Chapter Eighteen #2
He kicked the edge of the wrought-iron table with brutal force, flipping it upward to create a makeshift steel barricade just as a hail of bullets shredded the patio. The air exploded with the sound of shattering glass, screaming civilians, and tearing canvas.
Roselia and Raisa did not freeze. Their training took over in a fraction of a millisecond.
Roselia dropped to her knees, her hand diving beneath her tailored blazer to draw the Glock 19 she carried at her hip. Beside her, Raisa drew twin compact pistols from her waistband, her face a mask of icy focus.
"Bruno, guard!" Roselia roared.
The Cane Corso didn't cower. The beast let out a terrifying, guttural snarl and lunged forward, placing his hundred-and-fifty-pound frame in front of the overturned table, teeth bared, ready to tear the throat out of anyone who breached their perimeter.
"Three o'clock, they are flanking the fountain!" Raisa yelled over the deafening gunfire. She popped up from behind the table, firing three precise, calculated shots. Two of the advancing mercenaries dropped to the cobblestones, clutching their chests.
"Where is the detail?!" Roselia shouted, returning fire toward the vans, taking down a man trying to mount a rifle on the hood.
"Dead!" Enzo yelled back, his own weapon barking rapidly. He had checked the perimeter the moment the shooting started. The three plainclothes guards had been the first targets, taken out by snipers positioned on the adjacent rooftops before the vans had even arrived.
They were trapped. They were three people against a coordinated, heavily armed hit squad that outmanned them five to one.
"We need to move to the kitchen!" Enzo commanded, assessing the crumbling structural integrity of their metal table. "We cannot hold this position! On my mark, lay down suppressive fire and fall back!"
"Ready!" Raisa confirmed, slamming a fresh magazine into her weapon.
"Mark!" Enzo roared.
Roselia and Raisa rose simultaneously, unleashing a devastating, synchronized barrage of cover fire that forced the advancing mercenaries to dive behind the stone fountain and the ruined vans.
"Go, go, go!" Enzo yelled, grabbing Roselia by the shoulder and shoving her toward the shattered glass doors of the café.
They moved backward in a tight, tactical triangle, Bruno barking viciously, backing up with them to guard their flank. They breached the interior of the café, the air thick with plaster dust and the screams of terrified patrons huddled beneath the booths.
"Through the back alley!" Roselia ordered, taking the lead as they sprinted through the swinging doors of the kitchen.
They burst out into the narrow, shadowed cobblestone alleyway behind the restaurant. It was empty. The sudden silence was jarring, but Enzo knew it wouldn't last.
"The extraction point is two blocks south," Enzo breathed, his chest heaving as he checked the alley entrance. "We move fast."
But as Raisa stepped out of the doorway, a shadow dropped from the fire escape above them.
It was a trap. The assault in the front had been designed to funnel them exactly here.
Two heavily armed men stepped out from the intersecting alley, raising their weapons. Raisa pivoted instantly, firing twice, but one of the men managed to pull his trigger before he fell.
A bullet grazed the side of Raisa’s head, shattering the brick beside her. She let out a sharp cry, stumbling backward as blood instantly began to pour down the side of her face, blinding her left eye.
"Raisa!" Enzo yelled, his heart stopping in his chest.
Before the second gunman could adjust his aim to finish her off, Enzo didn't think. He didn't calculate the odds. He threw his entire body forward, placing himself squarely between the barrel of the gun and his sister-in-law.
The alley echoed with the deafening, concussive boom of a shotgun blast.
Enzo’s body jerked violently. He absorbed the full, devastating impact of the buckshot directly into his chest and abdomen. The force of the blast lifted him entirely off his feet, throwing him backward into Raisa, sending them both crashing to the filthy cobblestones.
"Enzo!" Roselia screamed. The sound tore from her throat with a feral, terrifying agony.
She didn't take cover. She stepped forward, raising her weapon with both hands, and emptied the remainder of her magazine directly into the face and chest of the gunman, blowing him backward into the shadows.
The alley fell dead silent, save for the distant, approaching wail of police sirens.
Roselia dropped her weapon and fell to her knees beside her brother-in-law.
Enzo was lying flat on his back. His eyes were wide, staring up at the narrow strip of blue sky between the buildings, his mouth opening and closing as he struggled for air. His white button-down shirt was saturated in a rapidly expanding pool of dark, thick blood.
"No, no, no," Roselia sobbed, her hands hovering frantically over his ruined chest, not knowing where to apply pressure because there was simply too much damage. "Enzo. Enzo, look at me. Stay with me!"
Raisa pushed herself up onto her elbows, wiping the blood from her own eye. She looked down at Enzo, her breath catching in a ragged, horrified gasp. "Oh God. Enzo."
Bruno whined, a high, panicked sound, nudging Enzo’s limp hand with his bloody nose.
Enzo’s eyes fluttered, locking onto Roselia’s terrified face. A faint, bloody smile touched the corners of his mouth. "Told you... I'm a man... of action," he choked out, blood bubbling past his lips.