Chapter 9 - The Breaker's Return
"Dominic!" I screamed back, throwing all my weight against the metal partition, hammering my fists against the cold concrete. "We're in the valve room! Thomas is right outside the door! He's armed!"
On the other side of the partition, the muffled sound of a heavy hydraulic rescue tool—a Jaws of Life—shrieked into action, whining with a high-pitched, metallic intensity.
Bang!
The door behind us gave way with a deafening crash as Thomas smashed it open, stepping into the tiny alcove with his pistol raised, his face twisted into a mask of cold, murderous rage.
"End of the line, Ms. Carter," Thomas snarled, leveling the barrel straight at my chest.
Before he could pull the trigger, the entire concrete wall behind him exploded inward in a chaotic shower of dust, rebar, and pulverized stone.
A massive, shadowy figure lunged through the dust cloud like an avenging fury. Dominic Moretti didn't hesitate, didn't issue a warning, and didn't slow down. He slammed into Thomas with the terrifying kinetic force of a freight train, driving the traitor backward through the splintered door frame and pinning him against the stone wall of the corridor with a sickening crunch of breaking bone.
The suppressed pistol flew from Thomas’s hand, clattering uselessly across the wet floorboards and splashing into the rising river water.
Dominic’s hands closed around Thomas’s throat. The feared mafia boss looked less like a corporate executive and more like a primal predator protecting its den, his slate-grey eyes burning with a cold, terrifying fire.
"You touched my son," Dominic whispered, his voice dangerously low, cutting through the damp air like a razor. "And you threatened the people under my roof."
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"Boss... wait..." Thomas choked out, his face turning a deep, congested purple as Dominic’s fingers tightened like a hydraulic vice. "The... the syndicate... they know you're compromised... they'll—"
"Let them come," Dominic growled, before delivering a devastating blow that knocked the traitor unconscious instantly, dropping him into the rising water like a sack of wet cement.
