Chapter 5 - The Price of Arrogance
Gunfire lit up the dark corners of the warehouse like strobe lights.
Vincent moved through the crossfire with a calm that was terrifying.
He didn't duck.
He didn't weave.
He simply walked,
his gun finding targets with surgical precision.
The Vipers were disorganized,
scared,
and outgunned.
They had spent their lives bullying the weak,
and they had no idea how to fight a professional.
Tony stayed on Vincent's left,
clearing the rooms with short,
deadly bursts.
Marco stayed on the right,
his heavy footsteps a drumbeat of doom.
"Where is she?!"
Vincent shouted over the noise.
The man with the snake tattoo was crawling away,
leaving a trail of blood on the floor.
Vincent stepped on his hand,
the sound of bones snapping lost in the din.
"Where is the woman?"
"Up... upstairs,"
the man groaned,
his face pale with pain.
"The office... the back office."
Vincent looked up at the rusted catwalks.
"Tony,
clear the floor."
"Marco,
with me."
They climbed the iron stairs,
the metal groaning under their weight.
Another man jumped out from behind a crate,
swinging a lead pipe.
Marco caught the pipe in one hand and delivered a headbutt that sent the man over the railing.
He fell thirty feet,
landing with a sickening thud.
They reached the top landing.
A heavy steel door stood between them and the office.
Vincent could hear a woman crying inside.
A low,
broken sound.
The sound of a mother who had lost all hope.
He signaled to Marco.
One kick.
The door groaned but held.
Two kicks.
The hinges screamed.
Three.
The door flew open.
Inside,
a man with gold teeth was holding a knife to a woman's throat.
She was tied to a chair,
her face bruised,
her clothes torn.
"Stay back!"
Gold Teeth yelled,
his eyes wild.
"I’ll do it!
I’ll kill her!"
Vincent stood in the doorway,
his gun leveled at the man's forehead.
"You won't,"
Vincent said.
"Because if you do,
death will be the kindest thing you experience tonight."
"I have five dollars in my pocket,"
Vincent continued,
his voice a low,
deadly whisper.
"That money says she goes home to her daughter."
"And my money never loses."
The man’s hand shook,
the knife nicking the woman's skin.
A bead of red blood appeared.
Vincent’s eyes narrowed.
The world slowed down.
The rain on the roof.
The beat of his own heart.
May you like
The flicker of the lightbulb.
He pulled the trigger.
