Chapter 6 - Pier 44
The wind off the harbor at midnight was biting, carrying the sharp scent of salt, rotting wood, and industrial fuel.
Sebastian’s Mercedes tore down the cracked asphalt of Pier 44, screeching to a halt beside a rusted, abandoned warehouse whose tin siding rattled violently in the gale. He didn't wait for his men to catch up. He killed the engine, drew a heavy, suppressed automatic pistol from his shoulder holster, and kicked the rotting wooden side door open with a deafening crash.
"Ward!" a voice echoed from the shadows of the cavernous, multi-story warehouse.
High up on an iron catwalk overlooking the empty dry docks below, Valerie stood tied to a rusted steel pillar. Her hands were bound behind her with thick plastic zip-ties, a strip of duct tape across her mouth, her eyes wide with terror as she stared down into the gloom. Standing beside her was a heavy-set Rossi enforcer holding a switchblade pressed dangerously close to her throat.
Four more armed men emerged from the shadows around the ground floor, leveling their weapons at Sebastian as he stepped into the center of the concrete floor.
"Drop the piece, Ward!" the lead gunman shouted, grinning maliciously. "Drop it or the girl gets a new smile!"
Sebastian stopped. He looked up at Valerie, catching her terrified, tear-filled eyes through the dim overhead lighting. Every instinct in his body screamed to open fire, to wipe every single one of them off the earth in a heartbeat, but the blade at her throat kept his hands frozen.
Slowly, deliberately, Sebastian unclipped his shoulder holster and let the heavy weapon drop to the concrete with a dull, heavy thud.
"You wanted me, Rossi," Sebastian called out, his voice echoing off the corrugated metal walls, steady and lethal. "The girl has nothing to do with this. Let her go."
"Oh, she has everything to do with this," a voice called from the upper office stairs. Dominic Rossi stepped out onto the catwalk, nursing a bruised jaw from their earlier encounter, holding a detonator in his hand. "She’s your weakness, Sebastian. The great, untouchable Ward finally found something he cares about more than his money. And now, I’m going to take it away from you just like you took my docks."
Rossi nodded to the enforcer holding Valerie. The man grinned and pressed the tip of the blade harder against her skin, drawing a tiny bead of crimson that trickled down her collarbone.
Sebastian’s eyes turned pitch black. A cold, calculated stillness took over his entire body.
"You made a fatal mistake, Dominic," Sebastian whispered, his voice carrying through the cavernous space with terrifying clarity.
"And what's that?" Rossi laughed. "You're unarmed, surrounded, and—"
Before Rossi could finish, the high-pitched whistle of a sniper round tore through the roof of the warehouse.
Crack.
The enforcer holding the blade to Valerie’s throat dropped instantly, a clean, silent neutralization from Mara Feldman’s elite tactical team positioned on the adjacent grain silos.
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At the exact same second, Sebastian moved faster than humanly possible. He lunged forward, snatching his dropped pistol off the floor, rolling behind a concrete pillar as a hail of frantic gunfire erupted from Rossi’s men.
The warehouse descended into absolute, violent chaos.
