Chapter 6 - Target on Her Back
The world seemed to lose all sound.
The warmth that had filled my veins seconds earlier turned to absolute, freezing ice. The mug on the mantelpiece slipped from my fingers, shattering against the stone hearth into a dozen ceramic shards.
"No," I choked out, my hands flying to my mouth. "No, no, no..."
Adrian’s face didn't just harden; it transformed into something ancient and demonic. The tenderness that had softened his features vanished as if it had never existed. He grabbed the radio off the desk, his voice dropping into a register that made the windowpanes vibrate.
"Casualties?" Adrian demanded.
"Two guards dead, one wounded," Julian reported through the static. "Moretti’s men were dressed as Chicago Fire Department paramedics responding to a fabricated gas leak on the eleventh floor. They had access badges supplied by Vance Financial. They loaded Mrs. Carter into an unauthorized ambulance and vanished onto the expressway five minutes ago."
"My mother..." I grabbed Adrian's bare arm, my fingernails digging into his skin, tears burning hot and fast down my cheeks. "Adrian, she's on dialysis! If she misses her treatment, if they hurt her—"
"They won't hurt her," Adrian cut in, his hands gripping my shoulders with bruising strength, forcing me to look directly into his terrifying, hyper-focused eyes. "Listen to me, Sophie! Dante didn't take her to kill her. He took her for leverage. He wants an exchange."
As if summoned by his words, Adrian’s private satellite phone on the desk began to buzz.
Adrian picked it up, hit speaker, and set it on the timber blotter.
"Voss," Adrian said, his voice flat and deadly calm.
A wet, mocking laugh echoed from the speaker. *"Did you enjoy the fireworks on the drive, Adrian?"* Dante Moretti’s voice crackled through the line. *"I hear your little pet was very brave with a tire iron. She certainly has fire."*
"Dante," Adrian said, without raising his tone by a single decibel. "If my mother-in-law is harmed by a single hair, I will not kill you. I will skin you alive in front of your brother, and I will feed your bones to the stray dogs on Calumet."
There was a brief pause on the other end, Dante's bravado faltering for half a second before he sneered. *"She's resting comfortably in an abandoned rail depot off 51st Street, Adrian. But her little heart monitor is beeping awfully fast. You want her back alive? You come alone. 51st and Damen. Warehouse four. Thirty minutes. If I see a single drone, a single sniper, or a single one of your dogs, I pull the plug on her dialysis machine and leave her in a dumpster."*
The line went dead.
"I'm coming with you," I said immediately, wiping the tears from my face, my voice turning fierce and razor-sharp.
"No," Adrian barked, already pulling a tactical black Kevlar vest over his bandaged chest. "It’s an execution trap. He expects me to bring a tactical unit, which gives him an excuse to butcher her. I have to go through the front."
"You are bleeding through your stitches, Adrian!" I yelled, stepping directly in his path as he strapped a tactical combat blade to his thigh. "And Dante doesn't just want you dead. He wants to break you. If you show up alone, he'll kill my mother just to watch your face collapse before he shoots you! You need an angle he isn't expecting!"
Adrian paused, his hand hovering over a pair of customized Glock 19s. He glared at me, his chest heaving under the black vest. "What angle?"
"Me," I said.
Adrian’s jaw set like iron. "Absolutely not."
"He thinks I'm a terrified waitress who stumbled into your bed!" I pressed, stepping closer, my voice carrying an unyielding resolve that shocked even myself. "He thinks I'm a victim. You send Harrison Vance in first."
Adrian froze. His eyes narrowed. "Vance?"
"Vance doesn't know we discovered his kickback files twenty minutes ago," I explained rapidly, my mind firing with lethal clarity. "Call Vance right now. Tell him you're panicking. Tell him to meet you at the warehouse with the surrender contracts for the south docks. When Vance arrives, Dante will lower his guard to gloat. That gives your perimeter snipers the distraction they need to breach the roof."
Adrian stared at me. The silence stretched between us, heavy and electric.
Slowly, the demonic fury in his eyes transformed into something terrifyingly beautiful: absolute, unadulterated admiration.
"Julian!" Adrian roared into his comms.
"Boss?"
"Mobilize the Ghost squad. Full suppressed armaments. Blackout vehicles. And bring Harrison Vance to my study in zip-ties. He's going to make a delivery for us."
Adrian turned back to me. He reached out, took my face in both of his hands, and kissed my forehead with a reverence that felt like a sacred vow.
May you like
"We get your mother back," he whispered against my skin. "And then, Sophie... I burn Dante Moretti’s world to ash."
***