Chapter 6 - [THE GIRL BEHIND THE COUNTER]
Answer one: Elise hadn't been a victim of Camille’s abuse. She was a plant, placed inside the bakery to keep an eye on Camille for Chief Thomas.
Open two: How did Elise track them to the drainage outfall? And how do they survive a shotgun at point-blank range?
“Drop the gun, Mr. Castellano,” Elise said. Her voice didn't shake. The timid, nervous girl from the bakery was completely gone, replaced by a cold, trained operative.
Victor didn't lower his weapon, but he didn't raise it either. “You’re out of your depth, Elise. Thomas is using you.”
“Chief Thomas is my father,” Elise said flatly. “And he wants the ledger.”
Delphine’s mind raced. Elise had been the one to cry and say Camille went out the back door. She had orchestrated the panic to cover her own tracks.
“Elise, please,” Delphine begged, her teeth chattering from the freezing rain. “Posie doesn't have her inhaler. She’s going to die in that precinct.”
Elise’s eyes flicked to Delphine for a fraction of a second. “Collateral damage.”
In that split second of distraction, Victor moved.
He didn't shoot Elise. He kicked the wet, mossy rock beneath Elise’s feet.
Elise slipped, the shotgun firing wildly into the air.
Victor lunged, tackling her to the ground. He wrenched the shotgun from her hands and pinned her to the wet stones.
“Don't kill her!” Delphine screamed.
Victor stopped, his fist raised. He looked at Delphine, breathing heavily. He pulled a zip-tie from his pocket and bound Elise’s hands tight.
“You’re lucky she’s here,” Victor hissed at Elise. “Because I would have snapped your neck.”
He dragged Elise to her feet. “You’re going to walk us right through the front door of your father’s precinct.”
Victor shoved Elise forward. They hiked through the dark, blacked-out streets of Boston. Panic was setting in across the city. Car alarms wailed, people shouted in the dark, but Victor moved with lethal purpose.
They reached the precinct. It was glowing with emergency backup generators. The front doors were heavily guarded by corrupt officers loyal to Thomas.
Victor pressed his gun into Elise’s back. “Tell them you captured me.”
Elise swallowed hard. She walked into the light.
“Stand down!” Elise yelled to the guards. “I have Castellano!”
The guards lowered their weapons, confused. Victor kept his head down, pretending to be a prisoner. Delphine walked behind him, her heart in her throat, hiding her small pistol under her wet coat.
They were escorted into the precinct lobby.
Chief Thomas stood at the top of the stairs, looking down with a smug, arrogant smile.
“Well, well,” Thomas laughed. “The great Victor Castellano, brought in by a rookie.”
“Where is my daughter?” Delphine screamed, stepping out from behind Victor.
Thomas looked at her, amused. “She’s upstairs in holding. Safe and sound. For now.”
Victor looked at Thomas. “You have the money, Thomas. You have the ledger. Let the child go.”
“I don't have the biometric key yet,” Thomas said. “The locket is rusted shut. I have a jeweler trying to pry the chip out without damaging it.”
“Let her go,” Victor repeated, his voice dropping to a terrifying rumble.
“Or what?” Thomas mocked. “You’re in my house, Victor. You have no power here.”
Victor slowly lifted his head. He looked Thomas dead in the eye.
“I didn't come to your house to surrender, Thomas.”
Victor reached into his wet coat and pulled out the solid gold coin his mother had given Delphine.
He tossed it onto the marble floor. It clattered loudly, echoing in the quiet lobby.
Thomas looked down at the coin. His face instantly drained of color.
“You didn't,” Thomas whispered, sheer terror replacing his arrogance.
Suddenly, the heavy glass doors of the precinct shattered inward.
A dozen men dressed in black tactical gear poured into the lobby, heavily armed.
But they weren't Victor’s men.
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They wore the crest of the Russian Bratva.
TITLE: THE ENEMY OF MY ENEMY
