Chapter 30 #13
He studies me for a moment. "Quite a skill you have."
I don’t comment. "We wait a few seconds now."
More bullets cut through the space above us, but none land. "Now. Three seconds."
Ennio rises, fires, and another body hits the floor.
"Alright, they’ve pulled back deeper toward the stairs. Relocate to that stack, it’s safe now."
We advance as a tight group, his men disciplined and moving exactly how they should, keeping everything controlled. "Now. One and a half seconds."
Ennio leans out, fires, and lands another hit. He’s an exceptional shot, no question, hitting like that in that time frame is on the level of competitive marksmanship.
They fall back again, and my vision feeds me the next piece, two of them are about to run up the stairs. "You’ve got a window to take them. And… now."
Ennio steps out and fires twice. Two bodies tumble down the stairs.
"The rest are upstairs. Let’s move."
I go first, still running scenarios in real time, knowing that the moment I come around the corner on the first floor I’ll be walking into a storm of bullets, since they’re all behind a barricade up there. "You still have gas?" I ask the one who threw the smoke earlier.
He nods. "One more."
"Give it to me."
I wait for the right moment and throw it past the barricade. "You," I point at Ennio, "move with me, exactly one step behind, in a straight line."
Using that brief chaos, I rush forward, slipping past blind fire and slamming into the barricade of crates with my full weight, knocking it over onto the betas behind it. Ennio is ready, and the next shots land clean on the downed combatants.
The last two try to run down the warehouse corridor in the opposite direction, but Ennio fires twice more and both shots finish them off.
Silence settles over the space.
"Clear," I say, as my scenarios show me only silence.
Ennio nods, the other alphas regrouping with us, all of them composed, heart rates up but not super high, like a unit that knows exactly what it’s doing.
"Nice work," I say, adding with a faint smirk, "you guys are pros."
"No kidding," Ennio replies, holstering his weapon.
I knock on the door where I know Blue and Edgar are. "It’s clear, Blue! You can let me in."
There’s a brief pause, then the sound of a latch, and the door opens, with Blue standing there, free from the restraints that had him tied up before, and somehow already wearing his glasses again!
Edgar is on the floor nearby, tied up with the same metal wire they used on me, perfect for restraining alphas, and he’s… unconscious.
"Looks like you stayed busy," I say with a wide grin as I step inside, Ennio and his men following. "Blue, I don’t know if you’ve ever met Ennio Ferro in person, but he’s the one who did us a favor and wiped out the entire NFH group. Impressively, all on his own."
Blue’s eyes meet Ennio’s, and there’s this feeling again, of uncanny similarity between them, both omegas with a presence that feels stronger than several alphas combined, both at the top of their fields, even if physically they’re very different, Blue smaller and more delicate, Ennio taller and built like someone who trains constantly.
Ennio is the first to extend his hand. "Our families haven’t always been on good terms, but I’d like to change that. Consider this my offer of peace."
Blue glances at the hand. Despite the fact that he doesn’t like handshakes, this time he makes an exception, and they clasp hands.
"I accept your offer, and I appreciate your help, Mr. Ferro. By saving me today, you’ve taken a meaningful step toward repairing our past relations."
Ennio nods.
"That leaves the matter of the bodies."
"Don’t worry about that. I have good connections with the military and the police, they’ll handle it. I can guarantee neither you nor your men will face any consequences."
"Good. Then we’re done here," he says curtly, and glances at me. "Good luck."
"Thank you. I appreciate it," Blue says.
And I also reach out my hand to exchange a firm handshake.
"Thank you, Ennio. And, by the way, you should consider competitive marksmanship."
Ennio snorts. "Too safe for my taste, no adrenaline."
"If you say so, take care!"
"See you around," Ennio says, giving a small signal to his men, and the five of them head out.
That leaves just me, Blue, and the unconscious Edgar on the room floor.
For a moment we just look at each other, then I let out a loud gasp and pull him into a tight embrace.
There’s a brief silence, his fingers gripping my shirt at my chest.
"Forgive me Blue, I beg you… I’m so deeply sorry… Seeing him touch you like that… I thought my blood was going to explode," I mutter.
Blue lifts his head, and I meet his eyes before my gaze drops to his lips.
"I apologize, I really do. But I didn’t see another option, Blue. I came up with that crazy plan, it was like a fucking three-dimensional chess match, a sick puzzle, I needed to risk it… But I knew one thing, Edgar was the key to winning, not Marcel. He had to be taken out of the equation…"
Blue smiles widely.
