Chapter 6 - One Last War
Victor never got the chance to pull the trigger.
Vera dropped.
Not because he released her.
Because she bit his hand.
Hard.
Victor shouted.
Gage fired.
The bullet struck Victor’s shoulder.
He spun backward.
Vera rolled beneath the railing.
I ran toward her.
“Delaney!”
Gage’s warning came too late.
Victor recovered and aimed at me.
Danner fired from the doorway.
Victor’s gun flew from his hand.
Curtis stormed onto the walkway with two men.
“Down!”
Victor looked around.
Every exit was covered.
He laughed.
Then raised his hands.
“You think you won?”
Gage climbed the stairs slowly.
His wound had opened again.
Blood stained his shirt.
Victor noticed.
“Still dying?”
Gage stopped in front of him.
“Apparently I’m difficult.”
Curtis restrained Victor.
Gage looked at Vera.
She was crying beside me.
“You gave him Delaney’s information?”
Vera nodded.
“I’m sorry.”
Gage’s face turned cold.
I stepped between them.
“She answers to the police.”
Victor laughed.
“You really think police matter anymore?”
Danner stepped forward.
“They do.”
Victor looked at him.
“The corrupt sheriff?”
Danner’s face tightened.
“No.”
He removed his badge.
“The former corrupt sheriff.”
He dropped it onto the floor.
“After tonight, I confess to everything.”
Victor smiled.
“Heroic.”
“No.”
Danner looked at me.
“Late.”
Then Curtis’s radio crackled.
“Boss, we have incoming vehicles.”
Gage turned.
“How many?”
“Too many.”
Victor started laughing again.
“Dominic.”
Gage stared at him.
Victor smiled through the blood on his mouth.
“He knows you found out.”
Engines roared outside.
Curtis looked at Gage.
“We need to move.”
Gage shook his head.
“No.”
“Boss.”
“If Dominic came here himself, this ends here.”
I grabbed Gage’s arm.
“You can barely stand.”
“I’m getting tired of hearing that.”
“Then stop proving it.”
His eyes met mine.
For one second, the war disappeared.
He touched my cheek.
“Stay inside.”
“No.”
“Delaney.”
“You already know the answer.”
A faint smile.
“Yes.”
Then gunfire erupted outside.
The final battle for Gage Sartori’s empire began in an abandoned power station during the worst storm Hollis Bend had seen in twenty years.
And somehow, I was standing in the middle of it.
Curtis moved his men into position.
Danner took the west entrance.
Elena arrived with another security team and immediately ran toward us.
“Gage!”
“What are you doing here?”
She looked offended.
“The same stupid thing you are.”
I liked her more every minute.
The outer doors exploded inward.
Men entered.
Gunfire filled the station.
Concrete shattered.
Gage pulled me behind a turbine.
“Stay low.”
“I know.”
“You have no training.”
“I hit a man with a skillet yesterday.”
“That is not training.”
“It worked.”
He almost laughed.
Then a bullet struck the turbine above us.
“Okay,” I admitted. “This is worse.”
“Thank you.”
Curtis shouted from across the station.
“Dominic’s moving upstairs!”
Gage looked toward the control room.
“I’m going.”
I grabbed him.
“So am I.”
“No.”
“Stop wasting time.”
He stared at me.
Then nodded once.
We climbed the rear stairs.
At the top, an older man waited inside the control room.
Dominic Sartori.
Silver hair.
Expensive overcoat.
No weapon visible.
He looked strangely calm.
“Gage.”
Gage entered.
“Uncle.”
Dominic looked at me.
“So this is her.”
I hated the way he said it.
“The waitress.”
“Diner owner.”
“Not for much longer, I imagine.”
Gage stepped forward.
“You hired Victor.”
“Yes.”
The simplicity of the answer shocked me.
Gage’s face remained still.
“Why?”
Dominic poured himself a drink from a flask.
“Because you became weak.”
Gage laughed quietly.
“I survived your ambush.”
“I don’t mean physically.”
Dominic glanced at me.
“You began caring about things.”
Elena entered behind us.
Dominic sighed.
“And your sister remains sentimental.”
Elena raised her gun.
“You kidnapped me.”
“No. Victor did.”
“You paid him.”
“Semantics.”
Gage’s voice dropped.
“You killed our father too?”
Dominic stopped drinking.
That answer came without words.
Gage stared at him.
Elena whispered, “No.”
Dominic smiled sadly.
“My brother was going to destroy everything we built.”
Gage looked as if someone had struck him.
“You told me he died in a robbery.”
“He did.”
“A robbery you arranged.”
Dominic shrugged.
“The organization survived.”
Gage raised his gun.
I caught his wrist.
He looked at me.
“Don’t.”
“You heard him.”
“Yes.”
“He killed my father.”
“I know.”
“He tried to kill Elena.”
“I know.”
“He came for you.”
My hand tightened around his wrist.
“And if you execute him now, he wins the last thing he can still take from you.”
Gage’s eyes burned.
Dominic laughed.
“She really believes you can become something else.”
Gage looked at him.
Then slowly lowered the gun.
Dominic’s smile vanished.
Gage said, “You always taught me power was controlling the room.”
“Yes.”
“You were wrong.”
Dominic’s eyes narrowed.
Gage handed his weapon to Curtis, who had just entered.
“Power is knowing when not to pull the trigger.”
Dominic suddenly reached inside his coat.
I saw it first.
“Gage!”
A pistol appeared.
I slammed into Gage.
The gun fired.
Pain ripped across my shoulder.
I hit the floor.
Everything became sound.
Gage shouting.
Elena screaming.
Curtis firing.
Then silence.
I stared at the ceiling.
Gage appeared above me.
“Delaney.”
His hands were shaking.
I had never seen them shake before.
“Look at me.”
“I am.”
“You’re hit.”
“I noticed.”
“Where?”
“Shoulder.”
He tore open my coat.
The bullet had passed through the outer muscle.
Blood.
Lots of it.
But I could move my arm.
“Curtis!”
“I’m here.”
“Medic!”
Dominic was lying near the control panel.
Alive.
Wounded.
His weapon kicked away.
Gage didn’t even look at him.
He pressed his hand against my shoulder.
“Stay with me.”
I managed a weak smile.
“You always say dramatic things?”
His face tightened.
“Delaney.”
“I’m not dying.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know where my heart is.”
“You’re impossible.”
“So I’ve heard.”
Elena crouched beside us.
“She’s right. Entry is high.”
Gage closed his eyes for half a second.
Relief.
Then he looked at me again.
“You saved me again.”
“Apparently, you’re expensive to maintain.”
His laugh broke somewhere between relief and fear.
Outside, gunfire faded.
Curtis spoke into his radio.
“All hostile units surrendering. Dominic’s men are laying down weapons.”
Gage didn’t look away from me.
“It’s over.”
I nodded.
“Good.”
Then I remembered something.
“Victor?”
“Alive.”
“Dominic?”
“Also alive.”
“You’re letting the police take them?”
Gage looked at Danner, who stood near the door.
“Yes.”
That surprised everyone.
Dominic laughed weakly from the floor.
“You think courtrooms will save you?”
Gage finally turned toward him.
“No.”
He looked back at me.
“I think she did.”
For the first time since the strangers knocked on my door, the mountain became quiet.
No engines.
No gunshots.
Only snow falling beyond the broken windows.
May you like
The war was over.
But I still didn’t know what would happen when Gage Sartori no longer needed me to survive.
