The Paralyzed Mafia Boss Thought She Was Just Another Caregiver

The rain turned to an icy sleet as the coastal wind howled through the ruined nave of Saint Jude.

Desmond leaned heavily against Sadi, his blood soaking through the field bandage she had frantically tied around his abdomen. Every step cost him an agonizing toll of willpower, but his posture remained unbroken. The lion of the Gallagher family would not die crawling in a crypt.

Vivienne led them through a subterranean smugglers' tunnel that exited onto the rocky shoreline at the base of the cliffs.

Moored inside a natural sea cave was a sleek, matte-black interceptor boat—a military-grade Zodiac hurricane powered by twin inboard diesel engines, pre-positioned by Vivienne’s private security network weeks ago.

"The cruiser is the *Aethelgard*," Vivienne shouted over the crashing surf, untying the mooring lines. "It's an ex-NATO destroyer bought through a shell company in Cyprus. Julian's core command staff is on board. If they see that Julian's transponder has gone dark, they have standing orders to bombard the entire coastline into glass."

"Then we don't run," Desmond said, his voice a low, iron grate. He stepped into the boat, gripping the throttle console with his uninjured left arm. "We take the ship."

Sadi looked at him as if he had lost his mind. "Desmond, you have a bullet in your shoulder and a knife wound in your ribs! You can't board a warship!"

"I don't need to fight two hundred sailors, Sadi," Desmond said, his eyes burning with terrifying clarity. "The Gallagher syndicate built the fire-control software for three of those Cyprus vessels during the Adriatic dispute. There’s a master maintenance override built directly into the bridge console. If we reach the bridge, I can scuttle the ship from the inside."

Sadi saw the unyielding determination in his eyes and knew that trying to stop him was impossible. She climbed into the boat, securing her sidearm and checking the remaining ammunition in Vivienne’s contractor rifle. "Then we do it together."

Vivienne cast off the lines, pushing the boat out into the surging ocean swell.

The Zodiac shot out of the sea cave like a missile, its twin diesels roaring as it cleaved through the towering ten-foot waves of Bodega Bay.

Three miles out, anchored in the turbulent grey water, sat the massive, menacing silhouette of the *Aethelgard*. It was an iron leviathan, bristling with radar domes, automated cannon turrets, and landing pads. Floodlights scanned the black water, but the heavy sea spray and sleet provided perfect cover for the low-profile interceptor.

Desmond cut the engines two hundred yards out, letting the momentum and the tide carry the rubber hull beneath the massive overhang of the destroyer’s stern boarding ramp.

"Boarding cables," Sadi whispered, grabbing a pneumatic grapple launcher from the boat’s locker.

She aimed at the lower maintenance gantry, firing the grapple. The titanium hook caught with a dull metallic *thunk*. She tested the tension, then turned to Desmond. "Can you climb?"

Desmond smiled—a cold, terrifying smirk that made her heart race. "Watch me."

Using the mechanical ascender, Desmond hauled himself up the wet steel cable, every muscle in his back screaming in agony as he ignored his torn flesh. Sadi followed immediately, moving with agile grace, while Vivienne secured the perimeter below.

They pulled themselves onto the lower maintenance catwalk of the *Aethelgard*.

The ship was alive with the hum of massive turbine generators and the blare of internal Klaxons. Crewmen in white fatigues were rushing toward the forward gun decks, completely unaware that the devil himself had just boarded their vessel from the rear.