Chapter 7
Tires screamed against wet asphalt as Victor’s convoy roared down Interstate 87 at ninety miles per hour.
Sadi sat in the back of the armored SUV, the heavy Kevlar vest strapped tightly over her black sweater. Her knuckles were white where she gripped the door handle. Out the tinted window, rain lashed against the glass as the flashing red and blue lights of the medical transport appeared two miles ahead in the distance.
"They've boxed them in!" Marcus shouted from the front passenger seat, peering through digital binoculars. "Two black Suburbans with reinforced ram bars. They’re forcing the medical van toward the guardrail near the old bridge!"
"Pit maneuver the lead vehicle," Victor ordered through the comms radio. "Take the engine block. Do not let that medical cooler take impact."
"Understood, Boss!"
The Costello SUVs accelerated, the supercharged engines roaring like beasts. Victor turned to Sadi, reaching beneath his seat and pulling out a compact, lightweight 9mm Glock. He racked the slide and held it out to her, handle first.
"Have you ever fired a weapon?" Victor asked, his voice steady amid the chaos.
"My father took me hunting when I was twelve," Sadi said, her heart hammering violently against her ribs.
"Good. Keep the safety off. Finger outside the trigger guard until you intend to destroy what you're pointing at," Victor instructed, pressing the cold steel into her hand. "If anything happens to me, you take the medical cooler and you run. Do not look back."
"Nothing is going to happen to you," Sadi said fiercely, wrapping her fingers around the grip.
Before Victor could reply, the lead Suburban ahead slammed its brakes, swerving hard to block the lane.
*BOOM!*
The impact shook the SUV. Victor’s driver rammed the rear quarter-panel of the enemy vehicle, sending it spinning across three lanes of traffic before it smashed violently into the concrete divider in a shower of sparks and shattered glass.
Automatic gunfire erupted from the second Suburban. Bullets pinged harmlessly against the armored windshield of Victor’s truck like heavy hail.
"Open the hatch!" Victor commanded.
Marcus kicked open the reinforced sunroof. Two Costello enforcers popped up with rifles, returning fire with pinpoint precision. The rear tires of the second enemy vehicle shredded under the hail of lead, sending it fishtailing wildly before it flipped twice and landed upside down in the muddy ditch beside the highway.
"Medical van is clear!" the driver yelled. "They’re pulling over to the shoulder!"
Victor’s SUV screeched to a halt beside the transport. Victor kicked his door open, pistol drawn, moving with lethal efficiency as his men fanned out to secure the perimeter.
Sadi threw open her door, adrenaline coursing through her veins. She sprinted toward the back of the medical transport, where two terrified paramedics were huddled beside a silver, climate-controlled cryogenic cooler labeled *HUMAN DONOR TISSUE - URGENT*.
"Is it intact?" Sadi demanded, dropping to her knees beside the paramedics. "Did the seal break?"
"It’s... it’s fine!" the female paramedic stammered, checking the digital temperature gauge. "The core temp is holding! The harvest is safe!"
A wave of dizzying relief washed over Sadi. She reached out, touching the cold metal of the container, tears stinging her eyes.
"Drop your weapon, little girl."
A voice sneered from the shadows behind the medical van.
Sadi froze.
From the wreckage of the flipped Suburban in the ditch, a bloody figure had crawled out, dragging a shotgun through the mud. It was Mick O’Shea, his face covered in cuts, his expensive suit shredded. His eyes were bloodshot and wild with manic desperation.
Victor was thirty yards away, directing his men at the toll plaza, his back turned.
"Mick," Sadi whispered, slowly standing up, her hands raised.
"You ruined me!" Mick screamed, coughing up blood as he leveled the barrel directly at her chest. "Costello burned my clubs! He seized my accounts! You were supposed to be a nobody, you little bitch!"
"Shoot me, and Victor will skin you alive," Sadi said, her voice eerily calm, buying time as she felt the weight of the Glock tucked into the small of her back under her jacket.
"I'm already dead!" Mick yelled, his finger tightening on the shotgun trigger. "Dominic burned my bridges! But I’m taking you with me!"
Mick raised the barrel, aiming not at her, but down toward the cryogenic cooler containing Sam’s marrow.
"NO!" Sadi screamed.
In one blinding, instinctive motion, Sadi drew the Glock from behind her back, raised it with both hands, and pulled the trigger.
*BANG!*
The recoil kicked against her palms, but her aim held true. The bullet tore through Mick O’Shea’s shoulder, knocking him off balance. His shotgun discharged into the pavement, spraying asphalt across the road.
Before Mick could recover, a single, deafening gunshot echoed from across the highway.
A neat, crimson hole appeared directly in the center of Mick O’Shea’s forehead. His eyes rolled back, and he collapsed face-first into the mud, lifeless.
Sadi turned, trembling violently, the smoking Glock still clutched in her hands.
Fifty feet away, Victor Costello stood in the middle of the rain-slicked highway, his pistol raised, smoke drifting from the barrel.
He lowered his weapon and walked toward her with long, purposeful strides. He didn't look at the dead man in the mud. He reached Sadi, took the Glock gently from her shaking fingers, clicked the safety back on, and tucked it into his holster.
Then, without a single word of hesitation, Victor pulled Sadi against his chest, wrapping his strong arms around her as the rain poured over them.
"You saved the boy," Victor murmured against her wet hair, his heart beating violently against her cheek. "You saved your brother, Sadi."
May you like
Sadi buried her face into the crook of his neck, letting out a ragged sob of pure survival, clinging to the only man in the city powerful enough to keep the darkness at bay.
***
