Chapter 6 - THE BLACKOUT
At St. Gabriel’s Medical Center, the lights flickered once.
Lena noticed because mothers notice changes before machines do.
Emma was sleeping beside her on the sofa in Alejandro’s private suite, curled beneath a hospital blanket with Mr. Bun tucked under her chin. The new EpiPens Bruno had ordered sat on the table in a white pharmacy bag. Lena had checked the expiration dates three times.
Across the room, Alejandro slept under sedation.
His breathing was steadier now.
Not easy.
But steadier.
Two guards stood outside the door.
Bruno had insisted.
Valentina had agreed.
Alejandro, even half-conscious, had pointed at the door until everyone understood.
No one near Emma.
No one near Lena.
No one near him without Bruno’s approval.
The lights flickered again.
This time the heart monitor gave a tiny electronic stutter.
Lena sat up.
A nurse stepped in from the hall, frowning.
“Backup generator should catch if anything happens,” she said, mostly to herself.
Then the lights went out.
For one second, the room disappeared.
Emma woke with a gasp.
“Mommy?”
“I’m here.”
Red emergency lights came on, washing the hospital room in a dim, unnatural glow.
The monitor beeped again.
Slower.
Then normal.
The nurse moved quickly to Alejandro’s bedside. “It’s okay. Generator is on.”
But Lena was already standing.
Something was wrong.
Not the blackout.
The silence after it.
Hospitals were never silent. Even at night, they breathed through carts, shoes, announcements, doors, machines, people in pain.
Now the corridor outside Alejandro’s room had gone too quiet.
Lena picked up Emma.
“Mommy, what happened?”
“Power problem, baby.”
“Like storms?”
“Like storms.”
But there was no storm outside.
A thud sounded beyond the door.
The nurse looked up.
One of the guards grunted.
Then came the soft, terrible sound of a body hitting floor.
Lena backed away.
The nurse whispered, “Security?”
The door handle moved.
Slowly.
Lena’s eyes swept the room.
No weapon.
No exit except the bathroom.
No phone she trusted.
She carried Emma into the bathroom and set her down inside the tub.
“Baby, listen to me.”
Emma’s eyes were wide.
“Quiet game?”
“Yes. Quiet game. You stay here. You do not come out unless I say your full name.”
“Emma Rose Carter.”
“That’s right.”
Lena kissed her forehead, then pulled the shower curtain halfway closed.
“Do not make a sound.”
Emma nodded, both hands over her mouth.
Lena stepped out and closed the bathroom door until only a crack remained.
The hospital room door opened.
A man in scrubs entered.
He wore a surgical mask, a blue cap, and gloves.
But he walked like a guard.
Not a nurse.
The real nurse near Alejandro’s bed backed away.
“This is a restricted room.”
The man raised a silenced pistol.
Lena did not think.
She grabbed the metal IV pole and swung it with everything she had.
The pole struck his wrist just as he fired.
The shot went wide, cracking into the wall above Alejandro’s bed.
The nurse screamed.
Alejandro’s eyes snapped open.
Lena swung again.
This time the pole hit the man’s shoulder. He staggered, cursed, and lunged toward her.
She ran for the door, not away from him but into him, slamming her shoulder against his chest. Both of them crashed into the wall. Pain shot down her arm.
The man recovered faster.
He grabbed her hair.
Lena cried out as he yanked her backward.
From the bed, Alejandro tried to rise, tearing at the oxygen tube.
“No,” the nurse shouted. “Mr. Moretti—”
The attacker lifted the gun again.
A small object flew from the bathroom crack and hit him in the face.
Mr. Bun.
The stuffed rabbit bounced off his mask.
It did not hurt him.
But it distracted him.
For half a second.
Lena used it.
She drove her knee upward. The man folded with a grunt. The gun slipped from his hand and skidded under the bed.
The door burst open.
Bruno came in like a storm.
He had blood on his sleeve and a gun in his hand.
The attacker reached for something at his waist.
Bruno fired once.
The man dropped.
Emma screamed from the bathroom.
Lena ran to her.
“I’m here! I’m here!”
Alejandro was sitting halfway up, pale and shaking, fury burning through the weakness.
Bruno kicked the attacker’s weapon away and pulled off the man’s mask.
He did not recognize him.
But he recognized the tattoo behind his ear.
A black thorn wrapped around a blade.
Benedetti crew.
Bruno looked at Alejandro.
Alejandro’s voice was raw.
“Carlo’s people.”
The name moved through the room like a ghost.
The nurse was crying now, pressed against the wall.
“Security is down,” Bruno said. “Two guards outside were injected. Not dead. Sleeping.”
“Rafael?” Alejandro rasped.
“Estate blackout. He’s gone.”
Lena’s stomach turned.
Gone.
Rafael had escaped.
And now one of his men had come to the hospital.
Not just for Alejandro.
For the child.
Emma clung to Lena’s neck, shaking.
Alejandro looked at them.
His face changed.
The mafia boss was gone for a breath.
In his place was a father who had once arrived too late to save his daughter.
“Bruno,” he said.
“I know.”
“No.” Alejandro ripped the IV tape from his hand.
Bruno stepped toward him. “You are not moving.”
Alejandro swung his legs over the side of the bed.
Every monitor screamed.
The nurse shouted for help.
Alejandro nearly collapsed, but he grabbed Bruno’s arm and stayed upright through pure will.
His eyes locked on Lena.
“Take Emma.”
“Where?” Lena asked.
“My house is compromised. This hospital is compromised.”
“Then where are we safe?”
Alejandro looked at the dead man on the floor.
Then at the dark hallway.
Then at the little girl who had saved him with her last medicine and thrown a stuffed rabbit at a killer.
May you like
His answer came without hesitation.
“Somewhere no Moretti knows exists.”
