AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Sofia! Gabriel!” Alejandro shouts our names as I hear him slam through the front door.
“Back here,” I return his shout as I try to unsuccessfully pull myself from Gabriel’s tight embrace.
“Jesus fucking Christ!” Alejandro exclaims as he barges into the room. He pulls Gabriel from my naked body as Andres diverts his eyes from me and passes me a sheet.
Wrapping it around my body, I realize that my skin is slick. I wipe my hand through the wetness as I turn to see Gabriel. My eyes don’t leave him because I know what’s covering my body.
Blood.
So much fucking blood.
thirty two
SOFIA
“Are you okay?” I hear the question, but it barely registers. My attention is focused entirely on Gabriel. His body is surrounded by an ever-growing pool of blood. No less than three bullet holes riddle his back. With so much blood pouring out of him, it’s almost impossible to tell if there are more.
“Are you hit?” Andres’s question draws my attention as Alejandro lifts Gabriel’s naked, limp body into his arms.
I look down at my body covered in the now bloody sheet and shake my head. “No…no…none of it…it’s not my blood.”
Alejandro barrels through the house with Gabriel in his arms. I am about to take a step when Andres hoists me over his shoulder. “You’ll destroy your feet on the glass.”
The moment we are outside, he lowers me to the ground, and I run to the Jeep where Alejandro is putting Gabriel in the backseat. “Where the fuck can we take him, Sofia? The town is too far away. He won’t fucking make it.”
“Um…” My mind is fucking blank.
“Fucking think, Sofia!” Alejandro barks at me. “His fucking life depends on it.”
“The vet,” I shout as I climb into the backseat with Gabriel. “There’s a vet about eight kilometers down the road.”
Andres launches the car down the dirt road as I press my hands firmly against two of the wounds on Gabriel’s back. His blood oozes through my fingers with every beat of his heart. It isn’t until the blood pumping between my fingers begins to slow that my heart drops.
“Don’t you dare fucking do this to me,” I whisper against his ear.
“On the left,” I yell to Andres, seeing the driveway for the vet. He makes the abrupt turn and comes to screeching halt inches from the building. He jumps from the Jeep pulling his gun from his waistband and barrels into the building. I can hear him shouting inside, but I’m not able to comprehend what he says.
Alejandro helps me pull Gabriel from the backseat. He is so pale in comparison to the color of his skin when we pulled away from the villa. I open the door to the building for Alejandro and Gabriel to enter and hear the veterinarian arguing with Andres. “I’m not that kind of doctor.”
“You fucking are today.” Andres presses the gun to his temple.
“Please,” I plead and the vet’s eyes widen as he sees me. “I need you to save him.”
“I can’t promise?—”
“Just try. Please. Just try.”
He nods, and Alejandro follows him into an examination room where he lays Gabriel face down on the cold, metal table.
“There is a bathroom in the back. My assistant keeps a spare set of scrubs in there.” He looks to me as gathers a handful of medical tools. Looking myself over, I look like I was the one who was shot. The entire front of the sheet covering me is a wet shade of crimson. That same red stains my hands.
“I’ll stay with Gabriel,” Andres interjects.
As much as I don’t want to leave Gabriel’s side, I accept the vet’s offer and make my way to the back of the office. I unwrap the bloody sheet from me, ball it up and shove it into the trash can. Using an absurd amount of paper towels, I scrub Gabriel from my skin. Once clean—or cleaner—I pull open cabinets until I find the scrubs the vet mentioned.
Returning to Gabriel’s bedside, dressed head to toe in seafoam green cotton, I take his limp hand into mine.
“You should probably clean up to.” My eyes pass over Alejandro. Blood has soaked through his shirt, and his hands are stained like mine. He looks them over and excuses himself to wash up.
