Chapter 16 Noemi #2
The car accelerates to a terrifying speed, weaving through the rain-slicked streets. The streetlights flash past the spiderwebbed windows in a dizzying strobe effect. I stay curled in a ball on the floorboards, my heart beating so fast I can barely draw a breath.
"Are you okay?" Cassio’s voice drops down to me, his free hand gripping my shoulder. His grip is tight, reassuring, a solid anchor in the middle of a nightmare.
"Y-yes," I stammer, choking on the acrid smoke filling the car. "Cassio, what's happening?"
"They’re making their play," he says grimly, his eyes locked on the rear window. "They knew Salvatore forced us to the Lombardi estate tonight. They knew our exact route."
"A mole," Matteo says, turning around, his face pale in the dashboard light. "Someone tipped them off, Boss. Someone fed them the route."
Before Cassio can respond, a massive black SUV crests the hill behind us, its high beams blindingly bright in the rearview mirror.
"Contact rear!" Dante shouts.
The SUV rams us.
The Maybach shudders violently as the heavy grill of the pursuing vehicle slams into our rear bumper. I cry out, sliding across the floorboards. Cassio grabs the fabric of my dress, hauling me back and wedging me securely behind his legs.
"Keep us steady, Dante!" Cassio orders.
He rolls down his window, the only one not completely compromised by gunfire, just three inches. The freezing rain and howling wind blast into the cabin. Cassio leans his upper body toward the crack, extending his arm holding the 1911.
He doesn't spray wildly. He aims with precision.
Crack. Crack. Crack.
I hear the pop of a tire blowing out behind us, followed immediately by the screech of metal and a loud crash as the pursuing SUV loses control and slams into a parked car on the side of the road.
"Target down!" Matteo shouts.
"Keep moving!" Cassio barks, rolling the window back up, his chest heaving. He looks down at me, his dark eyes fierce and uncompromising. "We’re five minutes from the estate, Noemi. The gates are heavily armed. Once we’re inside, they can't touch us."
I nod frantically, clinging to his leg, the fabric of his trousers damp with rain.
We take a sharp corner, the tires squealing in protest, the scent of burning rubber overpowering. The road begins to incline, the familiar winding path leading up the coastal cliffs toward the Vellutini compound.
"I see the gates!" Dante yells, relief flooding his voice. "Gianni has men on the road!"
Through the cracked windshield, I can see the flashing tactical lights of Cassio’s soldiers mobilizing near the massive iron gates of the estate. Safety is less than half a mile away.
But the Bratva didn't come to play a game of tag.
A sudden, blinding flash of light erupts from the tree line on the right side of the road, elevated on a ridge overlooking the cliffside drive.
"Sniper!" Matteo screams.
Everything happens in terrifying, agonizing slow motion.
The sharp, deafening CRACK of a high-caliber sniper rifle tears through the storm. This is military-grade hardware designed to punch through armored vehicles.
Cassio doesn't hesitate. He doesn't look for the shooter. He doesn't brace himself against the seat.
He throws his weapon aside, grabs my arms, and violently hauls me up from the floorboards, pulling me flat across the backseat.
"Cassio!" I scream.
He throws his entire massive body over mine. He cages me completely beneath him, pressing me deep into the leather cushions, wrapping his arms tightly around my head to shield my face. He becomes a human Kevlar vest, covering every single inch of me with his own flesh and bone.
The heavy sniper round hits the Maybach.
It punches through the reinforced glass of the passenger side window like a hot knife through butter.
Shards of ballistic glass rain down on us like a thousand razor blades. I feel them biting into my arms, slicing across the exposed skin of my back where my dress is open. I squeeze my eyes shut, screaming into Cassio’s chest, the noise so loud it drowns out my own voice.
The car swerves violently. Dante fights the wheel, the Maybach skidding sideways across the wet asphalt before slamming heavily into the stone retaining wall of the cliff.
The airbags deploy with a concussive blast.
And then... silence.
A terrible, ringing silence, broken only by the hiss of the rain through the shattered windows and the ticking of the overheated engine.
I am trapped beneath a mountain of heavy, unmoving muscle. It’s completely dark, the smell of blood and rain is suffocating me.
"Cassio?" I whisper, my voice trembling, tears mixing with the glass dust coating my face.
He doesn't answer.
His weight feels different. It is the dead, slack weight of unconsciousness.
"Cassio!" I scream, panic tearing my throat apart. I try to push against his chest, but he is too heavy. My hands slip against the fabric of his white shirt.
It’s wet.
Not with rain. With something thick, hot, and sticky.
"Boss!" Matteo’s voice is frantic, muffled by the ringing in my ears. I hear the sound of his door being kicked open, the crunch of glass under his boots. "Dante, cover the ridge! Boss, talk to me!"
The rear door is wrenched open. Cold wind and rain blast into the ruined cabin. Matteo’s hands grab Cassio’s shoulders, hauling his heavy, slack body off me.
I gasp for air, sitting up frantically.
Cassio slumps back against the torn leather seat, his head lolling to the side. His eyes are closed, his face is deathly pale in the flashing tactical lights of the approaching perimeter guards.
And blooming across the right side of his chest, just below his collarbone, is a massive, dark, expanding stain of blood.
He took the bullet. He took the sniper round meant to tear through the cabin, shielding me with his own body.
"No, no, no, no," I chant, a hysterical, broken sob ripping from my chest. I scramble across the seat, pressing my hands frantically against the bleeding wound, trying to stop the dark flood spilling through his ruined shirt. The blood is hot, slipping between my fingers.
"Get him out!" Matteo roars at the arriving guards. "Get him to the safe room! Call the fucking surgeon!"
Strong hands grab me, pulling me out of the shattered wreckage of the Maybach, but I fight them. I scream his name, my voice is raw and bleeding, the rain washes his blood down my arms.
He promised he would protect what was his. He promised no one would ever touch me.
Cassio.