Chapter 8 - THE THING ROMAN CHOSE TO SAVE
The detonator stopped six inches from the roof edge.
Claire reached it first.
Victor grabbed her ankle.
She fell hard.
Pain exploded across her abdomen.
Nora screamed from Adrian’s arms.
Claire closed her fingers around the detonator.
Victor dragged her backward.
“Give it to me.”
“No.”
He twisted her leg.
Claire cried out.
Then Adrian struck Victor with his uninjured arm.
Victor staggered.
Claire crawled away.
Below, Roman heard her scream.
Every instinct told him to storm the building.
Matteo held him back.
“Explosives.”
“My wife is on that roof.”
“And if you go inside, she dies with everyone else.”
Roman stared upward.
Then he saw Claire at the edge.
Alive.
She held something in her hand.
Victor lunged.
Roman reached for his weapon.
Matteo stopped him.
“You miss, you hit Claire.”
Roman had never hated logic more.
On the roof, Adrian tackled Victor.
The two men slammed into an air vent.
Claire reached Nora.
Adrian’s shoulder was bleeding heavily.
“Take her,” he gasped.
Claire did.
Nora immediately quieted against her chest.
Victor struck Adrian.
Adrian fell.
Then Victor turned.
For the first time, Claire saw what seven months of fear had really been.
Not Roman.
This man.
This bitterness.
This desperate belief that families were pieces on a board.
“You should have stayed gone,” Victor said.
Claire backed toward the roof edge.
“You should have picked a different pregnant woman.”
He almost smiled.
“You’re stronger than Roman said.”
“Roman never thought I was weak.”
“No. He simply never noticed your strength until you used it against him.”
That hurt because it contained truth.
Claire looked down.
Roman stood below.
Watching.
Unable to reach her.
Victor stepped closer.
“Give me the detonator.”
“No.”
“You have a newborn child in your arms.”
“Exactly.”
“Then don’t be foolish.”
Claire looked at the device.
A red button.
A toggle.
A small wire.
She had no idea what would happen if she dropped it.
Victor saw her glance toward the edge.
“You throw it, I shoot you.”
Claire believed him.
Then a voice came from the roof doorway.
“Victor.”
Margaret.
She stood unsteadily against the frame.
Blood marked her temple from the struggle.
Victor frowned.
“What are you doing?”
Margaret looked at Claire.
Then Adrian.
Then the newborn.
For the first time, certainty left her face.
“You said no children would be harmed.”
Victor stared.
“Move.”
“You said Claire would disappear and Roman would return to the old system.”
“Move.”
“You said Adrian would take over eventually.”
“Margaret.”
Her eyes filled.
“You lied to all of us.”
Victor raised the gun.
Claire saw it happening.
“Margaret!”
The shot fired.
Margaret fell.
But her hesitation gave Adrian time.
He struck Victor from behind.
The gun spun across the roof.
Claire kicked it away.
Roman heard the shot below.
“No more.”
He moved toward the building.
Matteo blocked him.
“Boss.”
“Get out of my way.”
“Claire warned us about explosives.”
“Then disarm them.”
“We’re trying.”
Roman stared him down.
Matteo did not move.
Roman’s voice broke.
“My wife is up there.”
Matteo answered quietly.
“And Grace is at the hospital.”
Roman stopped.
His other daughter.
Waiting.
Depending on him not to die.
For perhaps the first time in his life, Roman understood that courage was not always moving toward danger.
Sometimes it was trusting someone else to survive without controlling the outcome.
He stepped back.
“Get the bomb team faster.”
On the roof, Victor recovered.
He drew a second gun from his ankle.
Adrian saw it too late.
Victor fired.
Adrian dropped.
Claire screamed his name.
Victor aimed at her.
“Give me the detonator.”
Claire looked at Adrian.
He was conscious.
Barely.
Victor stepped closer.
“Now.”
Claire slowly lifted the device.
Then another voice rose from below.
“Victor!”
Roman.
Victor looked down.
That was all Claire needed.
She threw the detonator.
Not over the roof.
Into an open rainwater tank.
It vanished beneath six feet of black water.
Victor’s face transformed.
He pointed the gun toward Claire.
Roman fired from below.
The bullet struck the gun from Victor’s hand.
Victor staggered.
Matteo’s tactical team appeared through the roof door seconds later.
Victor was forced face-down.
Handcuffed.
Alive.
Roman had kept his promise.
Courts.
Evidence.
Not execution.
When the bomb squad declared the building safe enough to enter, Roman took the stairs two at a time.
He reached the roof.
Claire was sitting beside Adrian.
Nora against her chest.
Roman stopped ten feet away.
He did not rush her.
He waited.
Claire looked up.
For several seconds, the entire world narrowed to the distance between them.
Then she held Nora toward him.
Roman crossed the distance.
He took his daughter.
His hands shook.
“You’re bleeding,” he said to Claire.
“I’m okay.”
“You’re not okay.”
“I’m alive.”
He looked at Adrian.
Paramedics were treating him.
Roman’s expression became unreadable.
Adrian met his eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
Roman said nothing.
Adrian swallowed.
“I believed him.”
“I know.”
“I wanted to.”
Roman looked away.
That was worse.
Adrian had not been purely deceived.
He had cooperated because Victor fed the resentment already inside him.
“What happens to me?” Adrian asked.
Roman looked at Claire.
She knew what the old Roman would have done.
Everyone did.
Roman walked toward his brother.
Adrian braced himself.
Roman said, “You testify.”
Adrian stared.
“What?”
“Against Victor. Margaret if she survives. Anyone involved.”
“And after?”
“You answer for what you did.”
Adrian looked confused.
Roman continued.
“I’m not protecting you.”
The sentence hurt them both.
“You’re my brother,” Adrian whispered.
“Yes.”
“That means nothing?”
“It means I hope you become someone worth knowing again.”
Roman turned away.
Adrian began to cry silently.
Claire watched.
Seven months earlier, Roman would have protected family by hiding the truth.
Today he protected family by refusing to.
That was different.
Maybe not enough.
But different.
At the ambulance, a paramedic examined Claire.
“You need to return to the hospital immediately.”
Roman climbed inside beside her.
Claire looked at him.
“What about everything here?”
“Matteo has it.”
“You’re leaving Victor?”
“With police.”
Roman saw her surprise.
“I made a choice.”
She waited.
“No more private justice.”
“Can you do that?”
“I don’t know.”
At least the answer was true.
Nora slept between them.
Claire leaned her head against the wall.
Roman looked at her.
“I burned the index.”
“All of it?”
He nodded.
“Your father’s leverage?”
“Gone.”
“Why?”
Roman looked down at Nora.
“Because Victor thought I would save power before I saved you.”
Claire’s eyes softened.
“And?”
“He was wrong.”
The ambulance doors closed.
For the first time since Claire had disappeared, Roman allowed himself to believe they might survive.
Then Claire suddenly grabbed his wrist.
Her face tightened.
“What?”
“My incision.”
The paramedic looked down.
Blood had begun spreading rapidly beneath Claire’s hospital gown.
“Pressure’s dropping.”
Roman went pale.
“Claire.”
The paramedic shouted toward the driver.
“Move!”
Claire’s eyes struggled to stay open.
Roman took her hand.
“No.”
She looked at him.
“Roman.”
“No. You do not get to leave now.”
Her fingers weakened around his.
He leaned closer.
“You made me learn all this. You do not get to disappear before I prove I learned it.”
Despite the chaos, Claire smiled faintly.
Then her eyes closed.
May you like
The monitor alarm began to sound.
Roman shouted her name as the ambulance raced toward Boston.
