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"I'm sorry you don't want a mother-in-law." I don't tell her she needs to get over it. There are enough people in Carlotta's life ignoring her feelings right now. I'm not going to be another one of them. "I know this is hard for you. I wish I could make it easier."
"You are."
I wish that were true. "Your light has dimmed since the engagement was announced."
"Can you blame me?" Carlotta's eyes fill with tears. "All anyone sees or talks about is how beautiful I am, like I'm nothing more than my face and body. Like I'm some kind of prize. But I am a woman with thoughts and feelings. I'm not just a broodmare who will make pretty children. Oh, God,soru, I'm terrified of my wedding night. I can't stand the thought of him touching me."
I pull my sister into my arms and hug her tight, my own eyes burning. I can't stop this wedding, and neither can she. I can't make my sister be attracted to the don any more than I can rid myself of my own inexplicable desire for him. If I could give it to her, I would. For so many reasons.
The window behind us explodes, glass shattering over our heads. Carlotta screams, but she quickly undoes her seatbelt and drops to the floor of the car, curling up into a ball. I do the same.
We've been trained since we could walk in how to respond in situations like this. Not that either of us has ever been in one before.
"What's happening?" Carlotta screams the question.
"Stay down," one of the bodyguard orders.
My sister's terror suppresses my own. I have to take care of her. I have to protect her. I know where the extra guns are kept in the cars.
Zio Giovi showed me. He also taught me how to shoot. My father would be furious if he knew, but both Zio and I are good at keeping secrets.
I press the lever that allows me access to the hidden compartment under the backseat and pull out a gun. It's a Glock. Good. I've used one of these before. I check that it is loaded. It is.
A loud thump sounds and then the car swerves, a kathunk, kathunk telling me that whoever is after us has shot out one of the tires. The car fishtails wildly but it keeps moving forward. Toward the safety of our home.
Suddenly the kathunk gives way to the sound of metal scraping on asphalt. I don't know how long the driver can keep the car going, driving on the rim.
Seconds later, I learn the answer to my question as the driver brings the car to a stop.
"Stay in the car with the doors locked," he says before he and the other bodyguard jump out, slamming doors behind them.
Why don't they use the doors as shields? The car is already compromised with the missing back window. It's not armored, so if our pursuers get past the bodyguards, all they have to do is shoot through the windows.
Unless they don't want to kill us. Kidnapping is a bigger worry for my sister and me. Regardless, this car is no refuge.
"It's going to be okay,stellina," I say, using my dad's endearment for my sister. "We're going to be alright."
Shaking with fear, Carlotta doesn't answer.
Gunshots sound from behind the car, but I don't raise my head to see what's happening. I wait. There is a cacophony of shots and the thump of a body falling. Was it one of the pursuers, or one of the bodyguards?
I'm scared, but I have to know.
I lift my head just high enough to peek through the missing back window. Our bodyguards have taken a stance behind trees to the side of the road, drawing the fire of our pursuers away from the car.
There is a masked man lying in a pool of blood on the road. There are three additional masked men still standing. They are using their SUV as a shield. One starts running toward our car while his associates lay down covering fire toward my father's men.
Regardless of the bullets hitting the trees all around them, our driver comes out enough to shoot the man headed toward us. He falls and remains unmoving. Then our driver takes a shot in the shoulder. My throat tightens with dread as I see the blood and the way his body is thrown backward.
He gets up again almost immediately though, keeping up a steady barrage of gunfire toward the remaining pursuers. Seconds later, he's shot again and this time, he doesn't get up.
The second bodyguard manages to hit another one of the masked men and that one falls to the side of the SUV. He tries to get back up, but can only pull himself into a sitting position against the SUV. The last masked man standing runs toward the back of their SUV and pops around it out of sight.
I want to scream a warning to our bodyguard, but we are trained not to do anything that could compromise the focus of the men trying to protect us. The bodyguard is scanning the area to both the front and the back of the SUV, like he knows the masked man could come at him from either direction.
Just as I decide the warning is worth it and shout, "At the back!" as loud as I can, more gunfire erupts.
The bodyguard is shooting in the right direction, but the other man's aim must be better because he goes down.
