Chapter 11 - BLACKOUT
The house went dark.
Somebody screamed.
It might have been me.
Emergency lights blinked on.
Marco shouted orders.
Vincent grabbed Mom and me.
“Basement.”
“No,” Mom said.
“Claire.”
“I’m not hiding in a basement while he—”
A window shattered.
Gunfire cracked outside.
Everybody dropped.
Vincent covered us with his body.
Marco fired toward the garden.
Vega dragged me behind a stone wall.
“Stay down!”
The generator failed.
Total darkness.
Then headlights exploded across the front lawn.
A delivery truck smashed through the gate.
Sterling’s Bistro.
Mom stared.
“You have got to be kidding me.”
The truck hit the fountain.
A man jumped from the passenger side.
Not Sterling.
He fired twice.
Vincent’s men returned fire.
Vega pulled Mom toward the hallway.
I crawled with them.
Then a hand grabbed my hoodie.
I screamed.
A masked man pulled me backward.
Mom turned.
“RORY!”
She launched herself at him.
No hesitation.
No weapon.
Just Mom.
She clawed his face.
He punched her.
Vincent hit him from the side.
They crashed into a table.
I crawled toward Mom.
Blood ran from her lip.
“I’m okay.”
She wasn’t.
Nobody cared.
Vincent ripped the mask off the attacker.
Malloy.
The crooked cop.
Vega stared.
“You were in custody.”
Malloy grinned.
“Not anymore.”
Somebody had helped him escape.
That meant the leak was bigger.
Marco handcuffed him.
Outside, the gunfire stopped.
The delivery truck was empty.
Sterling had never been inside.
It was a distraction.
Vincent realized it first.
“The restaurant.”
Mom looked at him.
“What?”
“The original records.”
Eli’s eyes widened.
“The server backup.”
Sterling was going back to the bistro.
We reached it twenty minutes later.
The front door stood open.
Inside, tables were overturned.
The office had been torn apart.
Vincent walked in first.
A sound came from the kitchen.
Mom grabbed a knife from the bar.
Vincent looked at her.
She shrugged.
“I worked restaurants.”
They entered.
Sterling stood beside the industrial freezer.
He held a pistol.
And Hannah Reed, Mom’s attorney, was on her knees in front of him.
Blood ran from her forehead.
Mom froze.
“Hannah.”
Sterling smiled.
“There she is.”
Vincent raised his hands slightly.
“David.”
“Don’t.”
Sterling pressed the gun against Hannah’s head.
“Everybody stops.”
They stopped.
Vega was still outside coordinating officers.
Sterling looked at Mom.
“Bring me the confession.”
Mom stared at him.
“You’re done.”
“No.”
His hand shook.
“I’m almost done.”
“You lost.”
“I lost because of you.”
Mom laughed bitterly.
“No.”
She pointed at herself.
“I was the person you thought couldn’t fight back.”
Sterling’s face twisted.
“You were nothing.”
Mom stepped closer.
“And you still couldn’t beat me.”
Sterling screamed.
“Stop!”
The gun jerked.
Hannah closed her eyes.
Then I saw something under the prep table.
Sterling’s Porsche keys.
He must have dropped them earlier.
I crawled.
Nobody noticed.
I grabbed them.
The alarm button had a little red symbol.
I pressed it.
Outside, the Porsche horn exploded.
Sterling flinched.
Hannah moved.
Mom lunged.
Vincent rushed forward.
May you like
The gun fired.
And somebody fell.
