Chapter 14 - The Boardroom Ambush
Z
The rain hammered down on the desolate, gravel pit of the abandoned Blue Hills quarry like a curtain of steel needles.
In the center of the muddy clearing, the heavy armored Suburban sat tilted against a massive granite boulder, its front grill crushed from ramming through the quarry’s chain-link gate. Both rear tires were shredded, steam hissing from the bullet-punctured radiator.
Fifty yards away, four men dressed in tactical black rain gear stood behind the open doors of two black SUVs, their automatic rifles leveled at the armored vehicle.
Inside the Suburban, Nora was crouched on the floorboards, shielding Lily with her entire body. Lily was crying softly, her tiny fingers clutching Barnaby the rabbit against her soaked sweater.
“Shh, baby, it’s okay,” Nora whispered through her own tears, her voice shaking violently. “Adrian is coming. The lion is coming.”
Marcus sat in the front passenger seat, blood dripping down his temple from a glass fracture, holding his sidearm with unyielding focus. “They’re bringing up a hydraulic breaching charge, Mr. Moretti. The armored glass will only hold for another ninety seconds.”
Suddenly, the deafening, rhythmic roar of twin turbine engines tore through the storm clouds.
A sleek, midnight-black Sikorsky S-76 helicopter descended through the rain, hovering thirty feet above the quarry floor, its massive downwash whipping the mud and gravel into a blinding hurricane.
The gunmen flinched, shielding their eyes as powerful floodlights mounted beneath the aircraft’s nose illuminated the clearing in blinding, stadium-grade white light.
From the tree line behind the quarry entrance, three black Cadillac Escalades roared into the clearing at eighty miles per hour, sliding sideways to form a fortified perimeter around the gunmen’s vehicles.
Adrian Moretti stepped out of the lead vehicle.
He wore no tactical gear, no armor, and no raincoat. He stood in the pouring rain in his dark charcoal suit, his face carved from granite, an automatic tactical shotgun resting calmly in his grip. Gabriel and six heavily armed private security operatives fanned out in a lethal semi-circle around him, their laser sights painting bright red dots across the chests of the four mercenary gunmen.
The lead mercenary, a scarred European operative named Varga who had orchestrated Salvatore’s overseas enforcement, looked around at the overwhelming ring of steel and firepower. He realized within three seconds that they had walked into an absolute slaughterhouse.
“Drop your weapons!” Gabriel’s voice boomed over a loudspeaker from the helicopter above. “Drop them now, or you will be buried in this quarry!”
Varga stared at Adrian. Through the torrential downpour, Adrian’s eyes were cold, unblinking, and entirely devoid of human mercy. There was no corporate negotiation here. No legal compromise.
Varga slowly opened his fingers. His automatic rifle clattered into the mud.
The other three men followed immediately, throwing their weapons to the ground and falling to their knees with their hands behind their heads.
Gabriel’s men moved in with clinical speed, securing the mercenaries in heavy flex-cuffs and forcing their faces into the wet gravel.
Adrian did not look at the captured men. He walked directly past them toward the damaged Suburban.
He pulled open the heavy armored door.
Nora looked up, her eyes wide with shock and relief, tears streaking her pale face.
Lily peeked out from beneath her mother’s arm, her small face smudged with dust. When she saw Adrian standing in the rain, she let out a loud gasp.
Adrian lowered his weapon to the floorboards, reached into the vehicle, and lifted Lily into his arms, pulling her tightly against his chest. He reached his other hand down and gently helped Nora to her feet, guiding her out into the safety of the perimeter.
Lily wrapped her tiny arms around Adrian’s neck, burying her face into his wet collar.
“You came,” she whispered softly, her little voice trembling.
May you like
Adrian closed his eyes, holding the child and Nora close as the rain poured over them.
“I told you, Lily,” Adrian murmured, his voice thick with an emotion he had never felt before in his life. “The lion never lets anyone hurt his family.”
