Chapter 130
Cesare
Inside The Hospital
As I entered the stairwell, I realized that this would be one of the places Rosolini’s men would guard –
So I grabbed two of my guys, Guappo and Nasone, and pushed them ahead of me.
Guappo struggled as though to protest –
So I pointed my pistol at his skull.
He turned pale, but he got the idea:
Go first or I’LL shoot you.
Guappo and Nasone started up the steps. I crept along a few feet behind them, my Beretta aimed above their heads.
They reached the second floor when gunfire started raining down.
Guappo got hit in his bulletproof vest –
While Nasone took a bullet in the head.
Both tumbled to the floor.
I fired up into the stairwell –
And saw the wall far above me get spattered with red.
“COME ON!” I snarled as I dragged Guappo back to his feet and forced him in front of me. He was barely walking, but I didn’t need him to fight –
I needed him as a human shield.
Another fucker in a black suit fired down over the railing –
But he hit Guappo instead of me.
I fired back and killed the asshole.
Guappo sank to his knees with a wet choking sound. He’d been shot in the throat. Bright red blood gushed out on the floor.
FUCK –
That’s two of our guys down!
I reached behind me and grabbed Pelato to take Guappo’s place.
He tried to back away, but I put my gun to his head and marched him up the stairs.
Another black suit fired down –
But Pelato took the bullets as I fired over his shoulder.
The Cosa Nostra asshole stumbled backwards as I lit him up.
Pelato was done, so I flung him to the side and ran up the last few steps.
Three guys in black suits were lying on the floor in pools of blood.
They were bleeding out and beyond fighting back –
But just to make sure, I shot them all in the head.
Three of theirs for three of mine.
It was an even trade, but one I wasn’t going to be able to keep up much longer without running out of men.
I kicked open the door but stayed inside the stairwell.
Good thing I did, because the door immediately got blasted with gunfire from down the hall.
FUCK.
This was going to be harder than I’d thought.
I pulled out my cell to call my guys in the elevator –
When I saw I had an incoming call from Mignolino in the lobby.
I nearly didn’t answer, but unease gnawed at my guts.
“I’m a little fucking busy!” I snarled as I answered.
“Something weird’s going on outside, boss,” he said. “I heard gunfire.”
“Well fuckin’ go see what it is!”
“If I leave the hostages, somebody might call the cops.”
“Then DON’T go see what it is!”
“But – ”
“JUST HANDLE IT!” I screamed and hung up the phone.
Suddenly, automatic gunfire broke out in the hallway.
I peeked out the door.
The elevator was open on the opposite side of the hallway, and my guys were raining down hell on the Cosa Nostra fucks that had been shooting at me.
Good.
I grabbed another guy from behind me – Bambino – and forced him out in the hallway ahead of me.
It wasn’t until I was firing over his shoulder that I realized something.
Lucrezia, Ciro, and Romeo were outside –
So who’d they been shooting at?
Or who’d been shooting at THEM?