Chapter 5
The kitchen doors burst open, and Victor stumbled inside, dragging their wounded man by the collar.
"They're breaching the main floor, Boss!" Victor gasped, breathing heavily.
"We have two minutes before they sweep the back rooms."
Silas moved to the heavy steel door at the rear of the kitchen, inspecting the thick brass padlock securing it.
He aimed his pistol and fired point-blank, blowing the lock into jagged metal splinters.
He kicked the door open, but instead of an escape route, they found a brick wall.
The alley had been sealed off by the Romanov crew’s parked vehicles.
They were completely boxed in.
"We can't go out there, they'll slaughter us in the bottleneck," Victor warned, reloading his weapon.
Nora swallowed her panic, forcing her brain to work through the paralyzing terror.
"The basement," she said suddenly, her voice remarkably steady.
"There’s an old bootlegger tunnel beneath the freezer that leads to the storm drains."
Silas turned to her, his dark eyes flashing with a mix of surprise and deep respect.
"Show me," Silas commanded.
Nora handed Lily to Victor without thinking.
The giant enforcer awkwardly held the little girl, looking terrified for the first time all night.
Nora rushed to the walk-in freezer, throwing her weight against the heavy silver latch.
A blast of freezing, foggy air rushed out as she stepped inside the meat locker.
She dropped to her knees, frantically scraping away a layer of frost and pulling back a heavy rubber mat.
Beneath it was a rusted iron grate set deep into the concrete floor.
"Arthur showed me this when he used to meet his contacts here," Nora explained, her hands bleeding as she pulled the grate.
Silas stepped in, grabbing the rusted iron and heaving it upward with a grunt of raw effort.
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A dark, damp tunnel was revealed, smelling of ancient earth and stagnant water.
"Ladies first," Silas said, motioning into the abyss.
