AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Salvatore draws back his fist, ignoring their commands, and strikes Renzo in the jaw. His fist lands a number of times in a row before Renzo’s able to knee him and wrestle for more control. Watching them battle dizzies me all over again.
I blink and breathe through the pressurized pain that’s plaguing me. My panic has morphed from being about my injury to Salvatore. He won’t survive long—he’s outnumbered and weaponless.
I have to do something.
My idea comes to me in what feels like ambitious delirium. It’ll be risky and potentially impossible given my physical state, but I have to try. I can’t let them hurt Salvatore…
No one is even looking in my direction. They’ve assumed I’m down for the count. I’m unconscious… or worse,dead.
I push through the pain when I lift myself up and turn onto my hands and knees. My whole body quivers. Sweat soaks me as much as my blood does, but I keep pushing. I start a slow crawl. My hands, my knees, and my aching shoulder one at a time trying to coordinate and move together.
I’m crawling further behind the sofa. Closer toward the credenza and its drawers where inside I stashed—
“STAND DOWN!” yells the guard.
“Shoot him!” Renzo screeches in breathless desperation. His mouth is swollen from the many punches he’s taken. “You heard me, fucking shoot him!”
I scramble, wrenching open the drawer and grappling with slippery fingers for the Glock we keep there. The same handgun Salvatore bought me weeks ago as an extra precaution, so I’d have quick access to weapons if ever caught off guard at home. He’d likely forgotten about it due to his jail sentence not long after.Iwas the one to choose the drawer as its hiding place.
Salvatore’s been pulled off Renzo and tossed down onto the ground. The guards aim their assault rifles at him, about to shoot.
I do it first. Half out of it and clumsily, I’m on my knees as I pull the trigger.
The first shot, I miss. My shaking, bloody hands clutch the gun tighter, and I desperately fumble for the trigger a second time.
A third time.
A fourth.
I pull it again and again until it’s empty. All twelve bullets have been shot. Eight of them have landed. I’ve managed to shoot both of the guards. One fatally.
The gun slips out of my hand, and I fall back against the credenza, otherwise unable to hold myself up any longer.
Salvatore seizes the opportunity. He snatches the assault rifle from the closest guard, blasts him yet again, and then turns it on Renzo.
“You fucking lost to a little boy,” he growls.
It’s done that quickly. Renzo slumps with a bullet in the head. Salvatore tosses the rifle aside and rushes toward me.
“Phi… Phi, are you alright?”
He wraps his arms around me and lifts me up off the ground. I’m so spent from the gunshot, the pain pounding in my shoulder, and the emotional ordeal we’ve been through, I can only manage a small, reassuring smile.
Then… then I pass out.
22
salvatore
“You’ve been sittingout here for a while.”
I look up at the sound of Stitches approaching. He’s come outside with a pack of cigarettes, joining me in the hospital courtyard.
“Since when did you start smoking again?”
“Stressful times.” He lights up with a shrug, then offers me the pack. “Have one yourself if you want.”
“You know I quit years ago.”
