Page 125 of Dark Breaker

I press the activate button on my phone and the demolition blocks I have secretly planted around the suite activate. I shove off the balcony just as the roof caves.

Rosa presses against me while we swing across the gap between the two buildings. We land on a balcony two stories beneath the grappling hook. There’s no fire escape on this side, but it doesn’t matter.

“Did the roof just cave in behind us?” Rosa asks.

“It did,” I reply.

“You had explosives installed all this time?” she says in disbelief. “What if they activated while we were still inside? While sleeping?”

“Never happen,” I assure her.

I shoot at the window in front of me while Rosa plugs her ears with her fingers. Then I clear the glass away and hurry inside with Rosa.

This is a private residence, and someone is screaming frantically in the nearby room. I ignore it and head straight to the main door of the apartment.

I open it and follow Rosa into a common hallway. I don’t want to take the elevator because our attackers might have tracked us to this building by now, and I don’t want to risk walking right into them.

So I kick open the stairwell door and hurry down with Rosa three steps at a time.

At the bottom, I open the door a crack to confirm the foyer is clear. I exit the stairwell with Rosa and we hurry toward the glass doors of the main entrance. Just then several rifle-totting, black-clad men step into view, their weapons aimed at us.

I spin around, but the elevator opens and more black-clad men swarm out.

Rosa and I raise our hands in surrender.

* * *

We’re disarmedand thrown into the back of a van. Bags are placed over our heads and our wrists are tied. Rosa is beside me, so I slide my bound hands toward hers. I don’t think I’ve ever felt her squeeze her fingers around mine so tightly. If it was just me I wouldn’t care so much. But that they’ve got her too and are scaring her like this pisses me off to no end. I want to tear the bag off my head and bash in some heads, but that’s kind of difficult at the moment.

We come to a stop and are herded outside. I smell a hint of salt through the fabric, and I know we’ve returned to the Jackal’s port warehouse.

We’re led up a ramp, and then our footsteps echo, as if from an enclosed place. Finally, after several turns the masks are lifted from our heads.

I see Massimo, Luciano and Nicolo. They’re still tied to chairs, and they blink their eyes groggily. Can’t be easy to sleep while bound to a ladder-back chair.

“What the fuck?” Massimo says. “Why have you kidnapped Fabio, and nowRosa?”

The Jackal is standing behind his men not far from me. He shrugs. “I changed my mind about allowing Fabio to broker the deal. I still expect ten million Euros tomorrow. But it’s up to the remaining Moretti brothers to arrange it.”

“I had everything ready,” I tell the Jackal. “Your money was ready to go. Now with both myself and Nicolo trapped here, I can’t get it out of the bank.”

“Then the Morettis and Amatos will simply have to come up with the difference,” the Jackal says.

“Except they won’t, because they don’t have it,” I tell him.

The Jackal smirks. “Then tomorrow you’ll die.”

Two of the guards force me to sit and then tie me to a chair next to Massimo.

I’m expecting them to secure Rosa to the remaining chair, but instead they lead her away.

“Hey!” I say. “Where are you taking her?”

The Jackal smiles, saying nothing.

“Fucker, let her go!” I shout.

He’s cackling in the hall outside. Encircled by his men out there, Rosa shoots me a terrified glance, but then the door shuts, sealing her away from me.