Chapter 35
The Boys~
The air felt heavy. The silence around them was almost worse than the pain. Their energy was draining quickly, and every passing minute felt like another reminder of how badly things had gone.
Damien's leg was broken. Raf was unconscious. A.J. was barely holding himself together, blood still soaking through the torn piece of his dress shirt he had wrapped around his side.
Marcio was the only one who could still walk without help. But even he wasn't safe alone. Aldo's men could return at any moment. And they all knew one thing. Hurt or not, they had a better chance of surviving together.
They slowly lowered themselves onto the gravel road, each one wincing as their bodies protested.
For the first time in a long time...they were forced to admit they were spent. All they could do now was hope. Marcio looked over at his unconscious cousin. His chest tightened.
Raf had always been the one who kept everyone grounded. The one who cared too much. The one who saw the good in people even when everyone else didn't.
And now he was lying motionless on the ground.
If help didn't come soon...Raf wasn't going to make it. Marcio had never felt this helpless before. During training, they prepared for everything. Every possible scenario. Every possible threat. They taught you how to react, how to fight, how to survive.
But that's all they were...just scenarios. Because when it became real...when someone's actual life was on the line, one second could change everything.
This wasn't a drill. There was no starting over if you made the wrong move. No second chance. This was someone's life. Their mortality wasn't something they could train away.
It was a gamble. A roll of the dice. And all they could do was hope they landed on the right side. Marcio looked around at the wreckage surrounding them.
How did his father do this? How did his uncles survive years of this? How did they carry the responsibility of protecting everyone and still come home alive? He had never truly understood it before.
Until now.
Damien's attention shifted toward his older brother. A.J. He had never seen him like this. A.J. was always the strong one. The confident one. The one who stepped forward first. The one who always believed he could handle anything thrown at him.
Now, his breathing was shallow, his face was pale, and for the first time in Damien's life, his older brother looked vulnerable, and that scared him more than anything else.
But now, looking at him, Damien couldn't help but feel something he wasn't used to feeling toward his older brother. Pity, not because A.J. was weak, he wasn’t. But because, for the first time, Damien could see the weight A.J. carried.
This mission was supposed to be his responsibility. Even though they were all responsible for their own actions and the outcome, A.J. was their leader.
He was supposed to keep his men safe. A ridiculous expectation. An almost impossible one because nobody could protect everyone all the time.
Not even their fathers, not even the strongest men Damien knew; they were trained, dangerous, and prepared. But at the end of the day, they were still human.
And A.J. had done everything he could. He had been the one who saw the attack coming. He had been the one who screamed for everyone to get out before the collision. And he had made the call, and every single one of them had trusted their own instincts and acted.
He had led, tried to save them, and somehow they were all still alive...for now. Damien shook his head, pushing away the darker thoughts creeping into his mind.
No. He couldn't think like that. Not now, when they needed hope. They needed to believe they were getting out of this. They had managed to drag Raf away from the road and onto the grass beside the sidewalk.
It had taken every ounce of strength they had left, but they did it. The SUV was still sitting in the middle of the road, destroyed and abandoned.
Every so often, a passing car would slow down. People would stop. They would look at the wreckage and the injured men.
Some offered to call the police. Others offered to drive them to a hospital. But they couldn't risk it. Not if Aldo had people watching. Not if word got back that they were alive.
So they lied to every passerby, telling them help had already been called, that someone was coming, and that they were fine, even though they weren’t, especially A.J.
But he refused to take the chance of trusting the wrong person, and Damien understood why, even though he hated that the right decision could still cost someone their life, as he looked over at his brother, A.J., with his eyes squeezed shut and one hand pressed tightly against his side.
The piece of metal that had pierced him was gone now, pulled out by A.J.
himself, and Damien still remembered the sound he made when he did it, the sharp, strangled breath that turned into a pained gasp as his body nearly gave out from the force of it.
But even then, he didn’t stop. He wrapped the injury as best as he could with shaking hands and forced himself back into motion, because that was what A.J.
did, he kept going, no matter how much it hurt.
