Chapter 8 - The Underground Surgery
Mara screamed for help into the empty, rain-slicked alleyway, but nobody answered.
She knew she could not take Dante to a public hospital without alerting the corrupt local police on the Senator's payroll.
She patted down Dante's tactical vest and found his encrypted satellite phone.
Scrolling through his emergency contacts, she found a number listed simply as "The Doc" and pressed dial.
A gruff voice answered on the first ring.
"This is Mara," she sobbed into the receiver. "Dante has been shot in the chest, and Silas betrayed us."
The man on the other end cursed violently in Italian before demanding her exact location.
Within ten agonzing minutes, a stealth black ambulance with no license plates screeched to a halt at the mouth of the alley.
Two large men jumped out, loaded Dante’s unconscious body onto a stretcher, and threw Mara into the back.
The ambulance sped away, navigating a labyrinth of back alleys until it plunged into an abandoned subway tunnel beneath the city.
They arrived at a pristine, fully equipped underground surgical clinic hidden from the world.
The gruff doctor immediately ripped Dante’s bloody shirt open and began shouting orders to his nurses.
"The bullet missed his heart by half an inch, but it nicked an artery," the doctor grimly informed Mara.
Mara was shoved into a waiting room, forced to stare at the blood coating her own hands for three agonizing hours.
She paced the floor, praying to a God she hadn't spoken to since her mother died.
Finally, the heavy surgical doors swung open, and the doctor stepped out, wiping sweat from his brow.
"He is tough as nails, sweetheart," the doctor sighed. "He is stabilized and resting, but it will be a long recovery."
Mara pushed past him, rushing into the sterile recovery room.
Dante was lying in the hospital bed, hooked up to a dozen monitors, looking paler than a ghost.
His dark eyes fluttered open as she approached, and a weak, breathtaking smile touched his lips.
"You look terrible, amore mio," Dante whispered, his voice raspy and dry.
Mara let out a wet laugh, burying her face carefully into his uninjured shoulder.
"I thought I lost you," she cried softly.
Dante reached over with his good arm and rested his large hand gently over her pregnant stomach.
"I am never leaving you or this baby, Mara," he promised, his tone completely absolute.
"We are going to destroy Senator Thorne, and then we are going to disappear together."
Mara nodded, finally allowing herself to believe that they could actually have a peaceful future.
Suddenly, the television mounted on the corner wall of the recovery room flared to life with an emergency news broadcast.
The screen displayed a massive, high-definition photograph of Dante’s face with a bold red banner underneath.
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The news anchor announced that Dante Russo had just been officially named the FBI's most wanted fugitive.
According to the broadcast, Dante was the prime suspect in the brutal, unprovoked assassination of Senator Thorne’s innocent son-in-law, Preston.
