Chapter 17 - Wrath of the Pelican
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In the ballroom, Dante was a man possessed.
He didn't look like a calculating mob boss; he looked like a force of nature. He threw a terrified hotel manager against the wall, grabbing him by the collar.
“Where are the cameras for the service corridors?!” Dante roared.
“They... they cut the feeds, Mr. Vale!” the manager sobbed. “The basement levels are completely dark!”
Dante dropped the man, turning to his heavily armed security team. “He took her to the basement. The smuggling tunnels. We’re going down.”
“Boss, it’s a death trap down there,” his security chief warned. “Let us clear it first. You’re not fully mobile.”
Dante pulled a sleek, heavy handgun from his holster and checked the magazine. His eyes were pitch black, completely void of humanity.
“I don't need to walk to pull a trigger,” Dante snarled. “Move.”
Down in the sweltering heat of the laundry level, Lena was running for her life. She slipped on the wet tile, ducking behind a massive linen press as a bullet shattered a bleach bottle right next to her head.
“You can't hide forever, Lena!” Marcus taunted, his voice echoing eerily through the cavernous room.
Lena crawled on her hands and knees, ignoring the cuts on her skin. She reached the back wall, where the massive, stainless steel laundry chutes dropped down from the upper floors.
She needed a weapon. She needed a distraction.
She grabbed a heavy iron pipe wrench left behind by a maintenance worker. She gripped it tightly, her knuckles white, backing into the shadows near the chute.
Footsteps approached. Slow. Deliberate.
“I see your dress, sweetheart,” Marcus sneered, stepping around the corner, his gun raised.
Lena swung the heavy wrench with every ounce of strength she had. It struck Marcus’s wrist with a sickening crack. He screamed, dropping the gun, but lunged forward with his other hand, grabbing her by the throat and slamming her hard against the steel chute.
“You little bitch!” Marcus roared, choking her.
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Lena gasped for air, her vision darkening, dropping the wrench as she clawed desperately at his hands.
Suddenly, the heavy steel doors at the end of the room blew open with a deafening explosion.
