Chapter 6 - THE HOSPITAL SIEGE
Before I could leave the hospital floor, the power cut out.
The emergency lights flickered to life, bathing the hallway in an eerie, pulsing red glow. The heart monitors in the rooms switched to battery backups, emitting sharp, anxious beeps.
“Boss!” Dante yelled, running down the corridor with his weapon drawn. “They cut the main lines. The backup generators in the basement have been sabotaged.”
“Reyes,” I realized, my blood running cold. “They aren’t waiting. They know Leo can testify about the man in the house. They’re coming to silence him.”
Gunfire erupted from the stairwell. The heavy, booming sound of shotguns echoed through the sterile corridors. My men returned fire, the staccato burst of automatic weapons deafening in the enclosed space.
“Hold the stairs!” I roared, drawing my Glock. I sprinted back into the twins' room. Maya was screaming, covering her ears. Leo was trying to drag himself out of the bed to protect her, dragging his splinted leg behind him.
“Stop!” I ordered, scooping Maya into my left arm and pushing Leo back down onto the mattress. “Get under the bed. Now!”
I flipped the heavy steel hospital bed on its side, creating a barricade facing the door. I shoved Leo behind it and tucked Maya into his arms.
“Cover her ears, Leo. Do not look up, no matter what you hear,” I commanded.
“Uncle Thomas!” Leo cried, tears streaming down his face.
“I will not let them touch you,” I promised.
I took a position behind the overturned bed, aiming my weapon at the heavy wooden door of the VIP suite. The hallway outside was a war zone. Screams, the shattering of glass, and the smell of cordite filled the air. Reyes had sent a heavy hit squad. They were desperate.
The door to the suite kicked open. Two men in tactical gear rushed in, weapons raised.
I didn't hesitate. I fired three times in rapid succession. The first man took two rounds to the chest and collapsed. The second managed to fire a wild burst from his submachine gun, shattering the window behind me, before I put a bullet cleanly through his forehead.
I checked my magazine. Twelve rounds left.
“Dante!” I yelled into my radio.
Static.
They were jamming the frequencies.
I heard heavy footsteps approaching the room. It was too coordinated for street thugs. Reyes had hired mercenaries.
I grabbed a discarded flashbang from the belt of the dead man on the floor. I pulled the pin and hurled it into the hallway.
BANG.
The blinding flash of light and deafening explosion gave me a three-second window. I stepped out into the doorway, opening fire on three blinded mercenaries stumbling in the corridor. They dropped like stones.
But I felt a searing heat rip through my left shoulder.
I grunted, stumbling back into the room, clutching my arm. Blood began to soak through my white dress shirt.
“Uncle Thomas!” Leo screamed from behind the barricade.
“I’m fine!” I lied, gritting my teeth against the blinding pain.
Suddenly, the gunfire in the hallway ceased. The silence was heavier, more terrifying than the noise. I aimed my gun at the door, waiting for the final breach.
Instead, Dante appeared in the doorway, covered in soot and blood that wasn't his. He was holding a smoking assault rifle.
“Clear,” Dante panted, stepping over the bodies. “We wiped them out. But Boss, you’re hit.”
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“It’s a through-and-through,” I said, forcing myself to stand straight. I looked down at the barricade. Leo was holding Maya, staring at me with wide, terrified eyes. He had just seen his uncle kill men. The innocence I swore to protect was shattering in front of me.
“We can’t stay here,” I told Dante, ignoring the burning in my shoulder. “Reyes knows where they are. We’re moving them to the compound in the Hill Country. Now.”
