Chapter 8 - The Boxing Gym
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Leah didn't have time to blush at his words. She scoured the gym's small office, finding a first-aid kit, a bottle of cheap whiskey, and, miraculously, a loaded revolver hidden beneath the floorboards.
She brought the supplies back to Dante. He took a long pull straight from the whiskey bottle, the alcohol cutting through the lingering fog of the drug in his veins.
"You found my stash," Dante said, nodding at the gun in her hand. "Do you know how to use it?"
"I grew up in a neighborhood where you learn to duck before you learn to walk," Leah said, checking the cylinder. "I know how to point and pull."
"Good. Keep it close." Dante forced himself to stand, his massive frame casting a long shadow across the ring. He walked to a breaker box on the wall and flipped a hidden switch.
A heavy, mechanized hum filled the room. The boxing ring slowly began to slide to the right, revealing a hidden steel staircase leading down into the earth.
Leah stared in disbelief. "You have a secret lair under a gym?"
"Paranoia is a required skill in my line of work," Dante said, gesturing for her to follow him down.
The underground bunker was a stark contrast to the dusty gym above. It was sleek, heavily fortified, and stocked with enough weapons and cash to fund a small war. A bank of computer monitors illuminated the room, displaying security feeds from all over the city.
Dante typed rapidly on the keyboard, bringing up a feed of the harbor.
"Sable is moving," Dante growled, his eyes narrowing. "He’s loading a shipping container onto a freighter bound for Russia. That's the syndicate's emergency cash reserve. Over fifty million dollars. He thinks I'm dead, so he's robbing the throne on his way out."
"Let him go," Leah said, standing behind him. "You're alive. Matteo is safe. Let him take the money and disappear."
May you like
Dante turned his chair to face her. His expression was cold, hard, and utterly unforgiving.
"You don't understand my world, Leah. If I let a traitor walk away with my money, I look weak. And in my world, weakness is a death sentence. Sable dies tonight."
