Chapter 6 - The Shot That Changed the Rules
Elena was out of the SUV before anyone could stop her.
“Nico!”
Adrian moved with her, one arm held out to keep her behind the engine block as agents rushed the warehouse.
Nico rolled onto his back.
Blood darkened his sleeve.
“I’m okay!” he yelled. “Arm! It’s my arm!”
Elena sobbed once, sharp and breathless.
The driver was taken down alive. The sniper fled across the crane line and disappeared into the snow before agents could close the perimeter.
At the hospital, Nico received stitches and a fractured-humerus diagnosis. He was twenty-two, pale, furious, and more embarrassed than afraid.
“You got married without me,” he told Elena.
She stared at him. “You were at the wedding.”
“I mean mentally. I was hiding in the bar.”
She laughed despite herself, then covered her face as tears came.
Adrian waited near the door.
Nico noticed him.
“So,” he said. “You’re the husband.”
“Apparently.”
“You always this cheerful?”
“Only after midnight shootings.”
Nico looked at Elena. “I hate him less than Dad said I would.”
That sentence removed the humor.
Agent Mara Chen arrived before dawn. She was compact, calm, and unimpressed by Adrian’s reputation.
“We need the phone,” she told Elena.
Elena looked at Adrian.
He nodded. “It’s yours.”
Mara took it into evidence and explained the first discovery: the threatening number was tied to a disposable phone purchased by a shell company connected to Marcus Kane.
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
“And Victor?” Elena asked.
“Your father is denying knowledge of the kidnapping.”
Nico laughed bitterly. “Of course he is.”
Mara looked at him. “You were held for forty-three minutes. Did you hear any names?”
Nico’s expression changed.
“One.”
Elena leaned closer.
“The driver kept saying they had to call ‘the Senator.’”
Adrian frowned. “There is no senator in Victor’s circle.”
Nico shook his head. “That’s what I thought. But then I heard a voice through the phone.”
“Whose?”
Nico looked directly at Adrian.
“I’ve heard him on TV.”
Mara’s face went still.
Nico whispered, “It was Alderman Thomas Bell.”
Adrian’s expression changed.
Bell chaired the city committee that controlled commercial redevelopment along the river—and had publicly announced a corruption task force targeting Adrian six weeks earlier.
Elena understood at the same moment.
“This was never just about my father’s debt,” she said.
May you like
Adrian looked toward the snow-dark hospital window.
“No,” he said. “The marriage was bait.”