"That was the correct assessment, Gabriel! You nailed the puzzle. And you made the right call. Like I said earlier, you were the card I chose to play, and you didn’t disappoint."
I feel heat rush to my face like a teenager’s blush.
Blue cocks his head slightly. "And if I had to choose between death and a kiss from an idiot, I’ll take the kiss, especially since it gave us the win. He got a dose of my nanobots in the process, the ones that only respond to me."
"Seriously? Fuck! So they were controlling him?"
"Yes. They interface with the nervous system along the spine and can disrupt signals. I control them through the transmitter my bots form. And I’ve already removed them now, though this time I didn’t need to kiss him," he adds with a small smirk.
"Good… I was worried you’d be mad at me for that plan, it felt like it shouldn’t even work. It was too crazy, and just wrong…"
"It was exactly what we needed, Gabriel. Edgar was crucial, Marcel… wait, what about Marcel?"
I press my lips together, realizing I totally forgot about him.
"Let’s go downstairs and check. I don’t know what the mafia guys did with him, we landed on their car’s hood."
As we head down, Blue’s gaze passes over the bodies scattered around the warehouse, but he doesn’t comment, and when we step outside, I spot Marcel right away.
His small frame lies motionless by the wall, where Ennio’s men must have placed him.
I walk over and kneel beside him, feeling conflicted, angry, and aware that everything went wrong in too many ways.
But the moment I lean down, I hear something.
"Shit… his heart is still beating!"
Blue drops to his knees beside Marcel as well, which sits weird with me, because if anything he should be turning away, maybe even spitting, considering Marcel just tried to condemn him to a gang rape and a brutal death.
"His breathing is shallow," I say gloomily.
Blue shifts closer, one hand supporting Marcel’s jaw while the other moves along his neck and slides under his back, checking each vertebra with careful pressure, watching for any reaction, then pressing lightly along the ribs, listening, his eyes narrowing as he tracks the rise of Marcel’s chest, before placing two fingers on his carotid pulse.
"There’s instability in the cervical spine, likely around C4 or C5, possibly compression or swelling affecting the phrenic nerve, and his breath sounds are uneven; I’m hearing reduced expansion on one side, so a pneumothorax is likely."
I frown. "I have no idea what that means. Is he dying?" I can’t help it, but my tone turns hopeful.
"If he doesn’t receive support for breathing, he will die, yes," Blue says plainly.
"Well-deserved consequences of his actions," I mutter under my breath.
"He still may make it. Ambulances are on the way, along with the police. After I ordered the nanobots to temporarily block the blood flow to Edgar’s brain, I used his phone and… found my glasses in his pocket."
I feel a surge of anger and tension clamp around my throat so hard that a low growl escapes me.
"No… He doesn’t deserve to survive! He’s a fucking psychopath!" I lock my eyes on Marcel, my hand curling into a fist. "He tried to kill us, and wanted them to rape you!"
I catch myself reaching out completely unconsciously toward Marcel’s thin throat. My whole body is trembling, consumed by dark fury, but then Blue’s hand settles on my shoulder. He shakes his head, looking at me intently.
"Don’t do it. It’s not worth it. With that kind of spinal injury, his chances of ever having a normal life are slim anyway."
"Blue, the villain can’t walk away alive. That’s not how this works! In our story, he has to pay for what he’s done! He’s a lunatic who’ll keep spewing his poison even from behind bars…"
"I think he’ll face his punishment. From what I can tell, a brain tumor is killing him."
I blink and stare at Blue in shock.
"What? Seriously? How do you know that?"
"Well, I’m a pretty good diagnostician. But of course, only a brain scan can confirm it."
Biting my lip, I mutter, "Don’t you think we should…"
"No, Gabriel. It’s not who we are. Let’s show him mercy," he says softly.
His eyes drift across my face, carrying a hint of melancholy. I slowly nod and let out a sigh. Well, he’s right. I’m not Marcel, I won’t stoop that low and kill him when he’s defenseless. But that doesn’t mean I’m hoping for his full recovery.
Suddenly Blue lifts his head, a faint green pulse flickering across the surface of his glasses.
"I just got a message from Simon and Gerard. NFH left them sedated in the limousine on the roadside. Since they’re betas, they were obviously spared."
Glaring at unconscious Marcel, I mutter, "Good. They didn’t deserve any of this mess you dragged them into…"
One thing is clear, even if I spared him now, that doesn’t mean I forgive the bastard, but at this point it no longer matters.