Chapter 6 - Fire on the Water
The harbor was an inferno.
Thick, black smoke billowed into the midnight sky as Warehouse 4 burned like a massive torch against the black ocean. Fire engines wailed in the distance, but they were blocked three blocks back by jackknifed semi-trucks placed strategically by Romano’s mercenaries.
Automatic gunfire rattled through the maze of metal shipping containers like popping corn.
The armored SUV smashed through a chain-link fence, coming to a halt directly behind the Costa command center—a hastily fortified line of black sedans near the main dock office.
When Luciano stepped out into the rain, his gun drawn, a dozen armed men cheered. But when he turned and offered his hand, pulling Chloe out of the vehicle right beside him, the men fell dead silent.
Chloe stood in the freezing rain, her Kevlar vest bulging slightly under her midnight-blue velvet gown, her hair soaking wet, holding a silver revolver in her right hand with absolute, steady conviction.
"Don Luciano!" Capo Santoro shouted, running up while ducking beneath the sound of distant rifle fire. "They've got snipers on the crane! We can't move into the main office to secure the shipping manifests!"
"Where is Eduardo Romano?" Luciano demanded, stepping behind a steel container as a bullet pinged off the metal above them.
"He's in the control tower at the end of Pier 9!" Santoro yelled back over the sound of roaring flames. "He brought Celeste with him! They're preparing to launch a speedboat to escape across the bay to international waters once they finish wiping our server drives!"
Luciano checked his watch. "We have ten minutes before the Coast Guard breaches the harbor perimeter. If Eduardo gets on that boat, he lives to fight another day."
"Then we cut off the tower's power," Chloe spoke up, her voice surprisingly loud over the sound of the burning wood.
Luciano turned to her. "What?"
"The control tower," Chloe said, pointing through the smoke toward the metal superstructure overlooking Pier 9. "I worked housekeeping for the harbor authority two years ago before I took the job at your estate, Luciano! The main generator for Pier 9 isn't in the tower! It's in the basement of the maintenance building right behind us! If you cut the power, the electronic locks on the pier gates will trigger automatically into lockdown mode. They won't be able to reach their speedboat!"
Luciano stared at her, his mind calculating at lightspeed. A dark, ferocious grin split his features.
"Santoro!" Luciano ordered. "Take three men and hit the maintenance basement! Cut the power!"
"On it, Boss!"
"Luciano," Chloe said, grabbing his arm as Santoro ran off. "The manifest backup drives aren't in the main office either. They're mirrored in the control tower terminal. If Eduardo flees, he'll burn the hard drives. You need those files to prove he ordered the arson, or the insurance and shipping unions will destroy you legally!"
Luciano looked at her with an intensity that burned hotter than the warehouse fire behind them. "How do you know that?"
"Because I used to clean those offices every night at 3 AM," she said with a fierce, quiet pride. "I read everything while I dusted."
Luciano let out a booming laugh, pulling her close and kissing her hard on the lips—a brief, brutal, possessive kiss that tasted of rain, salt, and adrenaline.
"You are the greatest decision I ever made," he growled against her lips. "Cover me!"
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Thirty seconds later, the harbor lights went pitch black.
A heavy mechanical clanking echoed across Pier 9 as the massive iron lockdown gates slammed shut, trapping Don Eduardo Romano and Celeste at the end of the pier.
