Chapter 7 - THE DIAMOND NECKLACE
The air in the lower concourse of Union Station seemed to evaporate.
Commuters hurried past the end of the corridor, oblivious to the lethal standoff hidden in the shadows of the locker alcove.
Michael’s gun remained perfectly steady, aimed right at Lily’s head.
Lily buried her face in Nora’s black dress, trembling violently. Nora wrapped her arms around her daughter, her burned left hand throbbing with a sickening pulse, but she didn’t look away from Michael. Her eyes burned with absolute, unyielding defiance.
“Give it to him,” Nora whispered to Adrian, her voice cracking. “Please.”
Adrian’s jaw locked. He looked at the leather briefcase in his hands. The immunity papers. The proof of Julian’s loyalty. The proof of Clara’s murder.
If he handed it over, Michael won. He would destroy the evidence and kill them anyway.
But if he didn’t, a seven-year-old girl would die in front of him.
Adrian slowly lowered the briefcase, holding it out by the handle.
“Take it,” Adrian said, his voice a low, dangerous rumble.
Michael smirked. He gestured with his chin to one of his guards. “Check the case.”
The guard stepped forward, reaching out to take the heavy leather bag from Adrian’s hand.
But Adrian didn’t let go.
Instead, Adrian squeezed the handle, twisted his wrist, and swung the heavy briefcase upward with bone-crushing force.
The brass corner of the briefcase smashed directly into the guard’s jaw. The man’s head snapped back with a sickening crunch, and he collapsed to the marble floor, unconscious.
Chaos erupted.
“Get down!” Adrian roared, shoving Nora and Lily hard to the floor behind the solid steel bank of lockers.
Michael fired, the suppressed pfft of the gunshot echoing softly as the bullet sparked against the metal locker right where Adrian’s chest had been a millisecond before.
Adrian drew his weapon in a blur of motion, firing twice.
One of Michael’s guards dropped, clutching his knee. The other two scrambled for cover behind a concrete pillar, returning fire.
Marble shattered. Dust rained down.
Adrian crouched behind the locker bank, checking his magazine. He was outnumbered and outgunned, pinned in a narrow corridor with a terrified mother and child.
“You’re just delaying the inevitable, Adrian!” Michael called out from behind the pillar, his voice echoing over the ringing in Adrian’s ears. “You can’t protect them forever!”
Nora looked up at Adrian. Her face was pale, but her eyes were clear.
“Mr. Vale,” Nora whispered, pointing toward a heavy, metal fire door ten feet away, marked Maintenance Access. “If we can get through there, it leads to the subway tunnels.”
Adrian nodded. “I have to draw their fire. When I move, you run for that door. Don’t look back.”
“I’m not leaving you here,” Nora said fiercely.
“You have to,” Adrian said softly, looking at Lily. “For her.”
Adrian took a deep breath. He gripped his gun tightly, preparing to step out of cover and charge the pillar.
But before he could move, Michael stepped out from behind the pillar first.
And he wasn’t holding his gun.
He was holding a breathtaking, glittering diamond necklace.
Adrian froze, peering around the edge of the lockers.
The necklace caught the dim fluorescent light, throwing fractured rainbows across the dark corridor.
“Do you recognize this, Adrian?” Michael called out, holding the jewels up by his fingertips.
Adrian’s stomach bottomed out.
It was the Vale family necklace. The one Adrian had commissioned for Clara on their wedding day. The one she was supposed to be wearing when she died.
“I didn’t just kill your wife, Adrian,” Michael smiled, his voice dripping with venom. “I took this off her neck before the boat went down. She begged me to spare you. She knew I was going to take everything.”
The sheer cruelty of the confession shattered the last remnant of Adrian’s control.
The cold, calculating mafia boss vanished. Pure, blinding rage took over.
Adrian broke cover.
He didn’t run for the fire door. He didn’t fire his weapon.
He lunged directly at Michael, a feral scream ripping from his throat.
Michael’s eyes widened in genuine shock. He raised his gun, but he was too slow.
Adrian tackled the older man with the force of a freight train, driving them both into the marble floor. Michael’s gun clattered away, sliding across the slick stone.
The two remaining guards aimed their weapons at the chaotic struggle, unable to get a clear shot without hitting their boss.
Adrian pinned Michael to the ground, his hands wrapping violently around the older man’s throat.
“You took everything from me!” Adrian roared, his thumbs pressing into Michael’s windpipe.
Michael choked, his face turning purple, thrashing weakly against Adrian’s overwhelming strength.
But as Adrian strangled the man who had ruined his life, one of the guards finally stepped forward, raising the butt of his rifle to smash it into the back of Adrian’s skull.
“Look out!” Nora screamed.
May you like
Adrian didn’t hear her over the roaring in his ears.
The guard brought the rifle down.
