THE MAFIA KING'S DEADLY ENEMY

Chapter Two: No Way Out

Aria's POV

"Don't let him escape!" I shouted as Lucas floored it, the engine roaring beneath us as we raced after Damien's vehicle, weaving through traffic. The image of the officer hitting the ground, the sound of that second shot, kept flashing through my mind, but I forced myself to focus on the road ahead.

Damien was driving recklessly, cutting between vehicles and forcing people to clear the road. He wasn't slowing down, and every second we spent behind him widened the gap.

"I'm trying!" Lucas gripped the wheel tighter.

A little boy ran toward the road, unaware of the speeding vehicles bearing down on him.

"Lucas, brake!"

He slammed his foot down. The car jerked violently, my body thrown against the seat belt. By the time we recovered, Damien's vehicle was already disappearing into the distance.

"Damn it," I muttered, my hands curling into fists against my knees. We'd come so close.

"We've lost him," Lucas said, frustration sharpening his voice.

"No, we haven't."

Anita's voice crackled through the radio. She'd taken a second car with two officers from the airport team, tailing us a few streets over. "Turn left. I'm tracking his vehicle."

Lucas reversed and turned sharply. I gripped the door handle as the tires screeched beneath us, scanning every side street for a black SUV.

"There!" Anita's voice again, closer now.

We spotted it farther ahead. Lucas accelerated, and within minutes we were close enough to see Damien's vehicle slowing.

Then it stopped.

Damien stepped out with his fiancée, and the moment they saw us, they bolted, off the road and onto a dirt trail that climbed into the hills beyond it.

"Don't let them get away!"

I jumped out with my weapon already in hand. We chased them up the trail, pushing through branches and uneven ground, my lungs burning, until the ground gave way to rock and we reached the edge of a mountain, a steep drop falling away into the distance.

Damien stopped. There was nowhere left to go.

"Don't move," I ordered, steadying my breathing. "One wrong move and I'll shoot."

His fiancée dropped to her knees. "Please. Spare us. I don't want to go to jail."

I stared at her. She looked terrified, and for a brief moment I wondered if she truly understood the kind of man she'd chosen to stand beside.

Damien reached into his pocket and pulled out a cigarette, completely unbothered.

"Drop the cigarette."

He looked at me instead. Our eyes met, and my heartbeat turned heavier in a way I didn't like.

I told myself it was adrenaline. Nothing more.

"Tell your fiancée to surrender," I said.

"Damien…" she whispered.

"Surrender and face your crimes," Lucas added, gun steady.

Damien laughed, low and strange in the empty air. "Interesting. We can all perish together."

"Shut up." I stepped forward. "Cooperate. Don't push my hand."

When he smiled, a faint dimple appeared on one side of his mouth, the kind of detail that belonged nowhere near a man who had shot his own employee twenty minutes earlier. None of it mattered. A beautiful face could hide an ugly soul, and this one had already proven it twice today.

"You think I'll surrender?" He crushed the cigarette under his shoe.

"You're surrounded. There's nowhere left to run."

He started walking toward me. My grip tightened on my weapon. Every instinct told me to hold my ground. None of them explained why my pulse had climbed for reasons that had nothing to do with fear.

"Step back," Lucas warned, moving between us.

Damien smiled and stopped, taking a slow step back instead. I didn't trust it for a second. Behind him, the drop waited, patient, the way it had probably waited for other men who thought they had more time than they did.

I signaled Anita, who began closing in with the handcuffs, slow and careful, her eyes never leaving his hands.

"Stay where you are," I warned him.

He didn't answer.

Then his hand moved toward his jacket.

"Anita, get back!"

He raised the gun toward her.

I didn't think. I fired.

A cry tore through the air, sharp and sudden, and it took me a moment to understand it hadn't come from Anita at all.

The woman was on the ground, blood spreading fast across her stomach, soaking into the pale fabric of her dress.

She had stepped in front of Damien.

She had taken the bullet meant for him.