Chapter 4 - Ash on the South Side
Chloe let out a bloodcurdling scream that tore through the underground clinic.
“Toby!”
She tried to lunge out of the hospital bed, pulling the IV needle clean out of her vein.
Blood splattered across the white sheets, but she didn't even notice the pain.
Arthur caught her by the waist, locking her securely against his chest before she hit the cold tiles.
“Chloe, stop! Stop, you are tearing your stitches!”
“They have my brother!” she shrieked, thrashing violently against his grip.
“He’s only nineteen, Arthur! He doesn't know anything about your world!”
“They’re going to kill him because of me!”
“Nobody is killing Toby,” Arthur roared, holding her with iron tenderness.
“Look at my eyes, Chloe!”
She stopped struggling, her chest heaving as she stared into the dark abyss of his gaze.
“I swear on my father’s soul, I will bring your brother back before midnight.”
“Not a single hair on his head will be harmed, or I will raze the Croft empire to the foundation.”
Arthur turned his head toward Leo, his expression shifting from desperation to absolute slaughter.
“Did they leave a message at the site?”
Leo pulled a charred envelope from his coat pocket.
“Nailed to the telephone pole across from the burning diner.”
“Malcolm wants an exchange.”
Arthur sneered.
“What are his terms?”
“He wants the girl and the medical records proving the pregnancy terminated,” Leo said quietly, casting a wary glance at Chloe.
“He says if you bring her to the Croft freight yard by eleven o’clock, he will release Toby unharmed.”
“If you bring armed men, Toby goes into the industrial furnace.”
Chloe clutched Arthur’s arm with bruising force.
“You can’t send me there, Arthur, they’ll kill my baby!”
“I am not sending you anywhere,” Arthur replied coldly, smoothing her hair behind her ear.
“You are staying right here under twenty armed guards and Julian’s care.”
“Leo, prepare the black convoy.”
“We are going to the freight yards.”
Leo hesitated, his experienced brow furrowing with deep concern.
“Arthur, it’s an obvious kill-box.”
“Malcolm has elevated sniper positions across all four loading bays.”
“If we roll in there with heavy vehicles, they will execute Toby before we can clear the gates.”
Arthur stood up to his full height, the ruthless mafia don returning like a demon summoned from the dark.
“Then we don't roll in with heavy vehicles.”
“We hit them from the inside out.”
Arthur walked over to the reinforced metal locker on the far wall of the clinic.
He punched in a seven-digit code and swung the door open, revealing rows of black tactical gear, communication headsets, and customized firearms.
He stripped off his soiled formal shirt, exposing a torso mapped with jagged scars from a decade of gang warfare.
Chloe watched him from the bed, her breath catching as she saw the dark purple bruising along his ribs—the remnant of the wound she had treated months ago.
He pulled on a Kevlar vest, strapping it tight against his muscular frame.
He holstered a customized Kimber .45 on his hip and checked the action of an automatic combat shotgun.
“Arthur,” Chloe called out, her voice trembling in the cold room.
He stopped, the heavy weapon hanging in his hand, and turned to look at her.
“Don't die,” she whispered, tears glistening on her cheeks.
“Don't leave our child an orphan on the same day he found his father.”
Arthur walked back to the bedside, dropped to one knee, and leaned in close.
He pressed a fierce, lingering kiss against her trembling lips.
The taste of her tears mixed with the metallic tang of his rage.
“I have survived twenty years in this gutter, Chloe.”
“I am not dying tonight.”
He lowered his head and pressed his lips against her swollen belly through the blanket.
“Keep your mother safe until I get back,” he commanded his unborn son.
Arthur stood up, his face hardening into an emotionless mask of stone.
“Leo, seal the blast doors behind us.”
“Authorize lethal force on anyone who approaches within fifty yards of this facility.”
As the heavy vault doors slammed shut with a deafening metallic clang, Chloe was left in the quiet hum of the monitors.
She looked down at her bloody hand, then at the IV stand beside her bed.
She knew the Croft family better than Arthur thought she did.
She knew Daniel Croft’s cruelty from the way he had smirked in her diner kitchen.
They wouldn't wait for Arthur to arrive at eleven o’clock.
They were going to broadcast Toby’s execution to force Arthur into an emotional trap.
Chloe gritted her teeth, ignoring the stabbing cramp in her lower abdomen.
May you like
She swung her legs over the edge of the mattress and stood up on trembling feet.
She had to find a way to help her brother, even if it cost her everything she had left.
