Chapter 33
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
BENEDICT
F or a moment, before Stefano’s men arrived, I thought we were more than a little fucked. Pinned down in the corner of the open warehouse, the upturned table was rapidly failing as a decent cover. While a heads up on the grenade Aurora threw would have been nice, I appreciated that it took out at least one of the threats against us and finally getting the go ahead to blow the device I set on the eastern wall really turned the tables.
By the time Max’s men rolled in through the loading dock, we’d got half the place cleared and taken strategic positions against the next wave. Admittedly, he brought more reinforcements than I expected, but with Stefano’s men and now Dom’s, it’s only a matter of time.
I split off from Zo and Sinclair to join one of Stefano’s teams. Since they had no one on comms, I’m bringing up the rear behind our main home security detail. They’re good guys and spectacularly well trained .
As we pass through a doorway on the upper floors, it leads us out onto the metal gantry, where we’re met with a heavily armed group approaching us from the other end. The men at the front are instantly mown down in a shower of bullets. There’s no cover here, so there’s no option for us but to retreat. Down three men and with at least one injured, it leaves three of us hightailing it back through the fire-damaged offices scrambling for cover.
I’ve barely made it behind an overturned metal filing cabinet when the door bursts open. They’re funnelled through the entryway, allowing us to take out a few of them, but the rest either drop behind the bodies for cover or hug the door frame. I’m beginning to worry, but let out a sigh of relief when I see Dom approaching them from behind.
The metal gantry gives them away, but it doesn’t matter. The remaining targets don’t stand a chance now that they’re sandwiched between us.
I drop back behind the cabinet to reload, poised to open fire again when the doorway to my left fills with shadows a moment before Max appears.
I’ve seen his face a thousand times before, but it feels like I’m seeing him for the first time. The real him. All hard angles and soulless eyes. He’s not a just monster, he’s the fucking devil. A manic sneer flares across his face when his eyes lock on mine, and it highlights every sinister aspect of his features.
He takes aim and shoots.
Everything happens in slow motion. He’s taken out the two men to my right before I can make the shot against him. As soon as I have him in my sights, I’m pulling the trigger, but my aim goes wide when he ducks for cover, the bullet hitting the man behind him.
But his? His lands on target.
As the bullet rips through my hip, I heave in a breath and force out an anguished cry. My hand flies to my side, aware that he’s deliberately aimed below my Kevlar vest. I fall to the floor, scrambling away from the back of the cabinet to hide behind the smallest end. Max has a better angle on me from the door and this filing cabinet is terrible cover.
As he pushes into the room with his men, Dom's team enter from the warehouse gantry, forcing Max’s men to take cover in the hallway. Someone’s bent over me where I’ve propped myself in a seated position, and he’s lifting my shirt, checking my injury. I can’t hear what he’s saying because there are too many people screaming my name over the comms.
Bringing my fingers to the earpiece, I push it further into my ear, trying to decipher what they’re saying. That doesn’t help at all.
“Everyone shut the fuck up. We’re kind of busy up here. We need back-up on the top floor. Max is up here,” I roar.
“On our way,” replies Sinclair.
The world is starting to feel like it’s tilting on its axis and I figure it’s probably blood loss, judging from the pain slicing through my side. I pull my earpiece out to try and focus on what the man in front of me is saying.
“You’ve got a through and through on your left side. I need you to stop moving.”
“How about you stop poking me in the middle of my gun shot wound and I’ll stop fucking squirming, you dick,” I snarl. “Pass me my fucking knife.” I wave an arm at the holster on my ankle.
Taking a deep breath, I roll to the right, giving me enough room to shove a hand into my pocket and grab my lighter. I toss it to the man I’ve now designated my field medic. He looks between the lighter and the knife as if he’s waiting for an explanation, but then a look of panic floods his face as it dawns on him what I want him to do. Just to make sure he’s fully aware, I mutter, “Cauterise it. Now.”
Dom’s men push further into the room and start shooting through the drywall, trying to peck off some of the men protecting Max. It buys me the time I need for the knife to heat up. The man I’m sure is called Alessandro is now looking from the knife to my wound and going green around the gills, bless him.
