Chapter 5 - Threat in the Dark
"You're supposed to be in the asylum," Dr. Vance whispered, his professional veneer completely shattering. "The records... I ensured you were blacklisted from every major employment agency... you were supposed to disappear!"
Pamela slammed her hand down on the arm of his chair, the sound cracking through the warehouse like a gunshot. Vance flinched violently.
"I didn't disappear," Pamela hissed, her eyes blazing. "I worked double shifts at a diner just five miles from your hospital, drowning in the grief you manufactured. You took my babies out of my body, you told me they died, and you sold them like cattle to Victoria Costello!"
Vance looked frantically past Pamela to Roman, who stood in the shadows like a grim reaper waiting for his cue.
"Mr. Costello, listen to me!" Vance pleaded, tears of terror leaking down his wrinkled cheeks. "Victoria approached me! She told me you would kill her if she didn't provide an heir! She threatened to expose my medical malpractices from a decade ago if I didn't help her! I had no choice! I chose a woman who had no resources, someone whose family wouldn't cause a stir—"
"You chose her because you thought she was weak," Roman’s voice cut through the air, low and terrifying as he stepped into the light. He placed a heavy, gloved hand on the back of Vance’s chair, leaning down.
"I can't!" Vance sobbed. "If I talk, they will kill me! Victoria wasn't working alone! She used her family’s connections in the syndicate—the Falcone family! They controlled the private clinic ring! They’re the ones who managed the offshore accounts!"
Roman’s eyes narrowed into slits. The Falcone family was his primary rival along the northern docks—a brutal, old-school mafia faction that had been looking for a way to infiltrate the Costello shipping network for years. Victoria’s family had deep ties to them.
Suddenly, Marco’s radio buzzed with static.
"Sir! We have a breach at the perimeter!" a guard’s voice shouted through the speaker. "Two black vans just rammed the north gate! They’re heavily armed—"
The sound of automatic gunfire erupted from the front of the warehouse, shattering the glass windows above.
"Get down!" Roman shouted, instantly throwing his massive body over Pamela, slamming her down onto the concrete floor as a hail of bullets ripped through the air where they had been standing seconds before.
The warehouse erupted into chaos. Roman’s men drew their weapons, returning fire with lethal precision. Through the dust and flying concrete, Pamela looked up to see three masked men rushing toward Dr. Vance’s chair. Before anyone could stop them, one of the gunmen raised a suppressed pistol and fired twice into Vance’s chest.
The doctor slumped forward, dead instantly. They weren't here to rescue him; they were here to silence him.
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"Marco! Secure the asset!" Roman roared, pulling a heavy black handgun from his waistband. He looked down at Pamela, his eyes intense and protective. "Stay behind me. If anyone comes near you, you kill them." He shoved a small, sleek pistol into her hands.
Pamela gripped the cold metal, her knuckles white. She had never fired a gun in her life, but as she looked at the men trying to erase the evidence of her children’s existence, she felt no fear. Only a terrifying, protective rage.
