Chapter 8 - Crossfire at Midnight
For a heartbeat, time froze inside the shattered greenhouse.
Vance’s jaw twitched. His mercenaries exchanged nervous glances. They were paid killers, but they knew that if the encrypted drives and ledger were destroyed, their multi-million-dollar bounty would vanish into thin air.
“Kill her,” Vance hissed, losing his composure. “Shoot her arm off!”
Before the mercenaries could squeeze their triggers, Roman roared with savage fury. He lunged forward from the dirt floor, grabbing the heavy iron spade and swinging it with bone-shattering force into the knees of the closest mercenary. The man screamed as his legs gave way, his shotgun discharging wildly into the ceiling rafters, bringing a cascading avalanche of heavy glass panes crashing down upon the intruders.
“Madison, run!” Roman bellowed, tackling Vance around the waist and driving the mob enforcer hard into the potting bench.
Madison didn’t hesitate. She threw the Pelican case into her duffel, grabbed the fallen mercenary’s shotgun from the dirt, and pumped the action back with a loud, mechanical clatter.
The second mercenary turned toward her, leveling his assault rifle. Madison didn’t close her eyes. She pulled the heavy trigger.
The deafening roar of the twelve-gauge shotgun kicked violently against her shoulder, the heavy buckshot catching the gunman in the chest and hurling him backward out of the greenhouse door into the freezing mud.
Behind her, Roman and Vance were locked in a vicious, life-or-death brawl. Vance drove a jagged shard of broken glass toward Roman’s throat, but Roman caught the enforcer’s wrist, twisting it until the bone snapped with a sickening pop. Vance howled in agony, dropping the weapon.
Roman delivered a brutal series of short, punishing elbows to Vance’s ribs and face, slamming the enforcer’s skull against the concrete foundation until Vance went limp, his eyes rolling back as unconsciousness dragged him under.
The remaining two mercenaries outside, hearing the relentless violence and seeing their commander defeated, turned and fled into the dark treeline, their boots splashing through the icy swamp water as their courage completely shattered.
Roman collapsed onto his knees, gasping for air, clutching his bruised chest. His face was covered in blood, sweat, and soot.
Madison lowered the smoking shotgun, her ears ringing violently, her shoulder throbbing with fierce pain. She dropped the weapon and ran to Roman, falling to her knees and wrapping her arms tightly around his neck.
“You’re alive,” she sobbed against his neck, the adrenaline suddenly draining from her limbs, leaving her shaking uncontrollably. “You’re alive.”
Roman’s uninjured arm wrapped around her waist, pulling her tightly against his chest, his breathing slowing as he buried his face in her hair. “I promised you... twenty-four hours. DeLucas keep their debts.”
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He pulled back slightly, looking into her hazel eyes with an intensity that made the cold night air feel suddenly scorching hot. “Did you get the drives?”
Madison nodded, wiping blood and dirt from his cheek with her thumb. “Everything is in the bag. Including my father’s letter.”
