Chapter 6 - SHADOWS BENEATH MANHATTAN
Vincent pulled the trigger. Three rounds struck the doorframe inches from Marcus’s head, forcing the traitor to dive behind a heavy mahogany credenza as wood fragments exploded like shrapnel.
Vincent backed into the narrow brick tunnel, his boots crunching over pulverized mortar. Leo followed, immediately pressing a second magnetic charge against the reinforced steel beam supporting the passage ceiling.
"Close your eyes and cover the baby's ears!" Leo shouted.
I threw myself onto the damp concrete floor of the corridor, pulling Sophie tight beneath my torso, burying her face into my chest. Vincent dropped over both of us like a shield of solid muscle and Kevlar just as the secondary charge detonated.
The world went deafeningly white. The ceiling collapsed behind us in a massive cascade of brick, iron, and mortar, sealing the passage from the main townhouse with several tons of impenetrable debris. The gunfire ceased, cut off instantly by the wall of stone.
Silence rushed back in, broken only by the dripping of subterranean condensation and Sophie’s muffled sobs.
"Are you hit?" Vincent's voice was right at my ear, deep, urgent, and unexpectedly gentle. His large, rough hand touched my temple, brushing away plaster dust and checking for blood.
"I'm... I'm okay," I gasped, my chest heaving. "Sophie's unhurt. Vincent, what just happened? Who were those men?"
Vincent pulled a pocket tactical light from his vest, flicking on a narrow beam of intense white light. It illuminated the damp, arched brick ceiling of an forgotten tunnel beneath the upper East Side. "Marcus bought out half of my board of directors," he said grimly, helping me to my feet. "He’s been planning this coup since the day Julian died. He needed Julian out of the way because Julian kept the real books. And now he needs Sophie because she’s the only one holding the cipher to prove where the money went."
"Uncle Vincent," Sophie whimpered, reaching her small hands out from my grip. "My rabbit. Walter is still on the piano."
Vincent paused. For a man who ruled a multi-million-dollar criminal empire through fear and calculated violence, his expression broke with profound sorrow. He gently reached down, his thumb stroking Sophie's dust-streaked cheek. "I will buy you ten rabbits, sweetheart. I promise. But right now, we have to keep you and Mommy safe."
"Where does this tunnel lead?" I asked, looking down the dark corridor stretching into the blackness.
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"To the carriage house on Seventy-Ninth," Leo said, checking the magazine of his sidearm. "My private vehicle is parked in the basement bay. But Vance has city cameras hacked. Once we break street level, every corrupt precinct detective from Midtown to the Bronx will be looking for this car."
"Then we don't go to street level," Vincent said, his eyes hardening with lethal resolve. "We go directly to the vault beneath Grand Central. If Marcus wants a war for the Marlo name, we take away the only thing keeping his allies loyal: the cash."
