Chapter 130: Don’t move

Sienna twisted free of his hold in a single sharp motion, years of quiet, careful training finally finding their moment.

Before Fabio could fully react, she’d already palmed three of her remaining needles and driven them into the necks of the men closest to her, precise and merciless, watching them crumple where they stood, bodies locking rigid before collapsing to the dirt.

The fourth man leveled a gun at her instantly. Sienna didn’t flinch. She’d already pressed her last needle firmly against the side of Fabio’s throat, close enough that he could feel the cold press of the tip against his pulse.

"Don’t move," she said, voice steady despite the chaos exploding around them, "or you’ll end up just like the rest of your men. And if you try pulling it out without doing it exactly right, your heart stops. So answer my questions."

Fabio only smiled, something fierce and unbothered flickering behind his eyes.

"Fierce. Just like your mother." His voice stayed maddeningly calm even with a needle pressed to his throat.

"But you’re coming with me. If you think Viktor is coming to save you, you’re wrong. I’m older than you. I’ve been doing this since before you were born."

Before she could fully register the movement, Fabio’s hand shot up and yanked the needle from his own men’s necks in one clean motion and nothing happened. No collapse, no seizing muscle. He knew exactly how to handle a needle too, apparently, understanding the anatomy well enough to strip the danger from it entirely.

Sienna’s moment of triumph collapsed into panic as Fabio grabbed her wrist, twisting hard until the last needle slipped from her fingers and clattered uselessly to the ground.

"Take care of this," Fabio ordered, already dragging Sienna toward the jet as his remaining men scrambled to engage the gunfire now closing in from the trees.

The two surviving cars had already spilled their occupants into a full firefight against Viktor’s advancing men, bullets tearing through the pale morning light in both directions.

Fabio hauled Sienna up into the jet, his grip like iron around her arm, holding her steady despite her attempts to twist free, to drive an elbow, a knee, anything into him that might loosen his hold. Nothing worked.

He was far stronger than his lean frame suggested, and far more experienced at holding onto things people didn’t want to give up.

"Get this thing in the air. Now," Fabio barked toward the cockpit, glancing out through the open hatch just in time to see Viktor emerging from the tree line dressed head to toe in black, a gun steady in each hand, cutting down anything foolish enough to stand between himself and the jet.

The engines were still spinning up, nowhere near ready, the pilots scrambling through pre-flight checks far too slowly for the chaos currently unfolding around them.

Viktor was already closing the distance, each stride unhurried despite the gunfire cracking around him, as though he had all the time in the world and none of Fabio’s panic.

"Get this thing in the air now!" Fabio roared again, fury cracking through his usual composure for the first time since he’d arrived, watching Viktor advance closer, closer, an unstoppable shape moving steadily through smoke and chaos with nothing but retrieving his wife written plainly across every hardened line of his face.

The jet lurched forward, engines finally spooling into a full, throaty roar as it began rolling down the makeshift runway, gaining speed with every passing second.

Fabio allowed himself a slow, satisfied smile, watching Viktor through the small oval window, still standing in the drifting smoke behind them, hands raised, gun steady too far now, surely, too late to matter.

Viktor fired anyway.

Four shots, precise and unhurried, each one finding its mark in rapid succession not at the fuselage, not at the cockpit, but low, aimed directly at the landing gear tearing along the ground beneath the accelerating jet. The front tire burst first, rubber shredding instantly under the impact, the wheel assembly beneath it groaning under sudden, catastrophic pressure.

A heartbeat later, the rear tires followed, blown out one after another in a chain of sharp, cracking pops nearly lost beneath the roar of the engines.

Inside the cockpit, the pilot felt it immediately a violent, shuddering pull to the left as the damaged wheel assembly began dragging against the ground instead of rolling over it, the entire aircraft fighting against its own momentum.

"We’ve got a gear failure!" the pilot shouted, hands white-knuckled on the controls, fighting to keep the nose straight as the jet’s speed worked against every correction he tried to make.

Without functioning wheels to carry that speed smoothly down the runway, the plane’s weight had nowhere clean to go the damaged landing gear beginning to buckle under the uneven drag, metal grinding and shrieking against ground and loose gravel.

"Abort! Abort the takeoff!" the co-pilot yelled, throttling back hard, but it was already too late for a clean stop.

The jet’s momentum, combined with the ruined gear dragging unevenly beneath it, sent the entire aircraft sliding sideways in a slow, sickening arc, tires long gone, metal shredding against the earth in a shower of sparks and torn debris.

Fabio’s satisfied smile vanished in an instant, replaced by something raw and unguarded genuine horror, the first crack in his composure since he’d taken Sienna from that highway.

He grabbed for the nearest handhold as the cabin shuddered violently around them, the entire jet groaning like something wounded, metal screaming against dirt as it fought its own uncontrolled slide.

"Fly the damn thing!" Fabio bellowed toward the cockpit, all trace of calm gone from his voice now, replaced by something close to panic. "you fucking idiot!"

"I can’t!" the pilot shouted back, sweat pouring down his face as he wrestled uselessly with controls that no longer answered the way they were supposed to. "The gear’s gone we have no control on this side!"

The jet shuddered again, harder this time, the wounded landing gear finally collapsing entirely beneath the weight it could no longer bear, sending the entire aircraft dropping hard onto its belly with a bone-jarring, metal-tearing crash that threw everyone inside violently against their restraints.

Sparks sprayed up along both sides of the fuselage as it continued to slide, the runway’s makeshift dirt doing nothing to slow the grinding momentum of several tons of aircraft skidding across the earth with no wheels left to carry it.