Chapter 5 - The Chase through West Loop
The peaceful sanctuary of the therapy room shattered into pure chaos.
Within three minutes, the estate’s tactical alarm was flashing silent red lights along the corridors. Sebastian sat back in his titanium wheelchair, fully dressed in a black tactical coat, throwing orders to his lieutenants with cold, lethal efficiency.
"Gabriel! Cut Vance's offshore bank accounts immediately!" Sebastian barked, leaning over a digital map terminal in the war room. "Track his cell signal!"
"His phone was tossed into the river two miles from the gate, boss," Gabriel reported, pulling a high-powered assault rifle from the wall armory. "He knew we were onto him. He’s heading for the private airfields in Gary, Indiana."
"He won't make it to Indiana," Sebastian growled. "He’s going to his private medical vault in West Loop first to secure his physical exit passports and offshore ledger."
Sebastian turned his head, his sharp grey eyes locking onto me as I stood near the doorway.
"Clare. You're coming with us," Sebastian commanded.
"What?!" I gasped. "No! I'm a physical therapist, not one of your enforcers! I need to stay here with Oliver!"
"Vance knows you were the one who uncovered his lie!" Sebastian yelled, his voice echoing off the concrete walls. "If he gets cornered, he will broadcast your identity and your son's location to every rival syndicate in Illinois to buy his freedom! You stay in my sight!"
Five minutes later, I was strapped into the passenger seat of a heavily armored black SUV, tearing through the rain-drenched streets of Chicago at ninety miles an hour.
Sebastian sat in the rear compartment, surrounded by three armed men, a laptop open on his lap, tracking Vance’s secondary vehicle route through the city's traffic camera network.
"Why would Dr. Vance do this?" I asked over the roar of the engine, my hands gripping the leather seat. "He was your family's personal physician for decades! He had money, prestige, protection!"
"Harrison Vance was a gambler," Sebastian said coldly, his eyes fixed on the screen. "Fifteen years ago, I discovered he had accumulated massive debts with the Moretti syndicate. What I didn't know until today was that his debts started before I was shot in 2006."
I turned my head to look at him. "The Morettis paid him to make sure you stayed crippled after the shooting."
"A crippled boss creates a weak syndicate," Sebastian whispered, his jaw set like iron. "The Morettis couldn't kill me without starting an all-out nuclear war in the streets. But keeping me in a wheelchair? That allowed them to slow down our expansion, bleed our territories, and keep the Lombardi family on the defensive for twenty years."
The SUV screeched to a halt in a dark alleyway behind an old brick industrial building in West Loop.
Rain pounded against the windshield as Gabriel unbolted the rear door.
"Building is clear on the south side, boss," Gabriel said, raising his weapon. "Vance’s Mercedes is parked in the loading bay. He’s inside."
"Secure the perimeter," Sebastian ordered. "Nobody leaves. Nobody calls for backup."
Gabriel and two enforcers moved like shadows into the dark building. Sebastian maneuvered his wheelchair onto the hydraulic lift of the SUV, lowering himself to the rain-slicked pavement.
I stepped out behind him, holding my heavy physical therapy bag, my heart pounding so hard I could hear it in my teeth.
We moved through the back corridor of the abandoned warehouse, passing rows of rusted machinery until we reached a reinforced steel door marked PRIVATE PATHOLOGY LAB.
Inside, light spilled out onto the concrete floor.
Dr. Harrison Vance was furiously shoving hard drives, stacks of bearer bonds, and vials of controlled narcotics into a heavy leather duffel bag sitting on a stainless steel medical table.
Sebastian pushed the steel door open with a loud, heavy BANG.
"Leaving so soon, Harrison?" Sebastian asked softly.
Dr. Vance spun around, dropping a stack of bonds, his face draining of all color as he stared at Sebastian in the doorway.
"Sebastian..." Vance stammered, his voice squeaking with sheer terror. "I... I was just securing the archive files for you! Someone hacked the main server at the mansion—"
"Save your pathetic lies, Harrison," Sebastian said, his voice dropping into a register of pure, lethal frost. "Twenty years. You sat at my table. You drank my wine. You took my money while you kept a calcified bone spur clamped around my spinal nerve."
Dr. Vance’s trembling hands slowly slid toward an open drawer on the medical table.
"Don't do it, Harrison," Sebastian warned smoothly.
With a desperate, frantic scream, Vance grabbed a small chrome pistol from the drawer and pointed it directly at Sebastian’s chest!
"Get back!" Vance shrieked, his eyes wild with manic fear. "You think I wanted this?! The Morettis threatened to murder my daughter twenty years ago if I didn't leave you paralyzed! I had no choice!"
"You always had a choice," Sebastian whispered.
Vance’s finger began to squeeze the trigger!
Without thinking, driven by pure instinct, I swung my heavy leather physical therapy bag with all my strength, slamming it directly into Vance’s outstretched arm!
BANG!
The gun discharged harmlessly into the concrete ceiling, shower of plaster falling over us.
Vance stumbled back, losing his grip on the weapon. Before he could recover, Gabriel stepped from the shadows behind him, slamming the butt of his rifle hard against the back of Vance’s head.
Dr. Vance collapsed onto the floor, unconscious.
I stood there, gasping for air, my therapy bag dropping from my trembling hands.
Sebastian wheeled himself forward, stopping right beside me. He looked down at the unconscious doctor, then looked up at me, his eyes filled with an intense, burning fire that made my soul shudder.
"You just saved my life, Clare," Sebastian murmured softly.
May you like
"He... he was going to shoot you," I whispered, my knees giving way.
Sebastian caught me before I could fall, pulling me firmly into his lap, holding me tight against his body as the rain beat a heavy rhythm against the warehouse roof above us.
