Chapter 5 - Crossfire in the Hallway
"Step away from the door, Leo," Dante commanded, his voice ringing with absolute, lethal authority as he shoved Mave gently behind him.
Leo didn't need to be told twice. He dropped the bag of doughnuts, tripped over his own sneakers, and scrambled backward down the stairs, yelling for help at the top of his lungs.
The two men in the hallway didn't flinch. The taller one, a scarred brute with a shaved head, let out a dry, humorless chuckle.
"Well, look at that," the shaved-head man said, locking eyes with Dante through the crack in the door. "The ghost came back to life. Boss is going to be real happy we found you before you bled out in a gutter, Dante."
"You're a long way from the docks, Paulie," Dante replied, his grip tightening on the pistol. "Must be lonely down there without a boss to tell you when to breathe."
"Times change," Paulie sneer, his hand flashing outward.
Mave screamed as the barrel of a silenced pistol cleared the edge of the doorframe.
Dante shoved Mave to the floor just as a suppressed round punched through the wooden door, splintering the frame and embedding itself into the kitchen wall with a sharp thwack.
Dante returned fire instantly, two rapid shots punching through the thin paneling of the door. A muffled curse echoed from the hallway, followed by the heavy thud of a body hitting the wall.
"Get to the fire escape!" Dante barked, grabbing Mave by the arm and hauling her to her feet.
"What about Bruno?" Mave yelled over the sound of shouting voices and heavy boots storming up the remaining stairs toward their door.
May you like
"He knows how to run!" Dante roared, kicking the kitchen window out into the alleyway with a single, brutal thrust of his boot. Shards of glass rained down into the freezing rain below as the exterior door began to buckle under the weight of a heavy kick from the hallway.
Dante grabbed Mave around the waist, hoisting her bodily through the shattered window frame just as the apartment door flew open in a shower of splintered oak and flying iron.
