Chapter 17 - The Counterattack
Victor shot Nolan.
The sound exploded through the room.
Nolan dropped.
I screamed.
Victor pulled me toward the rear exit.
Then Gabriel slammed his wheelchair into the glass partition.
Once.
Twice.
The weakened panel shattered.
Victor turned.
That gave me one second.
One was enough.
I drove my elbow into his ribs.
He released me.
I ran.
The corridor was chaos.
Federal agents moved through one entrance.
Victor’s private security fired from another.
Dante appeared at the far end.
He was pale.
Bleeding.
Furious.
“Emily!”
Victor grabbed me again.
A gun pressed against my side.
“Stop.”
Dante stopped.
Every agent did too.
Victor backed toward the elevator.
“You should have stayed in your lane, Moretti.”
Dante’s eyes never left mine.
“You should have stayed away from her.”
Victor laughed.
“She was never the point.”
“No.”
Dante glanced toward Gabriel.
“You were.”
Gabriel stood shakily behind the shattered glass.
Victor’s face changed.
Gabriel spoke for the first time.
His voice was rough from years of damage.
“You always needed someone else to be afraid.”
Victor tightened his grip.
Gabriel continued.
“Thomas figured that out.”
Victor pointed the gun toward him.
Dante moved.
I dropped.
A shot fired.
Federal agents swarmed Victor.
He hit the floor beneath three officers.
His gun skidded away.
For several seconds, nobody moved.
Then Dante reached me.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
He pulled me into him.
I held on.
Not because I needed rescuing.
Because I wanted to.
Across the room, medics reached Nolan.
He was alive.
Barely.
Gabriel sat against the wall staring at Dante.
The brothers had not seen each other in eighteen years.
Dante walked toward him.
Neither spoke.
Then Gabriel laughed weakly.
“You got old.”
Dante’s face crumpled.
“So did you.”
They embraced.
Anna appeared with federal agents minutes later.
She was alive too.
For one impossible moment, people who had been separated by murder, lies, and seventeen years stood in the same room.
Then Rebecca approached.
“We have Victor.”
Dante looked at her.
“It isn’t over.”
She nodded.
“No.”
Because Victor Hale was only one name on SAINT’s list.
May you like
And now we had to expose the rest before they buried him with their secrets.
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