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)
“He’s in there,” I growl. “Of course, that fucker would bring a machine gun.”
“I’ll flank you, sir.” One of my men crawls toward me.
I nod. “Take down the sides, focus on exhausting their ammo. Shoot the tires so they can’t run like dogs with their tails between their legs. Whatever it takes, make it happen. Don’t let them get away with this.”
When the gunshots relax a little, we both lean up and fire away, aiming for their tires and their drivers to make sure no one is getting out of this ambush alive. The only one I want to capture is Lucio himself. Fuck the rest.
The machine gun blasts away again, and my man next to me gets shot in the ribs, then collapses.
“You’ll fucking pay for what you did!” Lucio shouts. “We’ve got you surrounded. There’s nowhere to run, little bitch!”
Ignorant rat. I’ll slice off his tongue next.
A few more gunshots are heard, and then nothing.
They might be all out of ammo. Perfect.
I glance at my man. “Now.”
He nods and pulls out his gun while walking toward the cars, shooting anyone on sight. Lucio’s men pull out their knives instead and start a fistfight with my men. Blood squirts everywhere. It’s a full-on massacre happening right in front of my house, while I’m homing in on finding Lucio.
The car with the automatic gun finally opens its doors. Lucio steps out while one of his men protects him and shoots one of my men point-blank in the head. I aim and shoot for his guy’s gun and blast it out of his hands. Then try to shoot at Lucio himself, but my chamber’s empty once more.
Shit, I’m all out as well. We’re left to our knives now. I guess this is going to be a dirty fistfight.
Suddenly, a car veers out from the right side of my mansion, from the road where I sent Franco off, and my eyes immediately widen in panic.
Oh no. Stella.
The car comes to a screeching halt near the dead bodies, but I have no second to check what’s going on because Lucio charges right at me with his knife aimed at my heart.
“You’re going down now!” he says.
I pull out my knife too and fend him off while my men behind me are fighting his men, trying to gain control over the battlefield.
BANG!
The sudden gunshot catches me off guard as it hits the ground right beside Lucio’s feet.
“What the…?”
We both glance at the person stepping out of the car, gun raised.
Stella. Oh, fuck no. What is she doing here? I told Franco to grab her and run. She’s not even supposed to…
“Stella?” Lucio says with furrowed brows.
I swipe at him with my knife while he’s too distracted by her presence and slice him right in the shoulder. He roars out in pain, then stabs me too, but he misses, barely. The knife cuts through my shirt, scraping my chest, leaving a bloody trail in its wake.
He strikes at me again while I misstep.
Fuck, he’s going to cut me for real this time.
BANG!
Another shot is fired. “Stay away from Matteo!” she yells.
She’s protecting me.
“That bitch,” Lucio says. “You dare to shoot me?”
His knee comes up and hits me in the stomach, and I groan and buckle forward from the pain, after which he stomps me in my face with a fist. I fall back on my ass, dizzy as hell, while he storms off toward Stella.
“Don’t you fucking hurt Matteo!” Stella shouts back.
“Stella, run!” I yell.
“No, I’m not fucking leaving you!”
How did she return? Did Franco disobey me?
He steps out of the car too while I scramble to my feet. Franco runs to her side as Lucio marches at her, knife at the ready. Franco shields her, but Lucio knifes him down, hitting him directly in the stomach.
“Franco, no!” I yelp.
Stella aims and shoots.
BANG!
The bullet grazes Lucio’s shoulder. She tries to fire again, but she’s all out of rounds, and he easily grabs her.
Fuck.
“Get your hands off my wife!” I growl as I bolt toward them, but he’s already thrown her over his shoulder and marches right back to his car.
One of Lucio’s men pulls out a new gun from the trunk, and the bullet ricochets off the ground beneath my feet. I hide behind one of the car doors and wait until he’s all out of bullets before chasing them again, and I snatch a gun off a corpse and fire it at him, missing every shot.
Lucio rounds up his men, and they all run back to their cars.
“Face me, you coward,” I yell at him.
He got what he came here for. Goddammit.
“Go, go, go!” I shout at my leftover men, and they all jump into action, throwing their knives at whoever they can target. But the cars drive off again, haphazardly racing over my terrain until they’re out of sight.