Sofia’s pov
The scream that left my mouth this time was completely silent as I watched as the kneeling man who was apparently working with Ryan, fell to the ground face first after being shot by Ryan.
That sent a more terrified feeling down my spine, because not only was Ryan crazy, he was clearly also heartless as hell. Seeing how he could effortless kill off his own partner made it more obvious that it wouldn’t be hard for him to kill me if he wants to, and that he wasn’t just bluffing by threatening to shoot me.
“Fuck, man, you really are a freak. Your own partner?” Angelo mused with an unimpressed look on his face. Luca snorted and leveled Ryan with a look. “That’s not something a Ricci would do, you know?”
“Well it’s a good thing I’m not a fucking one, okay? And now that I’ve killed my partner myself, you clearly don’t have anything to threaten me with, I have nothing to lose in this situation unlike the rest of you.” Ryan responded haughtily, sneering as he tugged on my hair. I winced and bit back a cry, not wanting to prompt Luca into making a mistake right now.
All of Ryan’s men were still positioned behind him, and they had their guns trained on the guards that accompany my rescuers. They were clearly outnumbered, which is why none of them haven’t attempted to shoot yet.
Ryan was right when he said he has nothing else to lose until Luca.
He barked out a laugh and began to tug me along with him backwards, towards the jer. Panic seized me at once and I was about to let out a scream when Angelo stepped forward and aimed at Ryan, cocking his gun once again.
“Take one more step, I dare you.”
Ryan nodded his head at his guards, who all shot at Angelo at once. Horror flashed before my eyes and a scream tore past my throat as I watched the men fire at once, straight at Angelo who ducked and shot at the five men too. From the corner of my eyes, I noticed the Luca’s guards fire at the men too.
In a few moments, all the men positioned behind Ryan were all on the ground, and one of Luca’s guards was on the ground too. Angelo was crouched low on the ground, and when he rose to his full height, his hand was pressed to his left shoulder, making tears roll down my cheeks as soon as I noticed the blood starting to seep through his shirt.
Before my mind could fully slide into a full panic mood, Ryan was tugging on my arm even harder while causing loudly. All he managed was two steps before he fired once then twice at Luca who was closing the distance between us. Luca dodged his bullets easily because his aim wasn’t straight now that he was clearly panicking.
When he realized that the bullets wasn’t getting to Luca, he aimed the gun at my head and was about to spew something when a leg swung in my face. I flinched and instantly ducked my head. When I lifted it moments later, I realized that Luca had kicked the gun out of Ryan’s grip, and he has a gun pressed against Ryan’s forehead.
“Let. Her. Go.” He growled out, eyes furious but voice still managing to remain calm. Ryan’s grip tightened on my grip for a fleeting moment and I had a feeling that he had succeeded in capturing that arm at this point, before he finally let me go. I fell to the ground like a heap of rice, body shaking with the force of relief coursing through my veins.
“Think you’re gonna have the last laugh?” Ryan asked before whipping out another gun and aiming it at Luca’s head, and at once, that feeling of relief was quick to morph into terror at once as I stared at the scene unfolding right in front of me.
“What now? You gonna shoot me, brother?” Ryan sneered in Luca’s face, who only chuckled, still looking relaxed like he doesn’t currently have a gun aimed at his head.
“Thought you said I shouldn’t refer to you as that?” Luca drawled and Ryan scoffed with a shrug. “Since I’m gonna die tonight, there’s no point in not being referred to as that.”
“You know, one thing I’ve always loved about you, is how smart you are. You already know you’re gonna die tonight and that’s nothing but the truth, dear brother.”
Ryan sneered as he inched closer to Luca. “You got it wrong, boss. We’re both dying tonight, along with your cute, little wife. We’re all gonna die tonight like one big, happy family. Doesn’t that sound perfect?”
“You sick fuck, how did you remain in character all those while?”
Ryan let out a snicker. “Believe me, it was harder than I expected. There were times I wanted to whip out my gun and shoot the smirk off your face, but I had to force myself to remain in character everytime.”
Luca hummed and Ryan rolled his eyes. “I tried to kill you so many times, I even sent assassins your way, but you easily finished them off. There were times I paid people to have you poisoned at functions, but you being the sickening brilliant bastard that you are, you never drank in public so I had to stop bothering at a point.”
Luca cracked a little laugh this time, meanwhile I was almost passing out from panic right now.
“Okay, that’s pretty smart, I’d have to give you that for your efforts at least.” Luca mused, fingers flexing around his gun.
“It’s the blood running between us.” Ryan declared and Luca shook his head. “That’s where you’re wrong. We might have the same blood in our veins but we’re nothing alike.”
“I beg to differ, we’re both bastards.” Ryan informed Luca who snorted. “That, we definitely are. But, unlike you, I’m not a sick bastard, I actually have empathy. I might be a bastard, but I’m one that still deserves to remain in this world. Whereas you deserve to rot in the lowest part of hell where our father’s currently cooped in.”
