Chapter 5 - A Bullet in the Rain
BANG! BANG!
Two deafening gunshots erupted from the doorway behind us.
Christian Vance’s head snapped back violently.
A red mist exploded against the wall.
His eyes rolled into his head, his fingers loosened, and his body collapsed
backward through the bedroom door like a marionette with cut strings.
Dante stood in the doorway, his smoking pistol still raised.
Behind him, two tactical operatives cleared the rooms with clinical precision.
"Clear!" one shouted.
"Building secured!" another echoed from the hallway.
"Leo! Leo!" I sobbed, clawing my way out from under Lorenzo’s heavy weight.
I ripped the duct tape gently from Leo’s mouth.
My baby collapsed into my arms, weeping uncontrollably.
"Mommy! Mommy! The bad man had a gun!"
"I have you, baby. Mommy has you. You're safe," I whispered, kissing his
forehead, his hair, his wet cheeks.
His skin was burning hot.
His breathing was a ragged, whistling gasp.
"His inhaler..." I choked out, looking around the destroyed room.
"The pharmacy... he needs his medicine!"
"Medical team is outside!" Dante barked into his shoulder mic.
"Bring the pediatric trauma kit up to 6B! NOW!"
Then, a heavy hand grabbed my wrist.
I looked down.
Lorenzo lay on the blood-soaked floorboards.
His expensive charcoal jacket was shredded on the left side of his chest.
A dark, bubbling crimson stain was expanding rapidly across his black silk
shirt.
The bullet had hit him just beneath his collarbone.
His breathing was shallow, his teeth gritted in sheer agony.
Yet his gray eyes remained locked on Leo and me.
"Is the boy... safe?" Lorenzo rasped, blood flecking his lower lip.
Tears poured down my face, dripping onto his blood-stained chest.
"He's safe," I cried, pressing my trembling hand against his wound to stop the
bleeding.
"You took the bullet for him. Why did you do that? You don't even know us!"
Lorenzo swallowed hard, his hand tightening around my wrist with surprising
strength.
"I know... you," he whispered, a faint, bloody smile touching the corner of his
lips.
"You gave me a cupcake... on my birthday."
His eyelids fluttered, struggling against the encroaching darkness.
"Stay with me, Lorenzo!" I pleaded, leaning over him.
"Don't you dare close your eyes! You hear me? Dante, help him!"
Dante knelt beside us, ripping open a military-grade combat gauze packet.
"Boss, hold on. We've got the surgeon waiting at the estate."
Lorenzo reached up with his bloody fingers and weakly touched Leo’s small,
trembling hand.
Leo, despite his terror, looked down at the bleeding giant.
"Are you the monster?" Leo wheezed softly.
"No, little soldier," Lorenzo whispered, his voice fading to a fragile thread.
"I kill... the monsters."
Lorenzo’s eyes rolled back.
His hand slipped from my wrist and hit the floor with a hollow thud.
His chest stopped rising.
"LORENZO!" I screamed.
Dante shoved a radio to his mouth, his calm facade shattering into pure panic.
"The Don is down! I repeat, the Don is down! Flatline imminent! Prep the
surgical theater at the Hudson compound! MOVE!"
Two paramedics rushed into the apartment carrying an oxygen mask and a
stretcher.
They immediately strapped the mask over Leo’s face, pumping life-saving
bronchodilators into his starving lungs.
Leo took a deep, shuddering gasp of air, his small chest expanding.
Another team hoisted Lorenzo onto a heavy transport gurney, working furiously to
compress his chest wound.
Dante grabbed my arm, pulling me up from the floor.
"Clara, you and Leo come with us right now."
"Where?" I cried, clutching Leo against my chest as the paramedics rolled him
beside me.
"To a hospital!"
"We can't go to a public hospital," Dante said coldly, ushering us toward the
fire escape as fire alarms shrieked across the building.
"Salvatore Vance owns half the precinct captains and half the ER directors in
Queens."
"If Vance finds out his brother Christian is dead, every hitman on the East
Coast will be hunting for Lorenzo’s corpse."
May you like
Dante looked into my terrified eyes.
"And they will slaughter you and your boy to finish what Christian started."
