Chapter 12 - BLACKOUT AT THE ICU
We returned to the hospital by early afternoon.
Leo was sitting up in bed, eating a bowl of strawberry gelatin.
A faint pink colored his cheeks, and for the first time in his life, he didn't look exhausted just from breathing.
When he saw us enter, his face lit up.
"Mommy! Look!"
He pointed to the bedside table.
A nurse had helped him color a picture of three little boys wearing crowns standing on the deck of a massive blue ship.
"That's Daddy's ship," Leo declared proudly.
Adrien walked over, picked up the drawing, and looked at it as though it were the Mona Lisa.
"We'll hang this in my harbor office," Adrien said, kissing the top of Leo’s head.
Suddenly, the fluorescent lights above flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Then the room plunged into pitch darkness.
The steady hum of the ventilation system died.
The digital monitors beeped frantically on emergency battery backup.
Down the hallway, alarms began to blare.
CODE RED. POWER GRID FAILURE. SUB-LEVEL FOUR BREACH.
My heart plummeted into my stomach.
"Adrien!" I gasped, grabbing Leo’s hand.
Adrien moved instantly.
He drew a tactical flashlight from his pocket, illuminating the room with a sharp white beam.
His sidearm was in his hand before the beam hit the door.
"Miller!" Adrien called out.
The heavy door burst open.
Miller stood in the doorway, weapon drawn, breathing hard.
"Sir! The backup generators were sabotaged in the basement. A team of four armed men just hit the fourth-floor stairwell."
"Who are they?" Adrien barked.
"Voronin syndicate," Miller spat. "Victor’s old Russian partners. They know Victor is going to talk to the feds to cut a deal. They’re here to liquidate any leverage Victor had—starting with his heirs."
They were coming to kill Leo.
I threw my body over the hospital bed, wrapping my arms around Leo.
"I won't let them," I sobbed into his hair. "I won't let them touch him."
"Clare, get under the bed with him," Adrien ordered, his voice commanding and steady. "Now!"
Miller helped me lift Leo from the mattress, carefully detaching the portable IV pole.
We slid onto the linoleum beneath the heavy steel frame of the medical bed.
I held Leo tightly against my chest, covering his ears so he wouldn't hear the chaos.
"Daddy?" Leo whimpered in the dark.
"I'm right here, son," Adrien whispered from above. "Keep your eyes on Mommy."
Heavy footsteps pounded down the corridor outside.
Rapid gunfire erupted.
POP-POP-POP-POP!
The sharp cracks of automatic weapons echoed through the sterile hallway.
Glass shattered nearby.
A man screamed outside our door.
Hayes’s voice shouted: "Target down! Reloading!"
Then a heavy boot kicked our room door off its hinges.
The door crashed inward.
A silhouette stepped through the opening, an assault rifle raised.
Adrien didn't wait.
From behind the bathroom door frame, Adrien fired three controlled rounds.
BANG. BANG. BANG.
The intruder collapsed backward into the hall with a heavy thud.
A second man rushed past the doorway, firing blindly into the room.
Drywall exploded above my head.
Plaster dust rained down on my back.
Adrien stepped into the line of fire, returning fire with lethal precision.
The second shooter dropped.
Then a sharp, sickening grunt escaped Adrien’s lips.
He staggered against the wall.
His flashlight dropped to the floor, rolling toward the bed.
In the white beam, I saw dark crimson spreading rapidly across the left shoulder of his white shirt.
"Adrien!" I screamed, crawling out from beneath the bed.
"Stay down!" he roared, pressing his hand against the bleeding wound.
He leveled his gun at the doorway with his right hand.
Miller appeared in the opening, his own gun smoking.
"Clear!" Miller yelled, his chest heaving. "All four hostiles neutralized. Boston SWAT is entering the lobby right now."
The emergency lights flickered back on, bathing the room in an eerie red glow.
Adrien slid down the wall until he was sitting on the floor.
Blood was pouring between his fingers, staining his suit jacket.
"Adrien!" I scrambled to his side, tearing off my scarf to press it against the wound. "Doctor! We need a trauma team in room 412!"
Adrien looked at me through half-closed eyes.
His skin was pale, but his hand reached up, weakly touching my cheek.
"Is Leo... is he okay?" he whispered.
Leo crawled out from under the bed.
He saw the blood on his father's shirt.
Tears streamed down the little boy's face.
He walked over on his tiny bare feet and placed his golden cardboard crown directly onto Adrien’s dark hair.
"You fought the monsters, Daddy," Leo sobbed softly. "You won."
Adrien looked up at our son.
May you like
A faint, bloody smile touched his lips before his eyes rolled back, and his head slumped against my shoulder.
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