Chapter 10 - SIX MINUTES
“Run!” Lorenzo shouted.
Gunfire erupted.
Sophia carried Mia toward the loading bay.
Valentina covered them.
Victor’s men fired from behind containers.
A bullet struck the wall beside Sophia’s head.
Mia screamed against her shoulder.
“Close your eyes, baby!”
Five minutes, forty seconds.
Lorenzo reached them.
“East door!”
Sophia looked at his bleeding shoulder.
“You need a hospital.”
“Later.”
“Where’s Emma?”
“Safe.”
“Are you sure?”
Lorenzo looked at her.
“No.”
Sophia understood.
Nothing was certain anymore.
They reached the east door.
Locked.
Valentina fired twice at the chain.
Nothing.
“Move!”
Lorenzo shot the padlock.
The door opened.
Cold air hit them.
Outside, freight containers formed narrow corridors toward the water.
Four minutes.
Carlo appeared at the end of the lane.
Gun raised.
“Sophia!”
She turned.
Carlo smiled.
“I should’ve killed you with your husband.”
Lorenzo stepped in front of her.
Carlo fired.
Lorenzo jerked backward.
Sophia screamed.
But the bullet had struck his vest.
He fired back.
Carlo ducked behind a container.
Valentina shouted, “Go!”
Sophia ran with Mia.
Three minutes.
Sirens sounded far away.
Police?
Fire department?
Or Victor’s people?
Sophia didn’t care.
They reached the dock.
A Moretti tugboat sat twenty feet below.
Valentina pointed.
“Down!”
Mia clung tighter.
“I can’t.”
Sophia kissed her forehead.
“Yes, you can.”
Lorenzo climbed first.
Then Sophia handed Mia down.
Valentina followed.
Two minutes.
Lorenzo started the tugboat.
Nothing.
“Come on.”
He tried again.
The engine coughed.
Sophia looked back.
Victor walked out of the warehouse.
Calmly.
Carlo beside him.
Valentina stared.
“How is Carlo still alive?”
Lorenzo said, “Apparently hell has standards.”
One minute.
The engine started.
Victor raised his gun.
Valentina stepped into his line of fire.
“What are you doing?” Sophia shouted.
Valentina looked back at her.
“Something I should’ve done a long time ago.”
Victor fired.
Valentina fell.
Sophia screamed.
Lorenzo pushed the throttle.
The tugboat moved.
Thirty seconds.
Carlo fired again.
Mia cried.
Sophia covered her daughter with her body.
Ten.
Nine.
Eight.
The warehouse exploded.
A wall of fire rose into the sky.
The blast threw Sophia across the deck.
Her ears rang.
Smoke covered everything.
She looked for Mia.
“Mia?”
No answer.
“MIA!”
Sophia crawled through debris.
Then she saw a small shoe near the railing.
The railing was broken.
May you like
And Mia was gone.
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