Chapter 9 - Ambush on the Water
""Down!"" Dante roared, shoving Evelyn behind the concrete pylon while shielding Clara with his own body.
A hail of 9mm submachine gun fire shredded the fuel drums and concrete above them, throwing sparks and burning gasoline across the damp slipway. From the bow of the interceptor boat leaped three men dressed in full combat gear, led by a towering mercenary with a scarred neck.
Evelyn didn't hesitate. She rolled out from behind the pylon, firing her suppressed pistol with deadly accuracy. Two double-taps echoed in the enclosed canal; the lead mercenary collapsed into the dark water with two rounds in his chest.
Dante backed into the shadow of the storage vault, his hands steady as he plunged the syringe through the rubber stopper of the amber vial. He drew the antidote, turned Clara onto her back on a clean canvas tarp, and smoothly injected the serum into her shoulder muscle. Clara let out a sharp cry of pain, but within seconds, the erratic fluttering in her eyelids ceased, replaced by a deep, healing exhale. The dusky blue on her lips began to recede.
""She’s stabilizing!"" Dante yelled over the gunfire.
""We can't take the boat!"" Evelyn shouted back, ducking as a volley of bullets chipped the concrete inches from her skull. ""They've boxed the canal outlet with two more patrol boats! Julian is cutting off every avenue of escape!""
Dante reloaded his Walther, slamming a fresh magazine home. His mind calculated the tactical map of the estate with cold fury. ""He expects us to run to the city. He thinks like a hunted fox, not like a wolf.""
""What are you saying?"" Evelyn asked, peering around the pylon as she fired two more rounds, dropping another shooter on the dock.
""We aren't running,"" Dante said, his eyes blazing with the primal wrath of a man whose sanctuary had been defiled. ""Julian took my home. He tried to poison my family. And he slaughtered my hound on my own floor. We're going back up.""
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""Up? Dante, he has thirty men in that house!""
""Then there are thirty graves to dig,"" Dante said. He picked up Clara, securing her tightly to his chest with a tactical sling from a fallen mercenary. ""Take the rifle, Evelyn. We take back what is ours.""
