THE PRICE OF SIN

UNDER FIRE

Chapter 7

Glass rained down like deadly snow as Elena threw herself behind the couch. The explosion's echo reverberated through the building, followed by the distant wail of car alarms from the street below. Emergency lighting flickered wildly, casting the apartment in hellish red strobes.

"Stay down!" Lorenzo's voice cut through the chaos as he pulled a gun from inside his tuxedo jacket.

Elena pressed herself against the floor, her bare arms bleeding from tiny glass cuts. "What's happening?"

"War." Lorenzo moved to the shattered window and peered down at the street. "Vincent, report!"

His earpiece crackled with static before Vincent's voice came through: "Boss, we got multiple breaches. Building's surrounded. They came prepared."

"How many?"

"At least twenty. Professional gear, military tactics. This ain't some rival family, boss. This is federal."

Elena's heart stopped. "Federal?"

Lorenzo's jaw clenched as he processed this information. "Phoenix."

Another explosion shook the building, this one closer. Elena could hear gunfire now—rapid bursts that echoed through the tower's corridors like deadly thunder.

"They're moving up floor by floor," Lorenzo said into his earpiece. "Evacuate the VIP clients through the emergency tunnels. Burn everything in the offices. Everything."

"What about the girl?"

Lorenzo's eyes found Elena huddled behind the couch. For a moment, his expression was unreadable. Then his features hardened into familiar cold calculation.

"The girl comes with me."

Elena's blood chilled. "I'm not going anywhere with you!"

"You are if you want to live." Lorenzo crossed to her in two quick strides and hauled her to her feet. "Phoenix isn't here to rescue you, principessa. They're here to clean up loose ends."

"What does that mean?"

"It means you know too much. We both do." Lorenzo pulled her toward the door. "Your father's evidence, the emails, everything you've seen—you're a liability to both sides now."

The elevator was dead, so Lorenzo led her to a hidden panel in the wall that opened to reveal emergency stairs. The stairwell was pitch black except for the glow of his phone's flashlight.

"Move," Lorenzo ordered, pushing her ahead of him.

They descended rapidly, Elena's heels clicking against the concrete steps. Behind them, she could hear the distant sound of boots on metal—someone else was in the stairwell.

"How far down are we going?" Elena gasped, already breathing hard.

"Basement level. There's a tunnel that connects to the parking garage across the street."

"A tunnel?"

"You think I'd build an empire without an escape route?" Lorenzo's voice held grim humor. "Rule #12: Always have an exit strategy."

They reached a landing marked 'B3' when the lights above them exploded in a shower of sparks. Flashlight beams cut through the darkness, accompanied by shouted orders.

"Federal agents! Nobody move!"

Lorenzo cursed and pulled Elena against the wall, his body shielding her from the chaos above. She could feel his heart hammering against his chest, could smell his cologne mixed with sweat and adrenaline.

"There's another way," he whispered against her ear. "But you're not going to like it."

"What way?"

Lorenzo pulled out his phone and typed rapidly. "Emergency protocol. My father's old smuggling route."

Elena's stomach dropped. "Smuggling route?"

"The tunnels under Las Vegas. They're old, dangerous, and flooded in some sections. But they'll get us out."

Before Elena could protest, Lorenzo pushed open a door marked 'Authorized Personnel Only' and pulled her into a maintenance corridor lined with pipes and electrical conduits. The air was thick with the smell of machinery and something else—something organic and unpleasant.

"What is that smell?"

"You don't want to know."

They moved through the corridor until Lorenzo stopped at what looked like a janitor's closet. Inside, hidden behind mops and cleaning supplies, was another door. This one was heavy steel with multiple locks.

Lorenzo's fingers flew over a digital keypad. "Your father helped design this route. Ironic that it might save his daughter's life."

The door opened to reveal a tunnel that disappeared into complete darkness. The smell was stronger here—decay, moisture, and something that made Elena's skin crawl.

