Chapter 12
MATTEO RUSSO
As I ran, I felt paintballs zooming past me, so I slid the last few feet until I was behind protection. As I got to my feet and looked around, I realized it was a tire that was taller than me, propped up against a makeshift wooden wall.
“Where do they get this shit? Giants “R” Us?” I grumbled under my breath as I peeked around the edge to find a target.
“Incoming,” I heard from the same direction I’d run from. I glanced over and saw Zach and my brother sprinting my way, crouched down to make themselves smaller targets, so I laid down cover fire to protect them.
“I almost got winged by friendly fire,” Zach said as he slid around the corner and huddled down beside me.
“Friendly? There’s no such thing as friendly around here, dumbass. This is war!” Luca growled before he peeked around the other end of the wall and shot off two quick rounds. “What the fuck is wrong with these people? They’ve got children fighting with them!”
“It’s fucking crazy,” I agreed before I lifted my weapon and fired a round, hitting a man directly in the chest just as his own round thudded against the wood next to my ear. I had clearly been in Texas too long because my voice had a suspicious Texas twang when I yelled, “Ha! Take that, fucker!”
“I’ll get you next time, asshole,” Dylan said as he walked off the field with his arms held high.
I was still laughing as I scanned the area, looking for another target. “That’s fucking awesome. I hit Bella’s brother.”
“Do you think Bella and her team are really gunning for us? Maybe we could form an alliance,” Luca suggested.
“That’s a conversation I never thought I’d have, wondering if my future wife was going to shoot me,” I muttered.
“You should wonder!” Zach gasped as he tried to catch his breath. “What sort of people have this kind of setup in their backyard?”
“Shit! It’s a suicide mission!” Luca shouted when a man ran into the open, spraying paintballs everywhere, before he slid behind a cinderblock wall.
There were four people who suddenly pointed their guns up and walked off the field after having been shot by the running guy’s teammates. “They planned that shit!”
“They’re all fucking mental!” Zach announced before he crouched down by my legs and peeked around the wall. He let off a few shots before he said, “They’re quick as hell too. We’re fucked!”
“You’re missing the bigger picture, Zach. We need to hire all of them. Our men have got nothing on these crazy guys.”
“You’re right! The women too! I always wondered what made Bella such a damn lunatic, and now I know it was her environment. These people aren’t even her family!” Zach pointed out.
“Oh, they’re her family just as much as the calmer ones you met when you came over,” I assured them.
Ziggy came running from our left, so we put down cover fire so he could get to us safely. He paused to catch his breath before he asked, “Who does shit like this as part of wedding festivities? Did you hear them talking about what they’ve got planned for tomorrow?”
“No, what?” Luca asked as he checked his ammo and winced. “I’ve only got about ten left. How are you guys?”
“I’m almost out,” I said nervously.
“They’re taking us to someone else’s house to ride dirt bikes,” Zach ranted. “I know they’re not too happy about you stealing their princess away, man, but I didn’t know that meant they’d be attempting to fucking kill us while we were here.”
“I’m going to run that way and connect with Rico and Simmy. Salvatore is solely after the women’s guards, so he’s lost focus and isn’t any fucking help right now.”
Just then, there was a loud shout, and our guard Salvatore threw his hands up in defeat. As he walked away, I saw that he was limping and covered in bright pink splotches.
“Looks like they got him. They’re picking us off one by one!” Ziggy said before he yelled, “Cover me.”
As he snaked his way between pylons and other clutter, I picked off two of our opponents. The cheerful woman with tattoos put her gun up and yelled, “Fuck!” as she stomped off the field, joined by one of Bella’s friends I’d only met a few times.
“They’ve got us pinned down,” Luca complained as paintballs splattered against the wooden bunker we were behind.
“Don’t shoot me,” a little girl’s sweet voice said right before she leaned around the corner. She was covered in protective gear from head to toe and sporting a bright pink tutu. I could tell from the tone of her voice that she was terrified when she asked, “Can I sit with you?”
“Of course, honey,” I said as I scooted over to give her some space. She didn’t take it, though. Instead, she walked past us out into the open. “Hey! Get down before someone accidentally shoots you.”
Without a word, the little girl spun around, aimed her miniature paintball gun at me, and let off a shot. She hit me square in the chest, and before I could even react to the pain or the splatter of paint that went up beneath my helmet, she shot Luca and then Zach.
