Chapter 6 - THE TRAP AT THE HARBOR WAREHOUSE
The fog rolling off Narragansett Bay was thick enough to swallow the old fish-processing warehouses on the Providence waterfront.
Inside Warehouse 4, the air smelled of salt, rusted iron, and stale cigarette smoke. Tied to a heavy wooden chair in the center of the damp room sat Marcus—bruised, bleeding from the lip, and shivering in his damp shirt.
Standing over him was a bulky man with a cruel smile named Sal, a mid-level enforcer for the Boston Maritime Syndicate.
"I gave you the girl's exact location," Marcus spat, blood dripping onto his chin. "Where is my remaining payment? You promised ten million total once the kid was handed over to your bosses!"
Sal laughed, a harsh, grating sound that bounced off the corrugated metal walls. "Ten million? For a rat who couldn't even keep a civilian from snatching the kid out of the amusement park? You didn't deliver the prize, Marcus. You delivered a headache. And now Gabriel Romano is tearing the city apart looking for you."
"You need me!" Marcus panicked, straining against the heavy nylon zip-ties binding his wrists. "I know every security blind spot in the Romano estate! I can get your men inside before dawn!"
"We don't need your codes anymore," a calm, smooth voice echoed from the shadows near the sliding freight door.
Sal spun around, drawing his pistol, while Marcus went pale.
Stepping out of the thick fog into the pale glow of the overhead halogen lights was Gabriel Romano. Behind him walked Dante, carrying a heavy duffel bag, and Chloe, who had insisted on coming along to see the end of the nightmare she had accidentally walked into.
"Gabriel..." Marcus choked out, his eyes widening in sheer terror. "Boss... listen to me, I was forced—they threatened my family—"
Gabriel didn't even look at Marcus. His cold, steady gaze was locked entirely on Sal and the four armed Boston enforcers stepping out from behind the stacked shipping crates.
"You have terrible taste in associates, Sal," Gabriel said smoothly, unbuttoning the cuffs of his shirt. "Coming into Providence without paying port fees is one thing. Laying a hand on my daughter is an executionable offense."
Sal raised his weapon, his hand trembling slightly despite his bravado. "Shoot them! Take them all down!"
Before the Boston enforcers could squeeze their triggers, the overhead lights shattered in a shower of sparks.
Darkness enveloped the warehouse for a single microsecond—followed immediately by the flash of muzzle fire, the sound of suppressed automatic weapons, and Dante moving through the shadows like a wraith.
Chloe squeezed her eyes shut, pressing her back against a stack of wooden crates as the symphony of violence played out around her. It was over almost as fast as it started. Within thirty seconds, the clatter of dropped weapons and the groans of defeated men echoed off the tin roof.
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When the emergency backup lights flickered on, all four Boston enforcers were disarmed and pinned to the concrete floor by Dante and Romano's security team.
Sal was on his knees, gasping for breath, with Gabriel standing directly over him.
