Chapter 9 - EIGHT MINUTES ACROSS THE RIVER
Anthony kept the gun against me as the boat cut across the black water.
"Tell your driver to go faster."
He laughed.
"That's your opening?"
"Daniel has eight minutes."
"Daniel has less."
My stomach dropped.
"What did you do?"
"The timer began before your friend found it."
"You said nine."
"Marcus said nine."
Anthony tapped his watch.
"That was almost two minutes ago."
I wanted to kill him.
I had never wanted to kill anyone before.
The realization frightened me more than the weapon at my ribs.
"Why Daniel?"
"Because weak men are useful."
"He trusted you."
"He owed me."
"That's not the same."
"To people like me, it is."
There.
The difference.
Damian frightened people too.
Controlled rooms.
Issued orders like they were gravity.
But he'd carried the scar of every person he lost as if their absence accused him personally.
Anthony treated people like receipts.
Proof of transactions.
Disposable once paid.
"You killed my father."
"He interfered."
"You killed Luca Cross."
"He became sentimental."
"You betrayed Vincent."
"He became old."
"And now Damian?"
Anthony smiled.
"He inherited a throne without understanding that thrones are only chairs surrounded by frightened people."
I looked behind us.
Another boat appeared.
Farther back.
Fast.
Damian.
Anthony saw it too.
"Persistent."
He fired twice toward it.
My entire body jolted.
"Stop!"
"Sit down."
"No."
The gun returned toward me.
"Sit."
I did.
Newark's container cranes rose ahead.
My earpiece had gone silent when I left the pier.
I touched it discreetly.
Static.
Then Marcus's voice.
"—ena—hear—"
I kept my face blank.
Anthony didn't notice.
"Marcus?"
"Six minutes. Building C northeast entrance. We need the detonator."
"Where?"
Anthony's eyes narrowed.
"Talking to someone?"
I coughed.
"Talking to myself."
He ripped the earpiece out.
"Damian really has made you ambitious."
"No. You did."
The boat slammed against the dock.
Anthony jumped out and dragged me after him.
Two armed men waited.
We ran through rows of containers toward Building C.
Somewhere behind us, Damian's boat arrived.
Shots cracked.
Anthony's men turned.
Anthony shoved me forward.
Inside the warehouse, Daniel sat where the video had shown him.
"Elena!"
I ran toward him.
Anthony caught my hair.
Pain flashed across my scalp.
"No."
He dragged me backward.
Daniel fought the ropes.
"You son of a—"
Anthony struck him.
I screamed.
"Stop!"
"Where are the real drives?"
"I don't know."
"Wrong."
"I don't!"
He shoved the gun beneath my chin.
"The drives."
I stared at him.
Then beyond him.
A small black case sat on a crate.
Red numbers blinked.
03:41.
Bomb timer.
Marcus said they needed the detonator.
Maybe that case controlled it.
Anthony followed my eyes.
"Don't."
"You'll die too."
"No."
He smiled.
"I'm leaving."
"Then why bring me here?"
"Because Damian followed you."
Understanding hit.
This wasn't about Daniel.
It wasn't even about the evidence.
Anthony wanted Damian inside the blast radius.
He had spent twelve years erasing the Cross family.
Tonight he intended to finish.
I looked at Daniel.
He understood too.
"Elena," he whispered.
I'm sorry lived inside the word.
I shook my head.
No.
Not now.
Anthony pulled me toward the door.
"Come."
"I'm staying."
"What?"
"If Daniel dies, I'm staying."
"Don't be dramatic."
"I'm not."
The timer reached 03:06.
Anthony's face tightened.
"Move."
"No."
He raised his hand.
I braced.
The warehouse lights died.
Gunfire erupted outside.
Damian.
Anthony cursed.
Daniel shouted, "NOW!"
I dropped.
Daniel threw his entire weight sideways in the chair.
His shoulder slammed into Anthony's knees.
Anthony fired into the ceiling.
I lunged for the black case.
Anthony grabbed my ankle.
I kicked.
Once.
Twice.
He pulled me backward.
Then Damian appeared through the doorway.
Blood on his forehead.
Gun raised.
"Let her go."
Anthony laughed from the floor.
"Family weakness again."
Damian fired.
The bullet struck the ground inches from Anthony's hand.
His weapon spun away.
"Next one doesn't miss."
Anthony released me.
Marcus rushed in behind Damian.
"Timer!"
01:58.
He opened the black case.
Wires.
Switches.
A digital receiver.
"This isn't the main."
"What?" I asked.
"Remote relay."
"Can you stop it?"
Marcus worked fast.
"Maybe."
Damian cut Daniel's ropes.
I helped pull him upright.
01:31.
"Go," Marcus ordered.
"I'm not leaving you," Damian said.
"That's emotionally touching and tactically stupid."
Anthony laughed.
"You're all dead."
Damian turned toward him.
Anthony was smiling.
Too confidently.
Marcus looked up.
"There's a second device."
Silence.
"Where?" Damian asked.
Anthony said nothing.
00:58.
I searched the room.
Crates.
Steel beams.
Office windows.
Then I saw it.
A small red light beneath Daniel's chair.
"Marcus."
He crawled toward it.
"Pressure trigger."
Daniel stared.
"I've been sitting on it."
"If you stand completely, it activates."
Daniel had already been lifted halfway.
