Chapter Twenty
Mancuso
Fear engulfs me the moment I realize my mistake. It is like everything happens in slow motion as I watch the midnight-blue pickup truck hit my SUV on Callie’s side. The sound is unimaginable, deafening, as metal connects with metal before giving way.
“Callie!”
But she slumps forward in her seat, held in place by her safety belt. Blood pours from a wound in her head and I want nothing more than to go to her. I see someone climb out of the truck and I know if we have any chance of surviving this, I need to not focus on her right now.
Looking around I see the gun in the foothold and lean down to retrieve it before stumbling out of the SUV. On the other side of my vehicle a man with brown hair and dark eyes glares at me.
“What the fuck do you want?” I shout, leveling my weapon at him.
“Nothing. I’m here to deliver a message.” His voice is flat, dead, and sends fear up my spine. “The DeLucas are coming for you.”
In the distance I can hear Severu’s Dodge Challenger roar down the road. The man turns to walk away, and I do the only thing I can. I fire.
There is no way this asshole is going to run me off the road, hurt the woman I love, threaten my fucking family, and then walk away. I hit him in the back, and he goes down on the hard gravel road.
Slowly I walk around the wreckage to check that he is dead but find myself looking down the barrel of a gun once more. This time, I have the upper hand, though, and I fire three more shots.
The man drops his gun as the last bit of life leaves him. I run toward the passenger side of my SUV, praying Callie is still alive. Reaching the door, I know I will not be able to get her out this way. Rounding back to the driver’s side, I watch Severu pull up. Within seconds, Lyra, his wife, is out of the car, her weapon at the ready as she surveys the damage.
“The driver is dead,” I say quickly. “But Callie is hurt.”
Lyra has training, not only with weapons but as a field medic from her time on the force. She quickly moves past me and slides into the SUV.
“Call a fucking ambulance!” she shouts at no one in particular.
Facing my brother, I see he is already on the phone and I choose to step closer to find out what is happening. Inside my car, Lyra has taken off her shirt and is applying pressure to the side of Callie’s neck.
“She’s alive,” she tells me without even looking at me. “But I don’t know for how long. She is losing a lot of blood.”
My knees give out and I collapse into the dirt. How the fuck did a day that started so perfectly get so fucked? I listen to the sirens in the distance as they make their way toward us with only a single thought running on a loop in my mind. If Callie dies, I will burn the world to the ground. The DeLucas will regret ever crossing paths with the Cammareri family.