Chapter 7 - THE BRACELET
The gunshot was deafening inside the metal warehouse.
Michael jerked violently backward as the bullet caught him in the right shoulder. His grip on me vanished. I hit the concrete hard, scraping my hands and knees, scrambling frantically away from the blast zone.
Michael collapsed against a shipping crate, dropping his weapon, clutching his bleeding shoulder.
Adrian dove. He didn't dive for his own gun—he dove in front of me, shielding my body with his as Vanessa leveled her revolver again.
“Stop!” Adrian roared, holding his hands up.
Vanessa paused, a twisted smile playing on her lips. She looked incredible in the harsh light, a diamond-draped executioner.
“Tragic,” Vanessa sighed, pacing slowly around the perimeter of the light. “The loyal best friend, driven mad by grief, kidnaps the mob boss's fiancée. The mob boss tracks him down, but the friend is too fast. He kills the boss. He kills the maid. And then, the brave fiancée manages to get the gun and shoot the kidnapper.”
“You're insane,” Adrian spat.
“I’m resourceful,” Vanessa corrected. “Elias wouldn't give me the empire. So I took you. But then you started acting soft. You started looking at this… this housekeeper.” She glared at me with absolute disgust. “I needed the ledger. I needed the money. And I needed the true heir out of the way so I can run this city myself.”
“Where is Leo?” I screamed, my voice tearing my throat.
“He’s locked in the cage in the back office,” Vanessa said casually. “He’s going to have a terrible accident later tonight. Such a shame.”
She aimed the gun directly at Adrian's chest.
“Goodbye, Adrian. You were always terribly boring anyway.”
She planted her feet to fire.
Suddenly, a small, dark blur launched out of the shadows behind her.
It was Leo.
He hadn't been locked in the cage. He had picked the padlock.
The eleven-year-old boy slammed into the back of Vanessa’s knees with all his body weight. Vanessa shrieked as her legs buckled. The gun fired into the ceiling, raining sparks down on us.
Before she could recover, Adrian lunged.
He crossed the distance in a second, tackling Vanessa to the ground and wrenching the revolver from her hand. He pinned her down, breathing heavily, the gun now aimed at her head.
I scrambled to my feet and ran to Leo. I grabbed the boy, pulling him tightly against my chest, shielding him. He was trembling violently, but he didn't cry.
“Are you okay?” I whispered into his hair.
He nodded against my shoulder. “She gave me a present,” he whispered back.
I pulled back and looked at him. “What present?”
Leo held up his small wrist. Clamped around it was a heavy silver bracelet. I recognized it. It was a high-end GPS tracker, designed to look like luxury jewelry. Vanessa must have locked it on him so he couldn't escape her sight.
In the distance, the wail of police sirens pierced the night air.
Vanessa started laughing. It was a horrible, grating sound.
“Did you really think I didn't have a backup plan?” she gasped, staring up at Adrian from the concrete. “I called the police before you got here. They know my location because of the tracker on my legally adopted son.”
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The sirens grew louder, approaching fast.
“I’m his legal mother,” Vanessa sneered. “You’re an organized crime boss holding an unregistered weapon over a bleeding man and a crying woman. Who do you think the police commissioner is going to believe? This is my city, Adrian. You lose.”
