CHAPTER 14: THE DEVIL’S BARGAIN
Mark hauled them down the decaying wooden pier, his heavy boots echoing in the dead silence.
A sleek, armored black sedan sat hidden in the deep shadows of an abandoned industrial shipping tunnel.
“Get in the back seat and keep your heads down,” Mark ordered, yanking open the bulletproof door.
Sarah shoved Lily quickly into the warm, pristine interior, sliding in directly behind her daughter.
The luxurious, heated leather seats felt like an alien world compared to the freezing ocean they had just narrowly escaped.
Mark slid behind the heavy steering wheel, instantly bringing the massive engine to life with a quiet, terrifying purr.
He didn’t turn on the headlights, plunging the heavy vehicle blindly into the dark, abandoned industrial streets.
“Where exactly have you been hiding for five years?” Sarah demanded, shivering violently as the heavy car heater blasted her soaking wet clothes.
“I’ve been living in the dark shadows of Victor’s own syndicate,” Mark answered, keeping his cold eyes locked on the dark road.
“I was dismantling his criminal empire piece by piece from the inside out.”
Sarah stared at the back of her husband’s head, unable to reconcile his mundane past with this violent present.
If the person you loved most turned out to be a criminal mastermind, could you ever truly forgive them for their ultimate deception?
“You ruined our lives just to play a twisted game of mafia chess,” Sarah cried, wiping freezing saltwater from her bruised face.
“I played the deadly game to win our freedom,” Mark corrected sharply, taking a dark corner at terrifying speed.
“With the master ledgers on that silver drive, I can finally put Victor in a federal maximum security prison forever.”
Lily unbuckled her heavy seatbelt slowly, leaning her eleven-year-old body forward between the two front leather seats.
“You are lying again, Daddy,” Lily announced, her copper eyes locked onto his dark reflection in the rearview mirror.
The heavy armored car swerved dangerously for a split second as Mark’s iron control slipped.
“Sit back in your seat right this exact second, Lily,” Mark commanded, his voice shaking with a sudden, lethal edge.
“What exactly is he lying about, sweetie?” Sarah asked, her heart hammering against her ribs as pure terror flooded her veins.
“He is clenching his jaw exactly the same way he used to when he lied about paying our electric bill,” Lily explained flawlessly.
“He does not want to put Victor in a federal prison at all.”
Sarah turned her terrified gaze slowly toward her supposedly dead husband, the horrifying realization dropping like a heavy lead weight into her stomach.
“What do you actually want to do with the silver drive, Mark?” Sarah whispered, terrified of the brutal answer.
Mark slammed his foot onto the brake pedal, throwing the massive armored sedan into a screeching halt.
They were parked directly in the center of an empty, massive concrete underpass hidden from the city above.
Mark slowly turned around in the heavy driver’s seat, staring directly at his terrified wife and his brilliant daughter.
“Victor and Vance destroyed my life and forced me to abandon my own flesh and blood,” Mark stated, his dark eyes burning with unadulterated ambition.
“I am not going to give that silver drive to the federal police.”
“Then what are you going to do with it?” Sarah breathed out, pressing her shaking back against the locked car door.
“I am going to use it to blackmail the entire Japanese syndicate,” Mark revealed, a dark, twisted smile creeping across his face.
“I am going to take Vance’s throne and rule the criminal empire myself.”
Sarah gasped in pure horror, finally realizing she had not just escaped the monster hunting them in the fog.
She had climbed directly into the devil’s personal getaway car.
“Now hand me the silver drive right now, Sarah,” Mark ordered, holding his open hand directly over the heavy center console.
“No,” Sarah refused flatly, clutching her daughter and the heavy metal box tightly against her chest with every ounce of her strength.
Mark reached into his expensive black overcoat, pulling out a heavy, suppressed handgun.
He aimed the lethal barrel directly at the center of his own terrified wife’s forehead.
“I didn’t want to do this the hard way, Sarah,” Mark whispered coldly. “But you leave me no choice.”
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