He heard Cassia laugh and his anger and desperation just spiked up another notch.
“There are men out there who are out to get you. Get away from the glass, lock your shop and hide!!!” Nikos roared.
Cassia’s laughter was cut short and Nikos heard her gasp. It was followed by the sound of glass breaking and falling. There was a muffled thud like a body hitting the wooden floor.
“Cassia!” Nikos shouted.
There was no sarcastic reply this time, only a groan of pain.
His entire body tightened with fear. He stepped harder on the accelerator. He weaved through traffic and thanked the gods that his hobby was racing. He certainly put it to good use now.
By the time he made the turn towards Fifth Avenue, his heart was beating so fast that he half expected to have a heart attack.
He jumped out of his car and ran towards Cassia’s shop. However, he was stopped short when he heard the sound of gunfire and the window of the taxi beside him shattered. He ducked then hid behind one of the nearby cars and used his arms and legs to crawl nearer.
He lifted his head for a second to survey his surroundings and saw the front of Cassia’s shop. Broken glass and bullet shells were everywhere. The mannequins lay on the ground and some had several large bullet holes.
His wife was on the floor and his heart squeezed inside his chest. He saw red and all thoughts fled except the need to get to her. Without thinking, he leapt over the car and ran to her.
“Get down, you fool!” He was yanked hard mid-jump and forced down to the ground by Alex.
Nikos struggled but Alex held him down effortlessly with one hand while his other hand held his gun. His eyes darted around and when the sounds of gunfire stopped, he lifted himself from the cover of the taxi and fired several shots.
“You won’t be able to save her if your brain is blasted to bits on the pavement!” Alex hissed.
“I have to help her!” Nikos shouted.
“Nikos! Stop this insanity and use your God-given brain to assess the situation!” Alex hissed and then smacked him in the head.
Those words, along with the stinging pain near his temple calmed Nikos enough for rationality to creep back into his brain.
“Where are they?” he asked.
“Some are already inside the shop but they don’t dare approach Cassia because she is out in the open. If they go nearer, my team and I will be able to take them out. So they’re staying near the back and shooting at everyone who tries to approach.”
“Cassia is left there vulnerable. What if your team shoots her?” Nikos said through gritted teeth.
“They won’t shoot her; they’re damned good. The men won’t shoot her either because they need her. If the going gets tough, the most they can do is take her hostage until they can negotiate with us for a way out. When they emerge, my snipers will take care of them,” Alex told him and pointed to a spot above the buildings.
Nikos saw a glint of metal and he felt slightly reassured.
“Do the police already know of this?”
“Yes. They know my name too and who’s backing me up on this case. They won’t interfere unless I ask them to. They know my team and they know we can handle it,” Alex answered.
Nikos breathed a sigh of relief. He placed his full trust and confidence in Alex and his men. They were the best in the field.
“What do we do?” Nikos asked his friend.
Alex completely understood what he was feeling.
He had been in situations like this hundreds of times before. Every time that he was on a mission, he felt the thin line between rationality and anxiety. Sometimes he crossed that line and went into full blown panic. But that was what got a soldier killed.
With time, he learned to control his emotions. Rationality played before emotions. He always used logic no matter what the situation.
“Sit here and wait,” he answered.
Alex reached into his back pocket and retrieved a pistol for Nikos. He handed it over to his friend.
“For your protection. Still know how to use that thing?”
“Of course, I do,” he snarled.
Once more, Nikos lifted his head and looked at Cassia. She looked so helpless on the floor that his heart squeezed with every breath. Her eyes were closed and his gaze zeroed in on the blood surrounding her.
Alex gripped him by the collar of his shirt and looked straight into his eyes.
“Calm the fuck down!”
**********
“I can’t,” Nikos’ voice broke as replied.
A thousand emotions assailed him at seeing her like that. He did not understand why he was feeling this way. He hated how he couldn’t think. He hated how he couldn’t function logically or rationally and could only panic.
Alex must’ve noticed his slip and looked at him from head-to-toe.
“I didn’t realize you felt this strongly about your estranged wife,” he teased in an attempt to lighten the situation.
