AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I bite back my tears as I look down at him. I don’t know if there is any fixing him. Losing this much blood seems like something that will be pretty hard to fix.
Still, I smile down at him and keep applying pressure. “We’re going to make it out of this.”
Inside the house, people are shouting and guns are going off. Even if I do yell, they won’t be able to hear me. There is nothing I can do but keep applying pressure to the wound and keep Matteo awake.
Please don’t die on me.
The second the gunshots stop inside, I start screaming for Salvatore.
24
SALVATORE
“Salvatore!”
Brielle’s scream drives terror through me. I shoot the man in front of me between the eyes before running for the back door of the house. As I yank the door open, my stomach plummets to my feet.
Everything else around me is forgotten as I see Matteo on the ground and a dark pool around him that can only be blood. His eyes are closed and he looks ghostly pale. When I look at Brielle, blood coats her hands and arms. There are smears of blood across her face and she is holding her hands against Matteo.
“What the hell happened?” I ask as I drop down on the ground beside them. I pull my phone out of my pocket and hand it to Brielle before replacing her hands with my own. “Call Dr. Carrigan. Tell him to start driving to the estate. We’re going to meet him there.”
Tears roll down Brielle’s cheeks, creating tracks through the blood. With shaking hands, she dials Dr. Carrigan’s number and gets to her feet.
“Dr. Carrigan, Salvatore told me to call you. Matteo has been shot. It looks bad. He lost so much blood. We’re going to be heading to the estate in a minute. Shouldn’t take more than twenty minutes for us to get there.”
“I’m on my way.”
Brielle tucks the phone into her pocket before picking up a gun from the ground and racing in the house.
“Get back here!” I shout, still trying to get the bleeding to stop.
She doesn’t respond, but a few seconds later, she comes running back out the door with my other brothers. Damien and Gio work to lift Matteo up while I keep pressure on the wound.
Brielle looks at me. ‘I’m going to go get the truck and bring it around as close as I can.”
I open my mouth to tell her to get someone else to do it, but she takes off running before I can. Matteo’s eyelids flutter and he groans as we lift him up and keep pressure on the wound. The rumble of the truck’s engine gets louder before the fence that surrounds the yard breaks.
Brielle looks fierce behind the wheel of the truck, the broken fence lying in front of the vehicle.
We hurry to load Matteo into the back of the truck. Gio and I climb in with him, keeping him as stable as he can be while we drive. His blood seeps through my fingers as Damien climbs into the driver’s side and Brielle slides across the bench.
My heart is hammering in my chest as Damien throws the truck into reverse. As soon as he hits the street, he takes off toward home.
Please hold on until we get there. Don’t die on me.
* * *
Dr. Carrigan takesMatteo into surgery as I look at my brothers. Gio is covered in blood too, and Damien looks like he’s barely holding on. I go to the sink in the corner of the pre-op room and start to scrub my brother’s blood from my hands.
Gio joins me, washing away the blood coating his hands. I watch the water turn pink as I think about all the ways we failed tonight.
“I want you two to find Brielle’s parents. They’re going to pay for doing this to Matteo,” I say, my tone cold and detached.
Gio sighs and nods, turning off his faucet. “We’ll try to get to them before they disappear but they’ve had a head start.”
“I don’t care. Do whatever it takes to find them. I don’t care how long it takes to track them down either. They’ve tried to ruin her life and then they tried to kill our brother. They don’t get to keep running.”
Damien walks out of the room, pushing the door so hard it collides with the wall behind it. Gio follows him, leaving me bent over the sink and trying not to throw up.
