anger.
She threw herself down a curving side passage as Agnelli fired again. Where it led she had no idea, but she had no choice except to follow it.
The Italian set off in pursuit. He reached the side passage, turned—
And stopped in momentary surprise. The tunnel was in near darkness.
Still running, Nina passed beneath another lightbulb and, fist clenching her jacket’s cuff, reached up to smash it. Even with the material protecting her hand, she still winced as a glass splinter stabbed into the flesh.
But that pain was infinitely preferable to the burning hammer blow of a bullet. She was in Agnelli’s domain, the Italian knowing every twist and turn of the tunnels. Her only hope of escape was to confuse him long enough for her to get past and make a dash for the elevator.
The passage twisted around to a four-way intersection. She carried on straight ahead, breaking another light—then doubled back into the left tunnel. A boxy dehumidifier grumbled away on the floor; she jinked past it and continued on, straining to pick out Agnelli’s pounding footsteps over the machine’s noise. How close was he?
Too close, almost at the intersection.
She flattened herself into the shadows of another arcosolium as Agnelli reached the junction. He glanced to each side before continuing ahead into the darkened tunnel. Nina held her breath. His steps faded—but was it because he was getting farther away, or just that he was slowing?
It was hard to be sure over the dehumidifier’s thrum. She leaned out from her cover and looked back. Had her ruse worked? If she made a dash for the intersection, she might have a clear run to the entrance—or she might find herself face-to-face with Agnelli if he had realized her deception.
The longer she stayed in the catacomb, the greater her chances of her being cornered. She had to risk going back. She moved out of the shadows—
Agnelli reappeared at the junction.
Nina scrambled to reverse direction as he saw her. The gun snapped up, but in his haste he fired without aiming, the shot chipping the ancient stone wall several feet short. By the time reason overcame panic and he raised the automatic higher to look down its sights, she had rounded another corner.
More broken bulbs tinkled into the growing darkness as she ran through the archive’s ancient tunnels. The passage ahead split into two. On impulse she went left, smashing another light. She was outpacing the overweight Italian, the tunnel’s turns preventing him from lining up another shot, but if she found herself in a dead end he would catch up very quickly.
Or not. It sounded as though he were slowing down. He might be tiring … but Nina somehow knew that wasn’t the case. Dread rose inside her. He had stopped running because he no longer needed to.
She had nowhere left to go.
Even with that frightening knowledge, she kept moving, destroying more bulbs. The passage bent around, another light ahead. She reached up to break it—
And saw the end of the tunnel as it opened into a chamber lined with burial niches, all packed with ancient records. A cool breeze from an air conditioner wafted around her as she skidded to a halt.
No way out.
And no hiding places either. The room was cramped enough for Agnelli to find her even in the dark. She would have no choice but to fight—against a much larger and heavier foe armed with a gun. Despite having been taught the basics of unarmed combat by Eddie, she didn’t like the odds.
But it was that or stand there and wait to be shot. She was about to hit the bulb when an idea came to her.
The air conditioner. Its power cord snaked back down the tunnel …
Nina burned its position into her mind—then smashed the final light.
Agnelli blinked as the passage ahead went completely dark. He slowed to a cautious walk. The only remaining illumination was a dim glow from far behind him, and even that would be gone when he rounded the next bend.
But he knew exactly what lay ahead. “You can’t hide from me!” he called, growing more confident despite the adrenaline making the blood hiss in his ears. “And—and I can tell the Brotherhood that you shot everyone before I stopped you. They’ll believe me—they know you hate us!”
“You’ve got to find me first,” came an echoing voice from the end of the tunnel. “You fat fuck!” it added, New York accent becoming more pronounced.
Agnelli’s face tightened with pricked pride. She was insulting