Raul
“Fire!” I scream as soon as I hear the first gunshot. I pull Isabella flush against me, covering her with my own body and dropping to the ground.
I feel a few of the Escarras’ bullets reach me, but Riccardo’s bulletproof vest hidden under my coat holds them well enough. It’s still painful, though, the impact making me shudder every time, and I’m sure I’ll have bruises by the morning-but at least I’m still alive.
I lower my head, protecting it from danger-and at the same moment, the wind carries a series of gunshots from the distance and at least two of the Escarras drop dead. The men start yelling at each other in Spanish, trying to figure out what’s going on, and my men keep shooting them from behind the tree line until the Escarras finally start moving in panic. It’s a sign that it’s time for us to move as well.
“Let’s go,” I say with a sense of urgency, keeping my eyes on the men around us while my hand wraps around Isabella’s shoulder. I try to drag her after me, and even though she’s still shocked, Isabella pushes herself up on her hands and knees and, stumbling on the frozen sand, runs after me.
“What-what’s going on?”
She’s out of breath a few seconds later, barely keeping up with my pace, and I know she’s not her usual self. Those bastards must’ve injured her. The thought sends a wave of fury through my veins. I’m gonna kill them, I’m gonna kill them all! Ignoring the bullet that rams into my
shoulder, almost pushing me to fall face down on the sand, I grab Isabella’s arm tighter, forcing her to hurry up.
“We’re getting out of here,” I yell over the thunder of gunshots and screams, my gaze fixed on the line of trees some fifty feet away from us. I can already see Ruben stepping out of the shadows to meet us, and I
straighten up on my feet to run faster when- Shit!
Pain bursts in my shoulder. The heat of the explosion sends a violent shudder through my body, and I stumble in my pace with a pained cry.
Isabella immediately grabs me tighter, holding on to my other arm, and this time it’s her turn to push me up and force me to keep running as fast as I can.
I can feel the hot blood running under the sleeve of my coat, my breath falling short, the pain and the exertion from the run making me dizzy but at last, I drop onto the ground right behind the first line of the park. Isabella slumps next to me, and for a moment we just sit there, catching our breaths with our hands entwined in a lock.
God, I made it. I glance at Isabella and chuckle when I meet her shocked and happy gaze. She’s safe.
“Senor Raul?” Ruben crouches next to me, reaching for my injured shoulder, but I shrug him off-and the movement sends a jolt of pain through me. Gotta be careful, okay?
“Never mind, it’s just a graze.” I breathe out and peek from behind the closest tree, carefully clenching and unclenching my hand. The injury is nothing serious, then. “How is it going?”
“We’ve shot almost all of them, but…”
I see what but he’s talking about, and my heart hardens. Ignoring the bloodied arms and cries for help from the member of his own gang,
Gerardo is running to the boat with two of his men in tow. Shit! The sight of it makes my blood boil, and I move to get up-but something tugs me back.
“What are you doing?” Isabella refuses to let me go, looking up at me with fear poorly hidden behind the mask of anger. “Raul, your shoulder! You’re gonna lose too much blood, it’s-it’s too dangerous. I won’t let you!”
I hear genuine fear in her voice, her eyes big and pleading as I look at her, and she tightens her hold on my arm, refusing to let go. Does she care about me so much? I swallow, holding her gaze while a storm of feelings ties my guts into a knot. Does Isabella love me? And if she does… am I gonna give up on my revenge to keep her happy?
The pain in my shoulder has turned dull, my fingers are sticky from the blood dripping down, and I almost lower myself to the ground, pulled by the affection in Isabella’s gaze. But instead, I glance at Gerardo crawling on the sand to stay out of my men’s range of fire, and the idea of letting him go burns me from within.
Mariana, Isabella’s mom, Cassio… Too many innocent people have died because of him. If I let him escape now, how many more will die?
How much more suffering will he leave on this earth before someone else gets another chance to kill him?
