Chapter 10 - Face to Face with the Devil
Harper didn't lower her weapon. She kept it leveled straight at Preston’s chest. “Stay right there, Preston.”
Preston chuckled, shaking the rain from his coat. “Look at you. Playing soldier with the mob. Did you really think Enzo DeLuca cared about you? You were an invoice to him, Harper. A receipt for a dead brother.”
“Enzo gave me his jacket,” Harper said, her voice echoing in the vast, empty lobby. “You gave me scars.”
Preston’s smile vanished, replaced by an ugly, sneering rage. “I gave you a life! I gave you a roof, an education, and high-society status! And you repay me by giving away my files to the scum of Chicago? You were always weak, just like your mother.”
“My mother didn't die of cancer, did she?” Harper asked, her finger tightening on the trigger. “You poisoned her when she found the shipping manifests.”
Preston didn't even flinch. “Your mother was an obstacle. Just like Nathan DeLuca. Just like Enzo. And just like you.”
He reached inside his coat, but Harper was faster.
She squeezed the trigger.
Crack!
The round hit Preston squarely in the shoulder, knocking him back against the heavy glass revolving doors. He yelled in pain, his men outside raising their rifles in response.
“Now, Enzo!” Harper screamed into the comms unit.
From the second-floor balcony above the lobby, Enzo leaned over the railing with an M4 rifle, unleashing a deafening stream of fire into the glass exterior. The massive glass panels shattered in a cascade of crystal shards, shredding Preston’s gunmen in the courtyard.
Harper hit the red button on the remote detonator.
BOOM!
The C4 charges detonated simultaneously. The concrete columns blew outward in clouds of fire and dust. The entire steel-and-glass roof of the lobby groaned, fractured, and collapsed downward like an avalanche of concrete and iron.
Preston scrambled backward through the broken entryway just as tons of debris crashed down between them, cutting off the front doors in a wall of flaming rubble.
May you like
Harper turned and sprinted toward the basement door.
Enzo dropped down from the mezzanine, catching her by the hand as the ceiling behind them gave way, dragging her down the stairs just as the entire front half of the annex imploded into dust.
