Chapter 2 - Code Black at Midnight
The glass panel of the ICU room shattered inward in a rain of crystalline dust.
I dove behind the heavy metal chart desk as a silenced pistol coughed three rapid rounds into the wall where Dante’s head had been a second prior. Blood spewed from Dante’s fresh chest incisions as he threw his legs over the side of the bed, yanking the steel IV pole from its base and sweeping it low.
The pole caught the assassin across the knees. The gunman hit the floor with a heavy thud, but before he could raise his suppressed weapon, Dante was on top of him. With terrifying, mechanical precision, Dante twisted the man’s wrist until the bone snapped through the skin, seized the weapon, and fired a single shot into the attacker’s chest.
The ICU was silent again, save for the frantic, flatlining hum of the smashed heart monitor.
Dante stood over the corpse, gasping for air, fresh crimson soaking through his white hospital gown. He looked down at me, his dark eyes ablaze with an ancient, dangerous fire.
“They know,” Dante rasped, pressing a hand against his tearing stitches.
“Who knows?” I stammered, my hands covered in the blood of both my patient and his assassin.
“My uncle, Valerio. He didn't just order the hit on me at the docks tonight,” Dante said, picking up the fallen guard’s encrypted radio. A crackling voice came through the speaker: “Boss, the back elevator is clear. We have the girl’s house surrounded.”
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My breath hitched. My soul left my body. “Kate… Mia…”
Dante locked his eyes onto mine, grabbing my scrub top with a bloodied hand. “Listen to me, Claire. Valerio doesn't know Mia is my daughter yet, but he knows she’s your weakness. If he takes her, we are both dead by sunrise. You wanted answers? You’re going to get them. But right now, you have to let me save our child.”