“Just get her out of there,” he pleaded.
Suddenly, a black massive Hummer skidded to a halt on the street before them.
Out came more men dressed in black. They were reinforcements of those attempting to kidnap his wife.
“Shit,” Alex muttered at the same time that Nikos cursed under his breath in his own native tongue.
The mercenary lifted his hand and touched his earpiece. He barked several orders to his team. Nikos didn’t understand a word of it for he was looking at his wife.
He saw her chest rise and fall and it calmed him a little bit. But fear still twisted his gut when he saw that her beautiful features were twisted in a mask of pain.
“Stay down,” Alex commanded.
One of his men threw an Uzi submachine gun to him. Alex quickly grasped it and the roar of gunfire echoed as he squeezed the trigger, discharging a storm of bullets. Three men dropped dead while the others ran for cover.
Nikos looked to his left when he saw a flash of black and saw more enemies come from the other side. He then relied on his reflexes as he lifted the pistol from the ground and fired several shots. He missed several times as he did not have a steady hand like Alex.
While the sound nearly made him deaf and the recoil hurt his hand, all he could think about was how these men intended to hurt his wife and how he would never allow them to. He had to protect her. So he focused and fired again.
He was so focused on his left that he left his back unprotected. The moment he turned around, he was suddenly rooted to the spot when a gun was pointed to his face. He took a deep breath and sent his elbow into the man’s ribs. It made him drop the gun and Nikos kicked it out of reach. He aimed another punch towards the man’s nose and the force made him stagger backwards. Nikos then dived towards the discarded weapon and fired a hole into the man’s skull.
He almost gagged at the sight but he kept himself in check by staring at the other direction and taking in several breaths of air.
Suddenly, he was flashed back to another scenario. It was two years ago and the scene was exactly like this. Only that it was him who was bloody and it was his bodyguards firing against the enemies to keep him and Antonio safe.
But they were outnumbered.
Immediately, he felt fear and panic sliding down his spine.
No. Not now.
Nikos shook his head and tightened his grip on the pistol.
He could not be weak. Not at a time like this. Cassia and Alex needed him.
He shook his head and focused harder. Alex threw him a magazine clip and said, “Cover me.” Nikos nodded and reloaded his pistol. The two of them crouched low and moved slowly to the front of Cassia’s shop. Suddenly, the men ran outside the shop. When he saw that they didn’t have Cassia, he aimed the gun at the bastards and squeezed the trigger. He did this until he ran out of bullets and none of them was left standing.
The sound of gunfire stopped and the only sound that could be heard was the sound of the police sirens in the distance. He lifted his head and saw several bodies on the floor. There were more of them piled outside Cassia’s shop.
“All cleared,” one of Alex’s men told him. He and Alex stood up and ran inside the shop.
He was almost afraid of touching her in fear of causing her more pain. Her eyes opened and sheer terror was written all over her face.
“Shh...it’s me, Cassia. You’re safe now,” he crooned as he gently brushed the hair away from her face. He wanted to lift her into his arms but he was too scared to move her because of her injury.
“Nikos...” she sighed.
He ran his hands down her arm, not caring one bit that he was already covered in her blood. He checked her for injuries and saw a bullet hole near her shoulder. His grip on her tightened as his fury overtook him once more. He let her go when she winced and he cursed himself for being a fool.
Nikos withdrew his handkerchief from his pocket and used it to press Cassia’s wound and stem the bleeding.
She winced again at the pain and he felt like his heart was being clawed out.
“I’m so sorry, glikiamou...”
Her eyes slowly drifted shut. Nikos was so shocked that his heart stopped beating for a second. But when he saw that she simply lost consciousness, it was as if air was let back into his lungs and he could breathe and function again.
“Medics are on their way. But from judging the wound, I don’t think the bullet hit any major arteries. She’ll be fine,” Alex told him.
“But why isn’t she awake? Why is there so much blood?”
“It’s a wound, Nikos. There’s bound to be blood.” Alex rolled his eyes. “As for her being deeply asleep, I think she might have also been hit with a sedative so they could snatch her away more easily. This is better; she won’t feel the pain,” Alex continued.