Page 81 of The Enforcer

With blood gushing, the man gurgled as he went down and I stabbed him again.

Pop! Pop! Pop!

Boom!

Another explosion occurred, the sound filling the night sky. I spun around in a circle, trying to make sense of what I was seeing.

Our men were everywhere, ruthless in their actions.

What seemed like only seconds later, the gunfire began to slow. Finally, there was an eerie quiet in the backyard while I could still hear the sound of screams and the roar of engines coming from the front.

I turned around in a full circle, immediately noticing Valencia hadn’t obeyed me. We locked eyes and I finally realized what had happened.

My father. He’d been caught in the crossfire. She was by his side, her face well-lit by the outside lights. It was covered in blood, her dress soaked with it.

“No. No.” I rushed forward, dropping to the ground beside her.

“He’s hurt badly. The wound is similar to what you had. I need to get him to the hospital.”

“I don’t know if we can do that.”

“Christos. Your father will die. Call an ambulance.”

“What the fuck do you mean she isn’t allowed to handle the surgery?” I snapped at the nurse.

Havros gripped my arm. “She’s not a licensed doctor in Greece, bro. They can’t allow her by law.”

“She is attending, sir, at your request,” the nurse stated, her eyes showing the appropriate amount of fear. I’d been harsh with the entire staff, yelling the moment I’d arrived at the hospital.

My request? Bullshit. My demand. We’d given millions of dollars to this goddamn facility. They owed us much more than allowing Valencia to attend to my dying father.

Valencia had gone with my father and Dimitrios, assuring me everything would be okay. But I’d seen the look in her eyes and I’d heard her voice. My father had a slim chance of living even with her supportive expertise.

“I need to know the moment he’s out of surgery!” My voice was still shaking from rage.

“Calm the fuck down. You’re not helping Mama in the least. Come be with her. She needs our goddamn support.” Havros was doing his best to maintain some sense of peace while I remained livid.

I jerked away from him and the desk, immediately pacing the floor. “How the fuck did this happen?”

I knew the answer. My question was simply rhetorical.

“They came up the beach from a distance. That’s why they weren’t spotted.”

“With all the security equipment we have, they still managed to crawl up the goddamn shoreline to massacre us?”

“Only casualties, two with minor injuries,” Elias said. He was as distraught as the rest of us.

“Only casualties?” I was almost laughing. We weren’t used to losing multiple people and hadn’t in a full two decades.

“Don Coppola was hit,” Jonas said as he flanked his boss’ side.

I lifted my head. This I hadn’t heard. “How bad?”

“He’s in surgery, but they expect him to live.”

“Where did the first goddamn explosion come from?”

Elias took a deep breath. “From what I could tell, a gift. Either that or a device was planted under the table. The second was little more than a fucking pipe bomb tossed from one of the enemy soldiers.”

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