Even when he shouldn't.
At least they still had their weapons, something that had always been strapped to them no matter where they went.
A.J. slowly opened his eyes and looked toward the sky, where clouds drifted lazily above them, completely unaware of the chaos below.
For the first time in a long time, A.J. had no plan, no strategy, no way to fix this.
All he could do was wait and hope his father came soon.
Adriano Pov~
My mind was racing, every scenario every horrible terrible thing popping up in my head. I was driving, Matteo and Gio were guiding me to the faint GPS signal coming from the SUV the boys took.
My rage was slowly overtaking me, my insides were on fire. My taste for blood was only growing. Aldo was going down today, he attacked My Sons.
He dare lay a hand on My family, My Blood.
I had been holding onto my beast for too long. Ever since I stepped foot on Italian soil.
Im happy I sent Ano V home and Gabriel back to his restaurant with some of my own men guarding both of them.
I didn't need 2 more family members to worry about.
"They should be just around the bend." Matteo called out. His voice slightly raised from the panic he was trying to keep at bay.
I seemed to sit up even straighter and my heart dropped when I saw the smashed overturned SUV in the road. It was still smoking like it had blown up or caught on fire.
My instincts snapped into place as I slammed on the breaks as we all flew open the car door and ran over to the bodies on the side of the road.
They were all bruised and bloody. "Boys." I called out as we got closer. All head shot over to us.
As we stopped in front of them I could feel my heart racing. My eyes scanning over their bodies assessing their injuries.
"Raf." Gio called out falling onto his knees and placed his finger to check his pulse on his neck.
AJ looked over at me his eyes drooping and his face pale. His panting was heavy as he spoke up " He was the last one out the vehicle. He wasn't breathing I had to give him CPR. He need-" He stops mid sentence as he grunted out in pain.
"You all need to get to the hospital. Come on, let's get them in the car." I growled out to Matteo and Gio.
We all worked together to get them into the car. I immediately began speeding down to the hospital.
"Dad I thought you wouldn't was us to go to the hospital." Damien said through gritted teeth.
I glanced at my young son and felt myself smile slightly. "Usually not. But I bought the hospital on South Boulevard for this specific reason. They work for me, so they won't ask any unnecessary questions."
"That's the busiest hospital in the county, Dad." A.J.'s voice came from the backseat, filled with disbelief. "When did you have time to buy a damn hospital?"
I glanced at him through the mirror.Before I could answer, Matteo spoke from beside me. "Your father bought it back in the States."
A.J.'s eyes widened slightly.
"It was a precaution." Matteo looked back at the boys. "In case things ever got too bad."
I focused back on the road. There was only one destination in my mind. The hospital. They needed medical attention immediately. And then I needed to get back to the estate. Because something in my gut told me this wasn't over.
Aldo had created a distraction, and while we were focused on saving the boys... He could be making his move. I trusted Leo. I knew what I had taught him. I knew what he was capable of.
But one person, no matter how trained, was still one person. And he would be standing between my family and an army.
The hospital finally came into view. I pulled into the emergency entrance and barely had the car stopped before we were out. Gio sprinted inside to get help while Matteo and I moved to get the boys out.
Within seconds, nurses rushed out with a gurney, moving Raf first while the other boys were helped out behind him, every second mattering as we followed them through the hospital and into a private emergency room in the back of the building.
Doctors and nurses immediately surrounded them, with one tending to A.J., cleaning and stitching the wound on his side, another examining Damien’s leg, and Marcio being checked over as well, but all attention quickly shifted to Raf, because everyone in the room was focused on him.
I moved toward the doctor in charge. "What is going to happen to my nephew?" My voice came out harsher than I intended.
But I couldn't help it, my entire body was tense, like I was preparing for the worst news imaginable.
The doctor looked at me seriously. "Sir, your nephew appears to have internal bleeding inside his skull due to the impact he suffered to the back of his head." My chest tightened.
"He also has several broken ribs." The doctor glanced toward the team around Raf. "We need to take him into surgery immediately."