own greed, Elena. Tonight, I finally stopped trying."
He fired up the powerful V8 engine. The armored vehicle roared to life, pulling out of the beach cove and accelerating onto the dark coastal highway toward Chicago's medical district.
