Chapter 5 - The Midnight Extraction
The rain turned into a torrential downpour, hammering against the thin windows of the Bridgeport apartment.
Eleanor held Annie tightly on her lap, weeping silently as she told Silas the truth.
“After Jonathan was murdered, I knew Marcus wouldn't stop until the entire bloodline was erased,” Eleanor sobbed.
“I changed my name. I took the baby and disappeared into the poorest part of the city.”
“I gave up everything to keep her invisible.”
Silas stood by the window, looking out into the dark, rain-soaked streets with a heavy, broken heart.
“Daniel spent three years looking for you, Margaret,” Silas said softly.
“When the trail went cold, it broke him.”
“He became a ghost of a man. He let Marcus run the day-to-day operations because he simply stopped caring.”
Annie looked at the heavy silver coin in her hand, finally understanding the weight of it.
“The man at the station,” Annie whispered. “He is my grandfather?”
Silas turned around and offered her a warm, sad smile.
“Yes, little bird. He is your grandfather, and he is a very powerful, very dangerous man.”
Suddenly, Silas’s expression hardened.
His trained eyes caught the reflection of headlights shutting off halfway down the block.
Four men in dark raincoats stepped out of two unmarked sedans, pulling suppressed submachine guns from under their coats.
Marcus hadn't waited. The hit squad was already here.
“Margaret, grab the medicine and put your shoes on right now!” Silas barked, his voice turning into a military command.
Eleanor didn't ask questions. She had lived in the mafia world long enough to know what that tone meant.
Silas drew a massive, suppressed handgun from his shoulder holster and kicked the heavy wooden dining table over, barricading the front door.
“Annie, stay behind your grandmother. Do not make a sound,” Silas ordered.
Footsteps echoed heavily on the wooden stairs outside the apartment.
Then, the lock began to turn quietly.
Silas didn't wait for them to breach the room.
He raised his weapon and fired three rapid shots straight through the center of the wooden door.
Two heavy thuds echoed from the hallway as bodies hit the floor.
“Move! Out the fire escape!” Silas roared, providing covering fire as the remaining assassins tried to shoot through the drywall.
Bullets ripped through the cheap apartment, shattering the windows and destroying Eleanor’s green armchair.
Eleanor grabbed Annie’s hand and pushed her out the broken window onto the rusted metal fire escape.
The rain soaked them instantly as they scrambled down the slippery iron stairs into the dark alley below.
Silas backed out of the window last, firing blindly into the hallway to keep the attackers pinned down.
He grabbed Annie and threw her over his massive shoulder, supporting Eleanor with his other arm as they ran toward his hidden, armored SUV.
Gunfire chewed up the brick walls around them, but Silas was a ghost in the night.
They dove into the heavy vehicle, and Silas slammed the gas pedal to the floor.
The bulletproof tires screeched against the wet pavement, leaving the assassins in the dust.
“Where are we going?” Eleanor gasped, clutching her chest as her cough flared up fiercely.
Silas looked in the rearview mirror, his eyes burning with a righteous, terrifying fury.
May you like
“We are going to the fortress,” Silas said grimly.
“We are going to wake up the King.”
