Chapter 5 - The Trap is Sprung
The rain seemed to freeze in the air around Victor as the words settled over him.
A federal cyber-intelligence analyst.
She hadn't stumbled into the Beaumont Hotel by accident. She hadn't picked him out of a room full of billionaires because he looked like a monster. She had used him—the most dangerous man in Chicago—as an armored vehicle to smuggle stolen federal evidence out from under the noses of the O’Neill syndicate.
“Where is she now?” Victor asked, his voice chillingly calm.
“Our traffic grid tracking places the black van heading south toward an abandoned rail yard near the Indiana border,” Vance reported rapidly typing keys clicking in the background. “And Boss? You’ve got company. The FBI field office just issued an all-points bulletin for her arrest... and for anyone caught harboring her.”
Victor ended the call without a word. He looked at Javier, who was already unlocking the driver's side door of the armored SUV.
“What’s the play, Boss?” Javier asked, his hand resting on the shotgun secured in the center console. “Federal charges on one side, O’Neill’s executioners on the other. If we chase her down, we’re declaring war on both sides of the law.”
Victor opened the door of the SUV, stepping inside the warm leather interior, though a profound cold lingered in his chest. He picked up his jacket, folding it neatly across the passenger seat, right where she had been sitting moments before.
She had used him. She had lied to his face while he bled for her in an alleyway.
Yet, as he stared out at the flashing red and blue lights appearing at the mouth of the alley, he remembered the sound of her breath against his jaw, the trembling panic in her hands, and the absolute desperation in her eyes when she whispered those words into the dark.
May you like
Kiss me. They’re watching us.
“Start the engine, Javier,” Victor commanded, his eyes narrowing into a hard, unyielding glare as he racked the slide of his personal sidearm. “She played me. Now we’re going to collect.”
