Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 80550 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80550 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
I won’t forget finally seeing her anytime soon, and I’m happy that I was able to talk to her.
When she’s out of sight, I turn around to face Matteo again. He’s already gotten up from his knees even though he’s still staring at his mother’s grave.
I approach him while I take a deep breath and place my hand on his shoulder. “Thank you. And I mean it from the bottom of my heart.”
This man did something for me that means the world to me. Even though we both knew it was dangerous, and he knew the risks of bringing her here, he still went ahead, just so I could see my mother again … just to make me happy.
“You said you missed her,” he says. “I didn’t want you to suffer like me.” He turns his head to look at me. “I want you to be happy, even if you think I’m a monster, even if you hate me, and I won’t hold it against you if you do. But I swear, on my mother’s grave, I will keep your mother safe, Tesoro.”
I’m overwhelmed by gratitude, and I wrap my arms around him, hugging him tight.
“This meant the world to me,” I say. “And I don’t think you’re a monster at all.”
He gently rubs my back. “I wish I could do more.”
“Lucio is the real monster.”
“I know, Tesoro. I think so too.”
BANG!
The loud gunshot catches me off guard. My gaze scatters as I try to find where it came from, if I really heard it correctly. But then another bullet ricochets off the cemetery walls, and panic takes hold.
“They’re here,” Matteo growls.
He grabs my arms and pushes me aside, pulling his gun from its holster as he aims at the entrance.
My lungs constrict. “Where?”
“Hide!” he yells.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
I crawl behind his mother’s grave, clutching the stone as gunshots scatter the cemetery. Several men appear from behind trees and gravestones, all aiming for Matteo.
I recognize one of them as Bartolo.
I gasp and immediately lean over the gravestone to look at Matteo shooting at his enemies. “It’s an ambush. Matteo, we have to run!”
Matteo shoots back at Lucio’s men, aiming for the first guy approaching on the left, but then a bullet hits him in the shoulder from the right.
“Matteo!” I scream.
Grumbling from the pain, he turns and hits the one who shot him point-blank in the head with a bullet. The man drops to the ground, blood oozing from his wound.
More gunshots follow, and Matteo does his best to fend them all off, shooting left and right as swiftly as possible, but he’s severely outnumbered.
“Stella, run!” he yells. “Save yourself. I will shield you. Go, now!”
What? He wants me to leave him?
Another one shoots him in the thigh, and he sinks to one knee.
“Matteo, no!” I shriek, crawling away from behind the stone so I can get to him before they kill him.
He lifts his gun and shoots at a man in the distance, gunning him down with just two shots to the chest, while I rush to his side.
“Stella, you have to leave, now,” he says through gritted teeth. “I cannot bear to lose you. Please. Leave me and get yourself to safety first.”
“Fuck that. Do you have more guns?”
His nostrils flare. “Just one. In my left pocket.”
I rummage in his coat and take out the small extra gun he keeps in there.
“Do you know how—”
I undo the safety and prep for a shot. “Lucio taught me one good thing.”
I fire at the man who shot Matteo in the leg and shoot him right between the eyes. His body flops down onto the pebbled path, blood squirting from the hole, and I move onto the next target, firing bullets at him until his legs cave in on him and he sinks to the ground.
Matteo shoots at a guy near the fence, who dies on the third bullet.
BANG!
A stray bullet hits Matteo right in the chest, and he groans in pain as he sinks to the dirt completely.
“NO!”
I raise my gun and shoot at Bartolo as he waltzes toward us. Five shots and then my bullets are out, but he finally falls to the ground like a sack of potatoes littered with bullets. I’m glad he’s rotting in the dirt where he belongs.
I tuck the gun back into my pocket and immediately kneel beside Matteo, checking his wounds. There’s a gnarly bullet hole on the right side of his body, opposite his heart.
“Matteo? Matteo!” I slap his face to wake him up, but no matter what I do, he won’t respond.
“No, no, no, no!” I push my fingers against the open wound to try to stop the bleeding, while I fish out his phone with a bloodied hand and unlock it with his limp thumb.
“C’mon, c’mon, quickly!” I yell at myself while opening the emergency contact and pressing Call.