AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Son,” I say solemnly and those brown eyes flit over to mine.
“Hey, Dad,” he says and then glances down at the body parts lying in front of him. “Fuck. I know you wanted him alive…”
“It’s fine,” I say, stepping over a dead body to get to him and brushing a strand of hair out of his face.
He swallows, his eyes watering slightly.
“He shot him. He shot him.”
“I know. Doc’s here now. It will be okay.”
He blinks up at me, looking far too young in this moment. “Will he save him?”
I nod, even though it could be a lie. But I have to give him some kind of hope. What is life with the absence of it?
“We’ll do all we can.”
He nods and then bites down on his bottom lip. He’s streaked with blood, red and sticky, and bits of bone and skin stuck to his chest, but I still pull him into me.
“We gotta go,” Doc says loudly, moving with Casey toward the entrance, Skylar in their arms.
Fuck, he doesn’t look good, his face gray, his shirt soaked in blood. He’s unconscious, his mouth open, his neck lolling to the side.
I grab Diablo and lead him out of the house. He holds on to me tightly, letting me take control.
To the two men standing watch, I command, “Burn it all down. Elio’s cars too. No evidence left. Bring Skylar’s and Casey’s SUVs home.”
They nod as we make our way quickly to the helicopter, my hand lingering on my son’s arm. It trembles when he glances over at Skylar, and I wonder for a moment if he’d look that upset if I was near death.
I’m not sure. I haven’t been the best father all these years. Absent and unsure of how to interact with them.
But I’d die for them. Do anything for them. They have to know that. They are my soul.
“He’ll be okay,” I insist as the helicopter lifts off the ground.
Diablo lets out a small sob and presses his face into my chest. My hand moves up to his unruly hair, and I hold him to me.
Yes, I’ll make sure everything is alright.
It has to be.
CHAPTERFIFTEEN
DIABLO
“I need to call his mother and his sister,” I mutter as I sit near the hospital bed stationed in the guest bedroom of my father’s house. Skylar was operated on in a secure wing of a private hospital and then transferred here, his body still asleep, his mind not waking up.
A coma, they said. Too much pain and blood loss, they tried to tell me.
I was livid. How dare they? What are their fancy degrees for if they can’t help him?
Useless is what they are. Just fucking losers.
I stare down at my hands, Elio’s blood still under my fingernails, and sigh. I should probably do more to get that out, but can’t quite find the will. I’m busy sitting by Skylar’s side, not able to leave him just in case he takes a turn for the worse.
He better not take that goddamn turn.
“You should,” Angel says, his body curled up next to mine. He was there at the front door to greet me when I arrived, his eyes wide with horror when he saw my blood-soaked body.
