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The Dragoni nephews stride toward the corner of terrified students as the teacher drops to her knees in fear, trying to spread her arms out as far as they will go, as if just her presence will be able to shield them from this horror.
She pleads and begs, tears rolling down her eyes for them to leave, and while I can’t hear the words on her lips, I know she’s begging them not to hurt her students.
A crack sounds through the small surveillance room, and my head whips around to see Roman holding the back of the wooden chair Levi sits on, his grip so tight he physically cracked it. I reach out for him, needing his touch, and he lunges for my hand like it’s his only lifeline.
I feel Marcus shaking his head behind me, all of our gazes locked on the screen. The boys have witnessed and suffered through the most horrendous type of torture and abuse and yet, nothing is more terrifying than this very moment.
One of the nephews goes to shove the teacher aside, and when she refuses to move, he backhands her before raising his gun and shamelessly pulling the trigger.
She drops immediately, her life taken from her in the blink of an eye.
The children scream and chaos breaks out in the room, but I watch my son standing firmly in front of the little girl with a determination in his eyes that makes my heart race. He’s so brave, always has been, but the look in his eyes right now is the look he gave me when he’d fallen and cut his leg open and was about to get stitches. Sebastian was terrified. He has always hated needles, but he’s watched time and time again when his daddy and his uncles have had no choice but to stitch themselves up, even stitching me up a handful of times, and I saw it in his eyes the second he decided to be brave like them.
My little boy is so strong. Roman has always drilled into him that he bears the DeAngelis name, which means he has to be brave, and right now, I’ve never seen anyone braver.
Just as quickly as they shot the teacher, they lunged for my son, but he was ready, dropping down low and pulling a knife from the sheath at his ankle, hidden beneath the fabric of his school trousers.
My eyes widen, and I grip Roman’s hand so tight it could break. “No, no, no, no, no,” I chant as something grabs hold of my heart and pummels it into a million little pieces.
I don’t know where the hell he got that knife from and which of these assholes in this room told him it was acceptable to go to school armed, but right now . . . shit. I’m glad he has something to protect himself with, but he’s just a little boy. He’s not capable of defending himself against these trained men. Coming at them with a weapon is only going to get him hurt . . . or worse. If anything, he needs to go quietly to preserve his energy until we figure out a way to get him home safely.
But he’s a DeAngelis through and through, and I watch as his knife plunges straight into the stomach of the man on the left. Marcus flinches behind me. That exact move was something he’d been teaching my son only this morning, and I couldn’t be more grateful.
Sebastian is trying to gut him, only he doesn’t have the strength or speed to go for the kill, but the blade still plunges deep into his stomach, and I watch as the man roars in agony. But before Sebastian can even yank the blade back out, the other man is on him, his vise-like hold snapping around my son’s waist and pinning his arms down.
As he’s hauled up off the ground, my knees give out again, only for Marcus to catch me, holding me up against his strong body.
Those vile monsters have their hands on my son, but he’s not going to go without a fight. He kicks and screams as the bleeding man pulls the blade out, cursing and grunting while staring daggers at my son. Then all too quickly, he presses that same blade against my son’s throat. The man leans into him, the blade tight against my baby’s throat. He says something to him, and I watch as Sebastian’s eyes widen in horror before looking back at his classmates and at the little girl covered with the blanket. That’s the exact moment the fight leaves his eyes, and he allows these assholes to get exactly what they want.
Then just like that, they turn and storm out of the classroom, taking my son with them.
My breath catches in my throat, and the tears are so heavy in my eyes that as they shove my son into the back of their SUV and drive away, all I see is a blur.
