Chapter 15 - THE MAN RAFAEL CHOSE TO SAVE
The blast chamber contained most of the explosion.
Most.
The ship-repair tunnel convulsed.
Concrete split.
Water rose through the floor.
The steel door bent outward but remained locked.
Kell was thrown across the passage.
His head struck the wall.
For several seconds, he heard nothing.
Then sound returned as a distant ringing.
He crawled toward the door.
The manual handle had fused.
He pulled until skin tore from his palms.
“Rafael!”
No answer.
Diego and Sofia reached the tunnel with six men.
They found Kell digging at the door with a broken piece of metal.
Sofia saw the scorched wire hanging from the collar around his neck.
She understood before he spoke.
“No,” she whispered.
Diego examined the door.
“Get cutting equipment.”
“There’s no time,” Kell said.
“Move.”
“You don’t understand.”
“I understand he may be alive.”
“The chamber flooded during the blast.”
Sofia shoved Kell against the wall.
“Then why are you standing here?”
“He pushed me out.”
“You let him?”
Kell closed his eyes.
“He gave me no choice.”
Sofia struck him.
Then again.
Kell did not defend himself.
She raised her hand a third time but collapsed against his chest instead.
Kell held her awkwardly.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
The words sounded useless.
They were useless.
Still, he repeated them.
Emergency crews cut through the chamber door forty minutes later.
Water poured into the tunnel.
Rafael lay beneath a section of collapsed concrete.
The explosive blast had driven metal through his abdomen and chest.
He was still breathing.
Barely.
Sofia knelt in the water.
“Rafael.”
His eyes opened.
“You took your time.”
She laughed and sobbed at once.
“We’re getting you out.”
“No hospital.”
“You don’t decide.”
“I usually do.”
“Not today.”
Diego and two men lifted the concrete.
Kell stood several feet away.
Rafael looked at him.
“Come here.”
Kell shook his head.
“Come here.”
He approached.
Rafael’s voice had weakened.
“Salazar?”
“Dead.”
“The ledger?”
“Recovered.”
“Mara?”
“Alive.”
“Nate?”
“Alive.”
Rafael closed his eyes.
A faint peace moved across his face.
Then he looked at Kell again.
“You will testify.”
Kell stared at him.
“Against who?”
“Everyone.”
“That destroys the organization.”
“Yes.”
Diego looked shocked.
“Boss—”
Rafael raised one blood-covered hand.
“It is already destroyed.”
Sofia gripped his fingers.
“We can rebuild.”
“No.”
“We can make it different.”
“That is what every criminal says before becoming his father.”
His breathing grew shallow.
“Nate came to me because men used my name to hurt his mother.”
He coughed blood.
“If the name survives unchanged, then nothing mattered.”
Kell knelt beside him.
“You saved me so I could destroy everything you built?”
Rafael looked at him.
“I saved you because Owen should have been saved.”
Kell lowered his head.
“I’m not Owen.”
“No.”
Rafael’s voice was almost a whisper.
“You still have time.”
Sirens approached through the tunnel.
Federal tactical teams were moving into the shipyard.
Diego looked toward the entrance.
“We have to go.”
Rafael shook his head.
“You go.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
“That was an order.”
“I’ve disobeyed before.”
“Once.”
“Twice.”
Rafael almost smiled.
Sofia pressed her forehead against his hand.
“You promised you would protect me.”
“I did.”
“Not like this.”
“It was never going to look the way you wanted.”
She shook her head.
“You are not dying here.”
Rafael looked toward the broken tunnel.
Dawn light entered through cracks above them.
For years, he had believed death would find him in darkness.
Instead, morning had arrived.
“Nate said his mother always comes back for him,” Rafael whispered.
Sofia nodded through tears.
“Yes.”
“Make sure she does.”
“I will.”
“And Kell.”
Kell lifted his head.
Rafael’s eyes found him.
“Do not waste this.”
Kell’s face collapsed.
“I don’t know how to live with it.”
“That is your punishment.”
Footsteps echoed nearby.
Federal agents shouted commands.
Rafael’s men began withdrawing.
Diego remained.
Sofia remained.
Kell remained.
Rafael looked at the three of them.
“Go.”
Sofia kissed his forehead.
Diego pressed Rafael’s ring into his palm.
Kell could not speak.
Rafael noticed.
“For once,” he whispered, “you have nothing to say.”
Kell laughed through his tears.
Then they left.
Federal agents found Rafael alone beneath the ruined shipyard.
He was still holding his father’s ring.
He died before the ambulance reached the street.
By noon, news stations announced the death of Rafael De Santos.
Some called him a criminal kingpin.
Some called him a murderer.
Some called him the most powerful man on the eastern seaboard.
None of them knew that his final act had been to save the man who betrayed him.
Kell watched the report from the back seat of an unmarked federal vehicle.
His hands were cuffed.
On the seat beside him rested Arturo’s ledger.
The agent across from him opened a recorder.
“State your name.”
“Kell Mercer.”
“Are you prepared to provide evidence regarding the De Santos and Salazar organizations?”
Kell looked through the window.
Sofia stood across the street with Mara and Nate.
Nate raised one hand.
Kell raised his cuffed hands in return.
Then he faced the recorder.
“Yes.”
The agent pressed a button.
“Begin.”
Kell took a breath.
But before he could speak, the vehicle’s windshield shattered.
The driver collapsed.
A bullet struck the agent in the throat.
The rear doors locked automatically.
Outside, masked men surrounded the car.
May you like
One of them wore Rafael’s family crest.
And from the sidewalk, Sofia suddenly disappeared.
