We're halfway down the corridor when the basement door at the top of the stairs bursts open and three men come through, weapons up.
They see us.
Everything happens at once.
I push Isabella behind me and raise my rifle, and Matteo is already firing, precise controlled bursts, and one of the men goes down immediately.
The other two return fire and bullets are ricocheting off the concrete walls and I'm backing up, keeping myself between Isabella and the threat, returning fire when I have a clean shot.
Dante drops the second man.
The third retreats back through the door and slams it.
"Move!" Matteo shouts. "Before they regroup!"
We run for the stairs, Isabella's hands still gripping my vest, and we hit the steps and start climbing fast.
At the top I pause and check the door, listening.
More gunfire but it sounds like it's coming from the far side of the warehouse now, the main entrance area where our other teams are engaging.
I signal: clear for now.
We move through the door into the main warehouse floor and it's chaos.
Our men are engaging O'Rourke's forces across the space, using containers for cover, muzzle flashes lighting up the darkness like strobes, and the air smells like gunpowder and blood.
"Loading dock is that way," I say, pointing. "Thirty yards. We can make it if we move fast."
"On three," Matteo says. "One. Two. Three."
We move as a unit, running low, using cover when we can find it, and bullets are whipping past us, too close, and I'm focused entirely on keeping Isabella behind me, on being the wall between her and anything that wants to hurt her.
We're almost to the loading dock when someone steps out from behind a container.
Killian O'Rourke.
He has a gun raised and it's pointed directly at Isabella and everything slows down in that particular way time does when death is close.
I don't think.
I just move.
I shove Isabella to the side and raise my rifle and fire in the same motion, and Killian's shot goes wide as my bullet catches him in the shoulder, spinning him around.
He goes down but he's already rolling behind cover, and I move forward because wounded is not the same as dead and I'm not leaving him alive to come after her again.
"Enzo!" Matteo shouts.
I move around the container, but Killian is already gone, a trail of blood leading toward a side exit, and I can hear a door slamming in the distance.
He got away.
Fuck.
I turn back and nearly run into Declan O'Rourke standing ten feet away with a gun pointed at my chest.
"Enzo Bianchi," he says calmly. "I remember you. Nine years ago. You took something of mine."
