I drop him. He crumples over the first body.
I breathe in. Scent of cordite. Fresh. Real.
It doesn't trigger a spiral. The phantom alley does not return. The phone call does not ring in my ears. Because Gemma is here.
I turn back. The flashlight beam catches her descending the stairs. She steps over the bodies without a flinch. She looks at the blood on my knuckles, then looks up at my face.
"Clear?" she asks. Her voice is steady.
Pride swells in my throat. She is a queen. My queen.
"Clear," I answer.
I take her hand again. We keep moving.
Third floor. Second floor.
We hit the ground level.
The fire doors are chained from the outside, but the chains are old. I step back, raise my boot, and kick the push-bar.
The metal screeches. The chain snaps. We spill out into the loading dock of the Grand Continental.
The air is freezing. Pure, biting Chicago wind off the lake. It cuts through the dust and decay of our clothes.
Gemma shivers. I pull her against me, wrapping my arm around her. She sinks into my heat.
The loading dock is empty. A rusted delivery truck sits in the corner. Beyond the rolling steel doors, the city buzzes. Sirens wail in the distance. The Bellantis are making noise tonight.
I pull my burner phone from my pocket.
Four bars.
Signal.
The dead zone is behind us. The world is live again.
I dial a number I know by muscle memory.
It rings once. Twice.
"Parla."
Matteo.
His voice is gravel and exhaustion. The Underboss of the Costa family. The brother who stepped into our murdered father's shoes. The brother who walked into an alley at twenty-four and found our father Carlo dead in the rain.
"Teo," I say.
A long pause on the line. Then, a sharp intake of breath.
"Dante. Fuck. The GPS in the SUV went dark right after you called. I thought the Bellantis got you before you reached the hotel."
"I dumped the SUV. Took the target to the Grand Continental."
"The hotel? It's a tomb, Dante. We're tracking Bellanti movement all over the loop. They know you're out there."
"They found us. Four-man strike team up the elevator. Two more in the stairwell."