I can’t let all of these people down. Even if it’s the last thing I do, I have to kill Gerardo Escarra.
“No, no!” Isabella protests when I try to move again, gripping my hand even tighter, so I turn to her and look her in the eyes.
“I’ll be back, I promise,” I say and quickly lean forward, capturing her lips in a kiss. Isabella trembles against me in response, releasing my
arm to pull me closer, and I don’t know if it’s from fear, affection, or both, but I revel in the feeling for a moment-before sharply pulling back.
“Ruben, hold her.”
“No!” Isabella tries to cling to me, thrashing around to not let anyone touch her, but Ruben grabs her shoulders from behind and pulls her down. At the same time, I yank myself out of her grip and turn away.
If I look into her eyes again, I will stay-so I keep my steel gaze on the boat as I run out of the cover of the trees.
Time, I need more time!
Gerardo and the two of his men are already by the water, yelling something at each other. Even though I run as fast as I can without tripping on the frozen sand, I know I won’t be able to catch them. But I can’t give up, not now, so I keep running with the throbbing pain in my shoulder and my heartbeat in my ears-when a deafening screech of tires breaks through it.
From the corner of my eye, I see car lights show up out of nowhere, illuminating the beach around me and driving closer, and closer, and closer. Is this good or bad? I glance behind, but all I can see is the dark silhouette of a car behind the blinding lights. Shit. I hope it’s one of ours.
As soon as I heard Gerardo’s voice message, I informed Riccardo, and we decided that the Messinas, the Pushkov, and a dozen of my men would use Gerardo’s distraction with Isabella and proceed with the plan.
They were supposed to have destroyed the Escarras’ bases by now, but would they have had enough time to drive all the way here? Or maybe these are Gerardo’s men coming to help him?
The car has almost reached me, the engine roaring so close to me I can feel the vibration in my ears, and as soon as I hear the first gunshot, I drop to the ground. Shit. Shit!
I roll onto my back, expecting to be shot any moment-but the car drives past me. In the fleeting moment that it passes me, I see Giovanni’s silhouette rising from the opening in the car’s ceiling. As I look at the license plate at the back, I recognize Riccardo’s numbers, and a laugh of relief escapes me.
Yes, yes!
I push myself up just in time to see Riccardo’s car sharply turn right before hitting the boat, drifting dangerously close to the water. At the same time, Giovanni opens fire, blindly firing all over the deck. Using his cover, I run to the boat with all my speed. Even if Gerardo is still alive, Riccardo and Giovanni have given me enough time to catch up with him.
By the time I climb onto the dock, Riccardo’s car is already close to the tree line, making a U-turn, but I doubt I need their help anymore. One of the Escarras is lying unmoving in a pool of blood with his empty gaze directed at the stars. The other one is still choking on his own blood, convulsing in the corner of the deck. But I walk past them without a blink of an eye, focused on the figure crawling away from me.
Gerardo is still alive, his gaze fixed on me with a grimace of pain and anger. Like any other pest, he refuses to die even after multiple attacks. There’s a pool of blood spreading in the middle of his neatly ironed shirt, right above his stomach, and he’s clutching the fabric with one hand while the other-
Son of a bitch!
The bullet hits me in the chest, caught by the bulletproof vest, and the impact sends me maybe a couple of steps back, but that’s it. I chuckle, straightening up and looking at Gerardo. “Another fail-”
Before I can finish, Gerardo raises his gun again, his hand trembling, and I shove myself to the side. The bullet passes an inch from my thigh, but I don’t have time to breathe out because Gerardo fires again
-and this time the bullet hits my forearm. Goddamnit!
I flinch as a wave of pain runs up my arm like a jolt of electricity, and the next moment I can’t feel my hand anymore. I only hear the thud of
my gun falling on the dock, and my vision turns blurry. All of a sudden, my body feels heavy. The roar of blood fills my ears and I feel so sick that I grab the rail with my working hand.
“Not so cocky anymore,” I hear Gerardo wheeze, and through the dark dots in my eyes, I see him raise his arm with the gun.
