Chapter 6 - THE TRAIN TICKET
The drive to Union Station was a blur of neon streetlights and blinding, torrential rain.
I sat in the passenger seat of Adrian’s armored black SUV, my hands gripping the dashboard so tightly my knuckles ached. Adrian drove with terrifying precision, weaving through the late-night Chicago traffic at ninety miles an hour. He had a suppressed pistol resting on his thigh and another holstered beneath his dark suit jacket.
He hadn’t called Marcus. He hadn’t called any of his men.
“If Julian is the traitor, we don’t know who else is compromised,” Adrian had explained as we rushed to the garage. “If we bring an army, Elias executes the boy before we get within a hundred yards. We do this alone.”
“Locker 402,” I muttered, staring through the rain-slicked windshield, trying to keep myself from completely falling apart. “Julian’s note said locker 402.”
Adrian downshifted sharply, taking a corner so fast the heavy tires squealed against the wet asphalt.
“There is no locker 402 at Union Station, Maya,” Adrian said, his eyes fixed on the road ahead.
I whipped my head to look at him. “What? Then why did the note say—”
“The old long-term storage lockers at Union Station were demolished five years ago during the terminal renovations,” Adrian explained, his voice eerily calm despite the speed. “Elias knows that. Julian knows that.”
“Then why send us there?” Panic clawed up my throat, suffocating me. “Adrian, if we’re going to the wrong place, Elias is going to hurt Leo! We’re running out of time!”
“We aren’t going to the wrong place,” Adrian promised, his right hand leaving the steering wheel for a fraction of a second to grip my trembling hand. The warmth of his touch anchored me, pulling me back from the edge of a full panic attack.
“Locker 402 wasn’t a location, Maya. It was a message.”
Adrian accelerated down a deserted industrial road running parallel to the train tracks.
“Five years ago, the night Elias supposedly died in the car bombing, the explosion happened on the lower level of the Marina City parking garage,” Adrian continued. “Spot number 402.”
My breath caught. “He’s recreating the night he died.”
“He’s mocking me,” Adrian said, his jaw tight. “He wants me to go back to the exact spot where he lost everything. He’s waiting for us at Marina City, not Union Station.”
The massive, twin corncob towers of Marina City loomed ahead in the darkness, overlooking the freezing black water of the Chicago River. The lower levels were a spiraling, open-air concrete parking structure. It was entirely desolate at this hour, bathed in the sickly yellow glow of sodium lights.
Adrian cut the headlights of the SUV and drove silently up the circular ramp, the engine nothing more than a low, predatory purr.
Level one. Empty.
Level two. Empty.
Level three.
Adrian stopped the car abruptly in the shadows near the elevator bank. He put the SUV in park and turned to me.
“You stay in the car,” Adrian commanded, his voice brokering absolutely no argument. “The doors are bulletproof. Do not unlock them for anyone but me or Leo.”
“I’m not staying here!” I argued, grabbing his arm as he reached for the door handle. “He’s my nephew, Adrian! I’m going with you.”
“Maya, you are a civilian,” Adrian said fiercely, turning fully toward me. “Elias and Julian are armed, trained killers. If you walk out there, you become a liability I have to protect. If you want me to save that boy, you have to let me do what I do best.”
I hated that he was right. I hated how helpless I felt. Tears spilled over my cheeks, but I nodded, releasing his arm.
“Bring him back,” I whispered, my voice breaking. “Please.”
Adrian reached up, his rough thumb gently wiping the tear from my cheek. It was a shockingly tender gesture from a man about to commit murder.
“I swear on my life,” Adrian vowed softly.
He slipped out of the SUV, shutting the heavy door with a quiet click. I watched him disappear into the shadows of the concrete spiral, his gun drawn, moving with the terrifying, silent grace of a predator.
I sat in the dark, the sound of the rain lashing against the concrete outside the only noise.
One minute passed. Then two.
The silence was agonizing. My imagination conjured horrific images of Leo terrified, of Adrian bleeding on the cold ground. I couldn’t just sit here. I reached into my pocket, my fingers brushing against the heavy silver bracelet. The microfilm ledger was still securely locked inside.
Adrian had left it with me. He had walked into a hostage negotiation without the ransom. He was planning to take Leo back by force, fully intending to kill Elias before a trade could even happen.
Suddenly, my phone buzzed in my apron pocket.
I jumped, yanking it out. It was an unknown number.
I answered it, my hands shaking so badly I almost dropped the device. “Hello?”
“Hello, Maya,” a voice purred through the speaker. It was smooth, cultured, and dripping with malicious amusement. Julian.
“Where is he?” I demanded, my voice shrill. “Where is Leo?”
“Oh, the boy is perfectly safe,” Julian said. “Though he is quite cold. The wind off the river is brutal tonight.”
“Adrian is coming for you, Julian,” I hissed. “He knows about Marina City.”
Julian laughed. A cold, echoing sound.
“I know he does, Maya. I’m watching him clear the fourth level right now through the security cameras. He moves beautifully, doesn’t he? Like a ghost.”
My blood ran entirely cold. If Julian was watching Adrian on the cameras… where was Julian?
“Elias is waiting for him on level four,” Julian continued casually. “And Adrian will likely kill him. Elias was a blunt instrument. Useful for a time, but ultimately expendable.”
“If you’re not with Elias,” I breathed, looking frantically around the dark, empty parking garage. “Where are you?”
“Look in the rearview mirror, Maya.”
I snapped my head up, my eyes finding the mirror.
Standing exactly ten feet behind the SUV, perfectly illuminated by the brake lights, was Julian. He was holding an umbrella in one hand.
In the other, he was holding Leo.
May you like
Julian smiled, raising a gun and pointing it directly at the gas tank of the SUV.
“Unlock the doors, Maya,” Julian’s voice crackled through the phone. “Bring me the bracelet. Or I put a bullet in the fuel tank, and Adrian comes back to a very expensive bonfire.”