“I can’t do this myself, so you’re going to need to suck it up, buttercup,” I say between gritted teeth. I’m being a bit of a prick. From what I know of him, Sandro’s a good guy. It’s just right now I need him to stop dicking about and cauterise these wounds.
He nods and grimaces as I move to hold my shirt out of the way for him. With one knee planted across my legs, and an arm bracing against my shoulder to hold me down, he presses the searing hot blade to my skin without warning, and I can’t stop the scream that tears out of me.
“Argh. You fucking cunt, that hurts.” I scream the words so loudly they scrape against my vocal cords like shards of glass as he pulls the rapidly cooling knife away from my skin.
He’s already heating the knife again as I roll over onto my side. I’m suddenly aware that the gunfire is moving further away from us as Dom’s team pushes Max’s further back into the hallway. I have a clear view out of the door to the gantry when I see a familiar blond head pop up from the stairs at the other end.
Nico is swiftly followed by a streak of black hair tinged with aqua and emerald green. Relief flows through me, but it’s obliterated when Sandro presses the reheated blade to the exit wound on my back. The words that fly out of my lips are a mixture of anguish and rage, and mostly cussing out the man who’s probably just saved my life .
Fuck it, I’ll apologise later.
Nico runs through the door and drops to his knees, examining the damage to my side while also shouting at me. “What the fuck happened? You did not have my permission to fucking damage yourself, you asshole.”
When he’s done inspecting the wounds, I’m suddenly being lifted into his lap.
“Now is not the fucking time Nico, we need to get Max,” Aurora mutters then slides her hand around the back of my neck as she drops her forehead to mine. “Don’t you ever fucking scare me like that again, you hear me? You fucking promised you weren’t going anywhere.”
“Sorry, mia reginetta . Won’t happen again, but in my defence, I got all of those before the fucker got the drop on me,” I say waving my arms in the direction of the bodies littering the gantry.
Looking towards the door, I note that the gunshots have stopped and Dom’s team is further away from me than I thought. Aurora takes a deep breath, as if trying to steady her nerves before kissing my temple. She stands and presses her hand to her earpiece.
“Dom and Sinclair have him pinned down two floors down.” She turns to the men behind her. “Half of you are going to go with Nico and get Benny down to the loading bay. He needs medical attention.”
“If you think I’m leaving before we’ve got that cunt in custody, then respectfully Don Bianchi, you can fuck all the way off,” I croak.
“You wanna try that again, Benedict?” Aurora shouts back at me, her back straighter than an arrow and her tone telling me she’s in no mood for my bullshit. I don’t give a fuck though. She can reprimand me later. Not only did that fucker shoot me, but I need to see his demise with my own eyes. He nearly destroyed two people I love most in the world.
He needs to die. And I need to watch.
“I said what I said. I’m not leaving until I know he’s dealt with,” I insist.
Aurora’s eyebrow quirks for a moment and she cocks a hip, which is usually a fair indicator that someone has pissed her the fuck off.
Nico’s breath feathers across my jaw as he whispers, “You know you’re gonna pay for this later, don’t you?” I nod, accepting that someone’s going to punish me for this and also not giving two shits.
“Take him down that way,” Aurora says to Nico and then hits me with her ‘don’t fuck with me stare’. “You’ll wait at the fucking loading bay and I’ll bring him out to you on a fucking platter.”
I swallow—hard. Questioning whether or not it was wise to put my foot down on this one, but I can’t leave while that man’s still breathing.
“Yes, Don Bianchi.”
“And then you’re going straight to the fucking hospital.”
“Yes, Don Bianchi.”
A glimmer of relief washes over her face, and I let out a pained breath as Nico lifts me from the floor. Considering I’ve taken a bullet in a daring shootout, I have to admit being carried bridal style away from the action is knocking my confidence right now.
This most definitely is not the vibe.
I bury my head against his shoulder and hide my face, trying to fend off the waves of nausea that batter me as he and the men surrounding us make sure he gets me to safety.