Chapter 8 - The Shadow Commander
The impact sent Sterling’s henchmen scattering across the bridge deck. Before they could recover their weapons, the side doors of the SUV flew open, and Marcus Vance stepped out into the rain, holding a tactical shotgun.
With two rapid, thunderous blasts, Marcus blew the weapons out of the hands of the two masked enforcers, sending them crashing into the river below. The third man dropped his crowbar and threw his hands in the air, falling to his knees on the wet asphalt.
Victor Sterling spun around, panic taking over his face as he aimed his revolver at Marcus.
"Don't move! I’ll kill him! I swear to God I’ll blow his head off!" Sterling screamed, turning back to point the gun at Lucas.
But Lucas was already moving.
Using the distraction, he lunged forward from the deck, grabbing Sterling’s wrist with both hands and twisting it sideways. The revolver fired into the air, the flash illuminating the dark girders of the bridge for a fraction of a second. With a surge of raw strength born from decades of buried rage, Lucas slammed Sterling against the rusted iron railing of the bridge, pinning his arm behind his back until the silver pistol fell into the dark, churning waters of the canal below.
Marcus stepped forward, his shotgun lowered, his face a mask of cold professionalism. "Federal marshals are two minutes away, Mr. Davenport. We intercepted Sterling's encrypted comms an hour ago. I apologize for the delay; the traffic on the lower loop was congested."
Lucas released Sterling, who slid down against the wet iron railing, weeping silently, his expensive suit ruined, his mind broken by the reality of his total defeat.
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"It's over, Victor," Lucas said, wiping the blood from his forehead with the sleeve of his blazer. "The Wards don't belong to you anymore. They never did."
He walked away from the ruined bridge, climbing into the passenger seat of Marcus’s SUV as the flashing blue lights of the federal police cars began to reflect against the rainy sky.