As soon as he was done speaking, he hit the bottom of his gun on Ryan’s head, and Ryan managed to throw a kick at Luca before he staggered backwards. He aimed at Luca and I screamed right before Luca kicked the gun away from his grip. Moments later, they were both sparring with their hands, with punches flying and kicks around. I glanced around for Angelo and James, and that was when I realized that Angelo was in a worse state than I expected.
Blood had soaked through half of his shirt and James was crouched above him with a hand pressed against the bleeding shoulder to probably stop it from bleeding out. As I stared at the scene unfolding before me, a flooding feeling of nausea rushed into me, but I knew nothing would come forth if I retch.
The sound of a gun hitting the ground pulled my focus from Angelo to the fight happening some feet away from me. Both men were sizing each other up. Luca’s gun had been the one to hit the ground, Ryan must have probably succeeded in kicking it away.
Both men began to fight once again, with Luca having the higher hand, but that was before Luca fell from a particularly strong kick. Ryan, who was on the ground, hastily crawled towards a gun and whipped it up. He cocked it and aimed it at Luca who was just risky to his feet.
At that moment, it felt like my world stopped.
Without stopping to think, I did the only thing that came to mind. I crawled forward and positioned myself in front of Luca who instantly tried shoving me down for my own safety.
Ryan let out a laugh that grated on everything inside of me.
“Even better! I’m gonna take you out so neither of us would get to have you.” He declared before pulling the trigger. I felt frozen in time, and from the back of my mind, I felt Luca hastily moving me away while cursing, but I guess he wasn’t fast enough because a sharp pain shot through the side of my stomach in the next moment. It didn’t hurt like I had always thought, but I guess that was the anderline speaking because blood was pooling out from that particular spot in the next moment.
I had no idea of what actually happened next.
Everything went hazy. All I could feel was the ground underneath me and the side of my stomach slowly start to hurt, while the feeling of blood made the entire side of my cloth stick to me.
A gunshot went off.
Once.
Twice.
Thrice.
A pair of hands slid underneath my body and that was what prompted the first jolt of pain through my body, and a scream tore past my throat as tears slid into my hair.
“Fuck, I’m so sorry, bunny. I’m so sorry.” Luca was saying over and over again. His voice sounded far away but I could feel his hand around me. When I forced my eyes open with the last strength in me, it was to two fat teardrops rolling down Luca’s cheeks.
That took me aback because this was the first time I’d ever witness him cry. I tried to speak, to resssure him to not cry because I was okay, and he was okay, which means everything was fine– but nothing came forth. I lifted my hand, wanting to touch his face, but I had no strength left in my limbs anymore. Luca probably noticed my fingers moving because he grasped my hand and pressed it to his wet face, sighing as he pressed his wet lips against my knuckles.
“Don’t cry. It’s weird.” I whispered the first thing that came to mind. Luca chuckled through his tears while nodding his head vigorously.
“I promise not to if you stay with me.” He whispered.
My eyes slid close for a moment right before his hand cupped my face and his voice calling my name frantically. Because of the raw panic in his voice, I used every bit of strength in me to blink my eyes open.
His cheek was wetter than I remembered.
“Don’t leave me please, bunny. We’re safe now. I finally have you back, don’t leave me all alone in this world. You’re the reason I breathe every day. Please, Sofia.” He whispered earnestly, voice cracking. A sigh rattled out of my tired lungs as I forced myself to croak out.
“I feel weak… I just wanna sleep, but only for a little while.”
Luca appeared even more panicked as he shook his head. “No, love. No sleeping yet, stay with me for now, please.”
I tried turning my head but gave up after being unable to.
“Where’s Ryan?” I asked on remembering his face as he pulled the trigger at me.
“He’s taken care of now and I have you to myself once again, so stay with me, okay love?”
As I blinked up at him, a relieved feeling settled inside of me at the realization that Ryan was already taken care of, which means Luca is fully safe from a very psychotic Ryan.
Which also means I could rest now and be rest assured that Luca was gonna be safe.
Luca was shaking me till I blinked my eyes open. He kissed my hand and held it tightly, staring down at me with so much love shining through. His grip didn’t feel like it was leading me to my death like Ryan’s. His grip felt like one which I could let myself fall into without worrying if he’d prevent me from falling or not. His grip was calming, reassuring and safe.
“I love you.” I found myself whispering. Luca smiled softly and kissed my fingers.
“I love you more, bunny. I’ll always do, till my very last breath.”
When my eyes slid close, I couldn’t find any strength to blink them open when Luca began to shake my face while calling out my name. His voice grew in octaves and I wanted to reassure him that I was fine and only taking a nap, but couldn’t find the strength to move my lips.
Soon, darkness slowly pulled me under.