Chapter 8 - Night at the Docks
However, Julian had one last card to play.
While in transit between state processing and federal custody, a corrupt transport guard enabled Julian to break free. By 10:00 PM, Marco received an urgent intelligence ping: Julian was spotted at Brooklyn Navy Yard Pier 4, trying to board a private cargo vessel bound for South America using forged papers and two million dollars in bearer bonds he had stashed in a contingency vault.
"We called NYPD SWAT," Marco said as we sped toward the docks in my armored SUV.
"Cancel them," I said darkly, checking the magazine of my personal sidearm. "Julian belongs to me."
The night air at Pier 4 was thick with fog and the smell of saltwater. Shipping containers towered like steel skyscrapers around us.
We tracked Julian’s shadow into an empty warehouse at the edge of the pier.
"Come out, Julian!" my voice boomed through the hollow structure. "Running only makes the sentence longer!"
A gunshot rang out! The bullet ricocheted off the steel beam beside my head.
"I’m not going to prison, Alessandro!" Julian screamed from behind a stack of wooden crates, his voice hysterical. "I’d rather die than see you win!"
"You already lost!" I yelled back, stepping out into the open, my gun raised. "You lost the moment you put your hands on an innocent child’s mother. You lowered yourself to a coward’s level."
Julian broke from cover, aiming his gun at me.
BANG!
A single shot echoed through the warehouse.
Julian dropped his gun, clutching his shoulder as he fell to his knees on the cold concrete. Marco stepped out from the shadows, his weapon trained steadily on Julian’s chest.
I walked up to my cousin, kicking his gun into the dark water below the pier floorboards.
Julian looked up at me, coughing, blood staining his shirt. "Finish it, then," he spat. "Show them who the real monster is."
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I looked down at him with utter disgust, lowering my gun.
"Death is an easy way out, Julian," I said coldly as the sirens of approaching federal law enforcement wailed in the distance. "You’re going to spend the rest of your life in a maximum-security cell, watching me build this empire into something you could never dream of."