I have to do something, I have to stop him! But my mind is too thick, every limb is too heavy, and I can only try to kneel down, leaning on the rail. Every movement feels so slow, and the part of my brain that is still aware of my surroundings is blaring with sirens. We have to get out of here, we’re gonna get shot!
But nothing follows, only the dull throbbing pain keeps spreading through my numb arm, and I close my eyes. Has Gerardo decided to spare me? God, I really want to sleep.
“Raul! Raul, where are you?” Isabella’s voice reaches me as if through a thick layer of cotton in my ears-but I still recognize it.
Isabella.
My heart picks up its pace, and a sudden flow of energy nudges me to open my eyes. I see Gerardo a few feet away from me holding his bleeding abdomen with one hand while the other is still holding his gun.
He’s not looking at me, staring at the sky and gasping for breath, but as soon as I move, he turns to me.
“Stay there.” Gerardo’s voice is hoarse and weak, his eyes bulging, blood escaping the corner of his lips.
But I don’t listen to him. My brain has woken up with only one goal left. Kill him.
I gather the remnants of my strength and push myself up on my knees to crawl toward him.
“Don’t!”
I keep crawling, breathing heavily, with my gaze fixed on him. No matter what it takes. I’ll kill him no matter what it takes.
Gerardo aims at me again. “I’m warning you.”
I huff through the thick bale in my throat. Sure. Finally, I get close enough to grab his leg-and Gerardo pulls the trigger.
Nothing happens.
The bastard has run out of bullets.
I can’t help but chuckle at the irony, but I don’t have much energy for anything else. As soon as he understands that I’m not gonna stop,
Gerardo tries to kick me away from him, screaming from the pain that it takes for him to move. His heel hits my shoulder, and the wave of dizziness makes me sway-but I refuse to stop.
“No, no!”
Gerardo’s cries are like music to my ears, and with the last burst of energy, I leap toward his chest, pressing against his stomach. A scream of agony escapes his lips, his knees kicking up to push me away, but I’m deaf
and blind to everything. Everything but the look of deadly terror in his eyes the same one that Mariana had when she died in my arms.
“You deserve it,” I spit into his face, pressing my hand against his throat harder and harder.
Gerardo keeps trying to shake his head and grab my wrist, but his hands are too weak, and his whole body is quickly losing energy. His
survival instincts are too strong, though, and he grabs my injured shoulder, digging his fingers in. The pain shudders through my body, squeezing my throat with an urge to throw up, but I refuse to let go and only press my hand tighter.
I’m not gonna let you go. I have a family to fight for. I have a life to live. I’m not gonna let you go.
I can barely see Gerardo’s face through the dark dots blotting my vision when I finally hear those choking gasps, his body shuddering in
convulsions under mine. I hum under my breath. Just a little bit longer. My headache is so strong I can barely think, my muscles are shivering from exhaustion, and the weight on my lungs doesn’t let me breathe properly.
I just want to sleep.
My whole body feels too heavy to hold up, and it feels like an eternity before I finally drop to the ground. Why is it so soft? And what’s that warm liquid on my hand?
“Raul! Oh my god, no, no, no, Raul, do you hear me?”
I feel a movement, my body shifting with a wave of pain that doesn’t feel so startling anymore. It only makes me want to fall deeper into the darkness.
“Listen to my voice, Raul, don’t fall asleep, they’re coming, I promise.”
I like that voice, although I can’t remember who it belongs to. I only know that it makes my heart feel at peace. I try to smile, but I don’t know if the urge ever reaches my lips. My mind is too heavy. I think I need a nap.
“God, please, don’t leave me.”
Someone starts crying, but I’m too sleepy to tell them that it’s alright. I don’t feel pain anymore. I feel good in the darkness.
“I love you, Raul. I don’t want to let go.”
Then don’t. Because I love you too.
I want to say it out loud-but the darkness pulls me under its blanket as soon as I part my lips.