"I can't go down there," Elena whispered.

"You can and you will." Lorenzo grabbed a flashlight from a hook by the door. "Because in about thirty seconds, federal agents are going to breach this floor, and they have orders to shoot first and ask questions later."

As if summoned by his words, the sound of gunfire erupted from the stairwell they'd just left.

"Move!" Lorenzo shoved Elena into the tunnel.

The passage was narrow, forcing them to walk single file with Lorenzo behind her. Water dripped from unseen sources above, and Elena tried not to think about what might be living in the darkness beyond their flashlight beam.

"How far does this go?" Elena asked, her voice echoing off the tunnel walls.

"Two miles. It comes out in an abandoned warehouse in North Las Vegas."

"Why did you save me?" The question had been burning in Elena's mind since the apartment. "If I'm such a liability, why not just leave me for the feds?"

Lorenzo was quiet for so long Elena thought he wouldn't answer. When he finally spoke, his voice was strangely uncertain.

"Because you're more valuable alive than dead."

"That's not an answer."

"It's the only answer you're getting."

They walked in silence for what felt like hours but was probably only minutes. Elena's feet were killing her in the impractical heels, and the tunnel seemed to stretch endlessly ahead.

"Lorenzo?" Elena's voice was small in the darkness.

"What my father said in that recording, about my mother not dying in a car accident—was he telling the truth?"

Lorenzo's flashlight beam faltered for a moment. "What do you remember about your mother's death?"

"I was twelve. Dad said she was driving home from work and hit a patch of ice. Her car went off the road." Elena's voice caught. "But we live in Las Vegas. It doesn't ice here."

"No," Lorenzo said quietly. "It doesn't."

Elena stopped walking and turned to face him in the narrow tunnel. "How did she really die?"

Lorenzo's face was half in shadow, half illuminated by the flashlight's glow. He looked like a dark angel, beautiful and terrible and completely inhuman.

"Your mother worked for my family too, Elena. She was our inside person at the FBI."

Elena's world tilted. "That's impossible."

"Maria Rossi was one of the best undercover agents the Bureau ever had. She spent three years infiltrating our organization, gathering evidence, building cases. She was also the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen."

Elena's legs nearly gave out. "You knew my mother?"

"I was eighteen when she started working for us. She was twenty-eight, brilliant, fearless. And completely dedicated to bringing down my family." Lorenzo's voice held something Elena had never heard before—genuine emotion. "I was half in love with her before I realized what she really was."

Elena stared at him in horror. "You killed her."

"No." Lorenzo's voice was sharp. "I saved her."

"What?"

"When my father found out she was FBI, he ordered her execution. I warned her. Told her to run, to disappear, to take you and your father and never look back." Lorenzo's jaw tightened. "She refused. Said she was too close to bringing us down to quit."

Elena felt sick. "So what happened?"

"She died trying to get evidence that would have destroyed my family and sent me to prison for life." Lorenzo met Elena's eyes in the darkness. "And I let her."

The tunnel suddenly felt smaller, more suffocating. Elena's mother—the woman she barely remembered, whose death had shaped her entire childhood—had been an FBI agent hunting the very man who now held Elena prisoner.

"That's why you really brought me here," Elena realized. "It's not about the money. It's about my mother."

Lorenzo's expression was unreadable. "Your mother left something behind. Something more dangerous than money or evidence."

"What?"

"You."

Before Elena could ask what he meant, the tunnel ahead of them exploded in gunfire. Muzzle flashes lit up the darkness like deadly fireworks, and bullets ricocheted off the tunnel walls in showers of sparks.

"Down!" Lorenzo threw Elena to the ground, his body covering hers as bullets whined overhead.

In the chaos of gunfire and shouting, Elena heard something that made her blood freeze.

"Elena! Elena, run!"

It was her father's voice, coming from somewhere ahead in the tunnel.

But that was impossible.

Her father was dead.

Wasn't he?