Chapter 7 - The Bridge
Emergency lights flashed along the ballroom floor.
Guests screamed.
Dante grabbed Aria’s hand.
“This way.”
They moved through the darkness while Nico and Lucia followed. Around them, Sterling guards shouted contradictory orders. The crowd surged toward the main entrance, creating the confusion Dante’s team needed.
A man reached for Aria near the staircase.
She ducked instinctively.
Dante drove his shoulder into the guard and sent him crashing into a table.
“No shooting,” Dante ordered. “There are civilians everywhere.”
They entered the service corridor and ran toward the kitchen.
Aria’s lungs burned. Her injured rib protested every step, but the thought of Elena being forced into another car pushed her forward.
Nico touched his earpiece.
“East team lost visual.”
“How?” Dante demanded.
“Security gates dropped between sectors.”
“Internal controls?”
“Yes.”
The traitor inside the Rossi organization had access to Dante’s communication system.
They reached the underground garage.
A black SUV sped toward the exit.
“Elena!” Aria shouted.
The rear window was dark, but a hand struck the glass from inside.
Dante’s driver pulled their sedan forward.
They climbed in while Nico took the front passenger seat.
“Stay close,” Dante ordered.
The driver accelerated.
The Sterling SUV crashed through the outer gate and turned onto the coastal road. Snow blew across the pavement. The ocean appeared beyond the cliffs, black beneath the winter sky.
Aria gripped the door.
Dante took the flash drive from Lucia.
“Can you copy it?”
“Not without opening the files.”
“Do it.”
Lucia connected the drive to an encrypted laptop.
A password screen appeared.
Aria opened the sealed letter from the safe.
My brave girls,
If you are reading this, I failed to leave with you.
Trust the date when the roses died.
Aria closed her eyes.
“The password is June fourteenth.”
Lucia entered 0614.
The drive opened.
Folders filled the screen.
Campaign accounts.
Police contacts.
Judicial payments.
Photographs.
Audio recordings.
Nico looked back. “We have enough to bury Victor.”
“Copy everything,” Dante said.
The Sterling SUV turned toward the highway.
Their driver followed.
A pair of headlights appeared behind them.
Nico checked the mirror.
“One of ours.”
Dante looked at the tracking display.
“No Rossi vehicles should be behind us.”
The approaching SUV accelerated.
“Brace,” Nico shouted.
It struck the rear of the sedan.
Aria’s shoulder slammed against Dante.
The driver fought the wheel as the car skidded across the icy lane.
The vehicle behind them struck again.
The laptop flew from Lucia’s hands.
Nico fired through the open side window, aiming at the pursuing vehicle’s tires. The shot missed.
They were approaching the old Tobin service bridge, a narrow industrial crossing closed to public traffic during repairs.
The Sterling SUV carrying Elena turned onto it.
Their driver followed.
The pursuing vehicle rammed them a third time.
This time, the sedan spun.
Metal screamed.
The car struck the bridge railing and stopped inches from the edge.
Dante’s driver slumped over the steering wheel.
Blood ran from a wound near his temple.
The pursuing SUV stopped behind them.
Two armed men stepped out.
Both wore Rossi badges.
Nico fired through the broken rear window. One attacker dropped behind the engine block. The other moved along the railing.
Dante opened his door.
Aria grabbed him. “Don’t.”
“If we stay here, they trap us.”
“Then let me drive.”
He stared at her.
“I learned on these roads,” she said. “Move.”
Dante pulled the unconscious driver from the seat while Nico covered them. Aria climbed over the center console and gripped the wheel.
Her hands shook.
She remembered her father shouting while she practiced at sixteen. Caleb laughing whenever she stalled. Grant sitting in the passenger seat, telling her that panic killed faster than mistakes.
Aria turned the key.
The engine coughed.
The armed man reached Dante’s side of the car.
Aria slammed the accelerator.
The sedan shot forward.
The open door struck the attacker and threw him against the railing. Dante pulled the door shut as Aria steered onto the bridge.
Ahead, the Sterling SUV carrying Elena was nearly across.
“Faster,” Dante said.
“The road is ice.”
“They are taking the south exit.”
“I know where it goes.”
Aria pressed harder.
The sedan fishtailed.
Lucia clutched the laptop against her chest. “The files copied.”
“Send them to the secure server,” Dante ordered.
“No signal.”
The Sterling SUV reached the far end of the bridge.
Aria saw its brake lights.
A truck pulled from a side road, blocking the exit.
“They’re changing vehicles,” Nico said.
Two guards dragged Elena from the SUV.
She fought them, kicking and twisting.
Aria did not slow.
“What are you doing?” Lucia demanded.
“Trust me.”
At the last second, Aria turned onto an unfinished maintenance lane running beneath the main bridge.
The sedan crashed through a plastic barrier and descended toward the lower access road.
Dante understood.
The lane curved beneath the Sterling vehicles and emerged beside the truck.
Aria accelerated up the opposite ramp.
They struck the truck broadside.
The impact spun the larger vehicle and knocked one guard to the ground. Elena tore free.
Nico opened his door before the sedan stopped.
“Get her!”
Dante moved with him.
The remaining guard aimed at Elena.
Aria saw the weapon.
“Elena, down!”
Her sister dropped.
Dante struck the guard from the side. The gun discharged into the air.
Nico pulled Elena into the sedan.
Dante climbed in after them.
“Drive.”
Aria drove.
Behind them, the Sterling guards recovered, but the twisted truck blocked the narrow access lane.
Elena threw her arms around Aria from the back seat.
“You came.”
Aria could not answer.
Tears blurred the road.
Dante placed one hand on the steering wheel to steady it.
“Eyes forward,” he said gently.
She nodded.
Only after they reached the highway did Nico notice the blood soaking Dante’s sleeve.
“You were hit.”
“It grazed me.”
Aria looked down.
Blood covered Dante’s hand where it rested beside hers.
The sight sent ice through her.
“Dante.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re bleeding.”
“Elena is safe.”
He said it as if that were the only fact that mattered.
Lucia examined the wound. “The bullet is still inside.”
Dante’s face had gone pale.
Aria kept driving while Elena held pressure against his shoulder.
The new phone in Aria’s clutch began ringing.
Victor’s number appeared on the screen.
No one answered.
A message arrived instead.
You have chosen your side.
Aria looked in the mirror at Elena’s frightened face, Lucia’s blood-covered hands, and Dante fighting to remain conscious.
For the first time, she did not feel like a Sterling being transferred between powerful men.
May you like
She had chosen.
And Victor Sterling was finally beginning to understand that his daughter was no longer afraid of losing him.
