Chapter 17 - In the Line of Fire
The warehouse roof glass shattered into a million falling shards as flashbang grenades rained down from above.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Blinding light and deafening thunder filled the hall. Vincent grabbed Celia, tackling her behind a heavy steel container just as Marco Vane’s men opened fire blindly into the smoke.
"You okay?!" Vincent yelled over the roar of gunfire.
"I'm fine!" Celia gasped, holding onto him tight.
Tommy Bellucci led a squad of tactical federal agents through the broken doors, returning heavy fire. "Federal agents! Drop your weapons!"
The warehouse erupted into a chaos of tactical combat. Marco Vane tried to flee toward a waiting speedboat on the dock outside, but Vincent moved like a phantom through the smoke.
Vincent cut off Marco’s escape route, stepping onto the rain-slicked dock.
"It ends here, Marco," Vincent said, his voice cold as ice.
Marco drew his combat knife, his face twisted in rage. "You soft old bastard! You gave up the throne for a woman and kids!"
Marco lunged at Vincent with a lethal strike toward his throat. Vincent parried the blow with effortless speed, grabbed Marco’s wrist, twisted it back until the bone snapped, and slammed Marco face-first onto the wooden dock.
"I didn't give up power," Vincent whispered in Marco’s ear as he cuffed him. "I found something worth protecting."
Inside the warehouse, Luciana Moretti attempted to raise her gun at Celia from behind a stack of crates.
"Don't do it, Luciana," Celia said, standing her ground with a steady police service weapon she had picked up from the floor.
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Luciana looked at Celia, then at the red tactical laser dots covering her chest from federal snipers above. She let her gun slip from her numb fingers and fall onto the wet concrete.
"It's over," Celia said softly. "The nightmare is finally over."
