Chapter 10 - The Fall
Declan stumbled backward onto the narrow catwalk, clutching his face as blood poured through his fingers. But he was a seasoned brawler, twice Clara’s weight. He lunged forward with a roar, wrapping both arms around her waist, driving her back against the rusted iron railing.
The metal groaned. A weld popped with the sound of a pistol shot.
“Mom!” Lily shrieked, grabbing Declan’s heavy coat from behind, pulling with all her thirty-kilo weight.
“Lily, stay back!” Clara gasped, her hands clawing at Declan’s eyes, gouging his cheeks. The railing tilted outward over the empty drop. Below, the second enforcer was already climbing the lower steps, boots ringing on the steel treads.
Declan’s weight shifted. He brought his forehead down into Clara’s face in a brutal headbutt.
Stars exploded across Clara’s vision. Her nose broke, warmth flooding her lips and chin. Her grip slipped from his leather jacket. For a terrifying half-second, she felt herself tilting back into the empty air, the dark floor thirty feet down rushing up to meet her.
Then Lily hit Declan in the temple with the heavy iron padlock she had pried from a loose cable tie.
The blow didn't knock him out, but it threw his balance completely off. Clara hooked her leg behind his calf and threw her entire remaining strength into twisting them both sideways.
The rusted railing sheared completely off its mounts.
Declan didn't scream as he went over. He reached out blindly, his fingers brushing Clara’s sleeve, catching the hem of her dark coat. Clara felt herself being pulled into the void with him.
With a desperate, tearing heave, Clara ripped the buttons free and slipped her arms from the trench coat, leaving the fabric in Declan’s dead-weight grasp.
He fell through the darkness, hitting the concrete floor with a sickening, final crunch that echoed off the high rafters.
Clara collapsed against the walkway edge, gasping for air, blood dripping from her nose onto the cold steel mesh. Lily threw herself onto her mother’s chest, sobbing hysterically.
“I’ve got you,” Clara panted, wrapping her arms around the trembling child. “I’ve got you, Lily. I’ve got you.”
Below them, the sound of the second enforcer’s boots suddenly stopped on the stairs.
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A voice cut through the damp air from the open doorway at the ground level:
“Armed police! Drop your weapon! Drop it now!”
