Chapter 7 - The Blood of the Wolf
The heavy steel door of the surgical suite shuddered under a massive impact.
Dust rained down from the ceiling lights.
"We have to move him," Isabella barked, tossing one of her pistols to Tessa.
Tessa barely caught the heavy weapon, her hands slipping from sweat.
Mateo grimaced as he swung his legs off the table, tearing an IV from his arm.
"I can walk," he grunted, though his face contorted in agony.
The steel door bulged inward as a battering ram struck it from the other side.
"There is a storm drain in the floor," Isabella said, pointing to a rusted iron grate in the corner.
"It leads to the subway tunnels."
Tessa rushed over and desperately pulled at the grate, but it wouldn't budge.
Mateo stumbled over, wrapping his bloody hands around the iron bars.
With a guttural yell, he heaved the grate upward, tossing it aside with monstrous strength.
The door hinges finally snapped.
Three heavily armed men poured into the room, wearing the tactical gear of the Romano syndicate.
Isabella didn't hesitate.
She stepped directly into their line of fire, pulling the triggers of her weapons with terrifying precision.
Two of the men dropped instantly, shots directly between their eyes.
The third man returned fire, hitting Isabella in the shoulder.
She barely flinched, firing twice more and taking him down.
"Go!" Isabella screamed over her shoulder.
Mateo practically shoved Tessa into the dark, foul-smelling hole in the floor.
He dropped in right after her.
They landed in knee-deep, freezing water.
The darkness was absolute, smelling of rot and ancient Chicago mud.
They could hear Isabella's gunfire echoing above them, followed by men shouting in Italian.
"We have to go back for her!" Tessa cried, trying to climb back up.
Mateo grabbed her waist and dragged her down the tunnel.
"She knew what she was doing. Keep moving!"
They waded through the filthy water for twenty minutes, Mateo leaning heavily on Tessa for support.
Every step seemed to drain the remaining color from his face.
Finally, they reached a rusted ladder leading up to a city street grate.
Mateo pushed the grate open, and they crawled out into a dark alleyway in Little Italy.
The rain had stopped, leaving the city slick and quiet.
Mateo collapsed against a brick wall, sliding down to the pavement.
His fresh stitches were bleeding through the bandages.
Tessa knelt beside him, ripping a piece of her skirt to apply fresh pressure.
"You need a real hospital, Mateo. I don't care who they own."
Mateo shook his head weakly, his eyes half-closed.
"If we go to a hospital, Giancarlo will kill my father tonight."
"We don't even know where Giancarlo is keeping him!"
Mateo reached into his pocket and pulled out the piece of paper Isabella had found.
He held it up to the dim streetlamp.
"These aren't just bank accounts, Tessa."
She frowned, leaning closer to look at the numbers.
"What do you mean?"
"Look at the last sequence."
Tessa read the final row of numbers aloud.
"Forty-one, eighty-seven, eighty-seven."
She stopped, realizing they were coordinates.
"It's a location," she whispered.
Mateo nodded, coughing up a small amount of blood.
"An old Romano smuggling estate in the mountains of upstate New York."
"That is where they are holding my father."
Tessa helped him to his feet, pulling his arm over her shoulder.
"Then we need to find a car."
Mateo stopped, looking at her with an intensity that made her breath catch.
"You are not coming, Tessa."
"Like hell I'm not. They are hunting me too."
"If you go there, you will die."
Tessa stared right back into his gray eyes.
"If I don't go, you'll bleed to death before you reach the state line."
Mateo slowly reached up, his thumb brushing a streak of dirt from her cheek.
For a moment, the brutal mafia enforcer looked incredibly fragile.
Before he could argue, a black limousine silently rolled to a stop at the end of the alley.
The tinted window rolled down.
May you like
Sitting in the back seat was David Mercer, smiling warmly.
"Need a lift to New York?" David asked.
