The Paralyzed Mafia Boss Thought She Was Just Another Caregiver

"How utterly pedestrian," Julian remarked, his voice smooth despite the carnage around him. He stepped over the bodies of his own men without a glance, firing a burst from his submachine gun into the floor near Vivienne's feet.

Vivienne scrambled backward, her hands raised, her face pale as death.

`AUTHORIZING GLOBAL ASSET PURGE... 99% ... COMPLETE.`

`SYSTEM LOCK: SOVEREIGN HORIZON SEALED.`

Julian didn't even look at the console. He merely raised his gold revolver and fired two rounds into the terminal’s main processor. The screen erupted in a bright flash of sparks and molten plastic, dying instantly.

"You think a digital lockout matters, Vivienne?" Julian laughed, stepping down the last flight of stone steps. "The Black Sun isn't a bank. It’s an armada. Once I wipe out every living claimant to the Gallagher name, the syndicates will have no choice but to bow to the only man left standing."

Julian shifted his aim directly toward Desmond, who was leaning heavily against the sarcophagus, his right shoulder soaked in blood.

"Goodbye, brother," Julian said, his finger tightening on the trigger.

"Julian, look at me!" Sadi shouted, stepping directly into the center of the crypt, throwing her arms out wide.

Julian paused, his cold eyes narrowing in amusement. "Ah, the caregiver. The little pawn who thought she was a queen. Do you want to be first, sister?"

"I'm not your sister," Sadi said, her voice steady, drawing his entire focus. "And I'm not a pawn. Look at your feet."

Julian frowned, his gaze flicking downward.

Beneath his white boots, a thin pool of clear liquid was pooling across the flagstones. It wasn't water. It was the high-octane diesel fuel from the auxiliary generator, which Sadi had subtly ruptured with a shot from her pistol while Desmond held the staircase.

In Sadi’s hand was an emergency tactical flare she had palmed from Desmond’s vest.

Julian’s eyes widened in sudden, frantic terror. "You wouldn't—"

"Burn in hell," Sadi whispered.

She struck the flare against the stone wall and dropped it into the pool of fuel.

A wall of yellow-orange fire erupted violently, instantly engulfing the lower staircase in a roaring inferno. Julian screamed as the flames caught his tactical trousers, forcing him to stumble backward up the stairs, firing blindly into the smoke.

Desmond seized the moment. Ignoring the agony in his shattered shoulder, he surged forward like an unleashed beast, lunging through the edge of the flames. He tackled Julian around the waist, slamming the synthetic prodigy hard against the stone steps.

The weapons flew from their hands, clattering down into the burning pool.

Julian lashed out with a vicious elbow, catching Desmond across his fractured collarbone, but Desmond did not flinch. Fueled by years of suppressed rage, five years of paralysis, and the primal need to protect Sadi, Desmond wrapped his massive hands around Julian’s throat.

"You took my father," Desmond growled, his face inches from Julian’s, blood dripping from his chin onto Julian’s cheek. "You tried to take my woman. You are nothing but an echo of a dead man!"

Julian choked, his hands clawing desperately at Desmond’s iron grip. With a savage, desperate heave, Julian reached for a hidden combat knife in his boot, plunging the blade deep into Desmond’s side.

Desmond roared in pain, but his grip never loosened. With a final, monstrous exertion, Desmond lifted Julian bodily and drove his head back against the solid granite foundation of the cathedral wall.

A sickening crunch echoed through the stairwell.

Julian’s eyes rolled back, his body going limp as he slumped into the burning debris.

Desmond collapsed against the steps, clutching his bleeding side, his breath coming in shallow, ragged gasps.

Sadi rushed through the thinning smoke, falling to her knees beside him. "Desmond! Desmond, look at me! Keep your eyes open!"

"I'm here..." he wheezed, his bloody hand finding hers, their fingers interlacing. "I'm still here, Sadi..."

Behind them, Vivienne stood up from the shadows, brushing the soot from her coat. She looked down at Julian's unconscious form, then at Desmond and Sadi.

"It isn't over," Vivienne said, her voice trembling slightly. "Look outside."

Through the collapsed ceiling of the crypt, the night sky was suddenly illuminated by dozens of brilliant red tracer rounds arc-welding across the clouds.