We were stunned, not just because we’d been shot by a sweet little girl wearing a tutu, but because her maniacal laughter was downright terrifying.
“Suckers!” she yelled before she lifted her gun and shot someone coming up on our left. She sprinted off and then fell into a slide worthy of any major league baseball professional, all the while shooting as she avoided the paintballs hitting the dirt around her.
“What the fuck just happened?” Luca asked.
“We just got creamed by a goddamn fairy princess,” Zach shouted.
I could hear laughter all around us and sighed. Even though the three of us came from a life where getting shot at was a hazard of the position, we had been bested by a tiny girl who was more vicious than a honey badger with a thorn in its paw.
“I can’t believe I signed up for this shit,” I muttered as I pushed up off the ground to stand up, making sure to point my gun at the sky to let the other players know I was out of the game. I watched Luca and Zach stand up in the same position before I asked, “What the fuck have I done?”
“I can’t take you seriously when you’re covered in hot pink paint,” Luca said dismissively as he walked past me. “Obviously, my daughter’s education is sorely lacking. I think we need to invest in a paintball operation at home so we can start training them.”
“Yeah. Then the next time we go . . . Fuck!” Zach yelled as his body jerked from another hit.
The maniacal laughter of Zach’s mom came from somewhere to our left, and I couldn’t help but join her.
“Mom!”
“Sorry, baby! I couldn’t resist,” Paula called out from somewhere in the field. “I’ve been waiting to do that for years!”
“I can’t believe they gave my mom a fucking gun,” Zach muttered as he trudged past me toward the building. “Have they met her? And her friends are just as bad! They gave Blue a weapon, you guys. Blue!”
“Holy shit, Matteo. What have you gotten us into?” Luca asked.
“I didn’t know that they’d all become such good friends when I invited everyone to the wedding!” I shouted as I walked toward the clubhouse, where we could go to relax and restock our ammunition. “That’s it! I’m never coming back to Texas.”
“Don’t say that, sweetheart,” a familiar voice said as I walked through the door with my brother and Zach right behind me. “We love having you here, but sometimes things get a little out of hand. You know how they are.”
“They’re all crazy!” I said as I pulled off my helmet.
“Lyric is a sweet girl, she’s just . . .
a Forrester,” the beautiful blue-eyed woman said before she reached out and brushed my hair away from my eyes.
She rested her hand on my cheek for a second as she smiled at me and said, “Now, go get some more paintballs and a bottle of water, then come back, and I’ll help you form a plan of attack. ”
“You’d do that for us?” Luca asked.
Martha winked at my brother before she smiled and said, “Honey, some people just need killin’, even if it’s only with paintballs.”
◆◆◆
TABBY RUSSO
The little girl who had just taken out my husband and his friends darted around the corner with a hail of paintballs chasing her. She slid to a stop next to Raven and asked, “Who do you want me to take out next?”
The other little girl came running from the other side and announced, “I got Willow and a lady I don’t know, then I shot Amy’s boyfriend!”
“Good job!” Rain said proudly.
“Who do you want us to get next?” the little girl asked. She looked around before she narrowed her eyes at something to our left, then lifted her gun up and let off three rounds before there was a loud shout and a younger man’s scream. “Two more!”
“Scoot! You’re a natural!”
“It’s my supersonic hearing,” Scoot said as she reached up and tapped her helmet.
I remembered seeing her earlier and wondered how her hearing aids could work so well under the helmet she had on but didn’t knock it.
The girl was a menace who had just protected us from an ambush.
“We’ve gotta get my brother and Griffin. ”
“I see him!” Rain whisper-shouted as she peeked around the corner.
She lifted her paintball gun up to aim and let off two rounds.
There was a child’s shout, and then one of the little boys stomped out into the clearing with his gun raised, cussing like a sailor and covered in pink paint.
Rain went wild, jumping up and down as she exclaimed, “I’ve been dying to do that! ”
“Where do you want me to go?” Lyric asked.
“Remember the man who shared his dessert with you at the restaurant the other day?” When the little girl nodded, I said, “That’s Rico.” I pointed to the stack of tires I’d seen Ziggy run behind and said, “He’s over there with his brother Ziggy. Can you find a way to get them?”
Lyric beamed from behind the clear plastic shield covering her face and said, “I’m just a poor, sweet girl who needs help!”
“Me too!” the other girl said, just as cheerfully.