Everyone froze.
Marcus shoved him downward.
"Sit!"
Daniel collapsed back into the chair.
The main timer stopped at 00:42.
We all stared.
Anthony's smile disappeared.
Marcus exhaled.
"Pressure-linked."
"What now?" I whispered.
"If Daniel leaves the seat, countdown resumes."
"Can you disable it?"
"Yes."
"How long?"
Marcus looked at the wiring.
"Longer than forty-two seconds."
Of course.
Damian looked toward the doorway.
"Evacuate everyone."
Marcus shook his head.
"If I cut wrong, immediate detonation."
Daniel looked at me.
"I deserve this."
"Shut up."
"Elena—"
"No."
"I caused everything."
"You made mistakes."
"I gave them Dad's files."
"You were scared."
"I gambled away the company."
"Then spend the rest of your life making it right."
His eyes filled.
"You still want me to have one?"
"A life?"
I took his hand.
"Yes, idiot."
Behind us, Anthony suddenly moved.
He grabbed his discarded weapon.
Damian turned.
The shot came.
Marcus jerked.
I screamed.
Damian fired back.
Anthony stumbled into the wall, clutching his shoulder.
Not dead.
Marcus lay beside the bomb.
Blood spread beneath him.
"Marcus!"
"I'm fine."
He clearly wasn't.
The timer still showed 00:42.
Marcus tried to sit up.
His arm failed.
Damian knelt beside him.
"Talk me through it."
Marcus laughed weakly.
"You hate electronics."
"Tonight I love them."
Anthony groaned near the wall.
Daniel remained perfectly still.
I crouched beside Marcus.
"Tell me."
He looked at my hands.
"Bakery girl."
"What?"
"You work with tiny decorations?"
"Pastry, yes."
"Steady hands?"
"When nobody shoots me."
"Good."
He pointed beneath the chair.
"There are four wires."
Damian immediately said, "No."
Marcus ignored him.
"Blue, white, yellow, black."
"I see them."
"Don't touch yellow."
"Why?"
"Because I enjoy surprises."
"Marcus."
"Immediate trigger."
My fingers shook.
Damian crouched opposite me.
"Elena, stop."
"Daniel can't move."
"We find another way."
"Forty-two seconds isn't another way."
His eyes locked on mine.
Fear.
Actual fear.
Not for himself.
For me.
"Please."
The word nearly destroyed me.
Damian Cross did not look like a man who said please.
I reached under the chair.
Marcus guided me.
"White wire goes to pressure sensor. Black to relay."
"Which first?"
"Black."
I found it.
"Cut?"
"Not yet."
Anthony laughed weakly.
"She's going to kill you all."
Damian aimed his gun at him without looking.
"Speak again and you'll miss the ending."
Anthony shut up.
I took the cutters.
"Now?"
Marcus nodded.
"Now."
I cut black.
Nothing.
I breathed.
"White?"
"Wait."
He studied the board.
Then his face changed.
"What?"
Marcus whispered, "Anthony reversed the circuit."
"What does that mean?"
"It means white isn't pressure."
"Which is?"
His eyes moved toward the yellow wire.
The one he had told me never to touch.
"Oh, you've got to be kidding."
Anthony started laughing again.
Daniel closed his eyes.
Damian looked at Marcus.
"Are you certain?"
"No."
"Marcus."
"Seventy percent."
I stared at yellow.
Forty-two seconds frozen.
One cut could save everyone.
One cut could kill us instantly.
Damian reached for my hand.
"Elena."
I looked at him.
"If this goes wrong—"
"It won't."
"You don't know that."
"No."
He squeezed my fingers.
"But I know you."
It was absurd.
We had known each other barely two days.
Yet somehow I understood him.
What he meant.
He trusted me.
Not because I was trained.
Not because I belonged in this world.
Because every time fear arrived, I kept moving.
I lifted the cutters.
Anthony stopped laughing.
I cut the yellow wire.
For one terrible second, nothing happened.
Then the red display went black.
Marcus exhaled.
Daniel sobbed.
Damian closed his eyes.
And I started laughing.
I couldn't help it.
Hysterical, breathless laughter spilled out of me until Daniel laughed too.
Even Marcus managed one.
Then sirens sounded outside.
Federal vehicles.
Real ones this time.
Damian stood and pulled me into his arms.
No hesitation.
No permission.
I should have objected.
Instead, I held on.
His heartbeat hammered against my cheek.
"You keep doing that," he whispered.
"Doing what?"
"Standing between bullets and people."
I closed my eyes.
"Maybe people should stop shooting around me."
His hand moved to the back of my head.
"That would be my preference."
Behind us, Anthony Bell lay bleeding, surrounded by men who would finally make sure he couldn't run.
For the first time, I thought it might be over.
Then a federal agent entered holding one of the recovered flash drives.
Her face was grim.
"Damian."
He released me slowly.
"What?"
"We opened the first file."
"And?"
She looked at me.
Then at him.
"Anthony wasn't the highest name on the list."
The room went silent.
"Who was?" Damian asked.
The agent swallowed.
"Someone who's been sitting inside your organization since before your father died."
Damian's face hardened.
"Name."
She turned the tablet toward him.
Marcus read it first.
His injured face went white.
Damian didn't react for three full seconds.
May you like
Then I saw something break behind his eyes.
The name on the screen was Marcus Vale.
