14. Alex #2
We all move automatically, ducking down and unholstering our guns. Shots ring out as we take cover behind my car. Bullets spark all around us, coming from the direction of the docks, pinning us down.
I look up at the rooftops of the buildings behind us. I don’t see or hear our guys. We’ve got no cover from the barrage of bullets coming at us.
There’s a pause and I hear the telltale sound of reloading.
I nod to Rikki and Gedeon and we all return fire.
As I take aim over the roof of my car, I see three men standing under the streetlights with their eyes down at their weapons.
We shoot, and two of them duck down and take cover behind a parked car.
I tag the third one in the head and he drops to the ground.
“What the fuck is going on?” Rikki yells.
“I don’t know.” I lean against the car, thinking about who we just saw. The three men were wearing trenchcoats and hats to hide their faces. No kuttes. No chains. No motorcycles. “What I do know is that those guys don’t look like Devils—”
Gedeon starts coughing while he’s holding his chest, then leans over onto the ground. Rikki rushes over to him. “Hey, Geddy,” he says. “You okay, man?”
“No,” he croaks out. “Rik… You have to… Liz… Take… take care of… of Liz…”
“Hey, hey, man. Don’t talk like that, man. “You’re okay. You’re…”
He stops and even without looking, I know what’s happened. My heart sinks into my shoes…
And I realize that my father isn’t with us.
Gunshots ring out again and we duck down, letting the rain of sparking metal and glass fly around us. “Rikki!” I yell. “We gotta find Dad and get the fuck out of here!”
“Geddy’s dead!” he says through clenched teeth. “Sonsabitches—”
I punch him in the shoulder as hard as I can. “We gotta go! Now! Get Geddy in the car! I’m gonna get Dad!”
“Got it,” he says thickly.
He reaches up and holds onto the handle, watching me as I creep around the back of the car and peek around the tail light…
and I see him. Lying on the ground in a pool of blood under the streetlight.
He’s breathing. I can see his chest rising and falling from here and little red bubbles forming around his mouth.
“Okay,” I say to Rikki. “I’m gonna give you cover. You get Geddy in the car. Once he’s in, you give me cover and I’ll get Dad while you get around to the driver’s side. Got it?”
Rikki nods quickly.
I stand up and start shooting. The two who are still alive duck down as the bullets fly. Rikki opens the door to the car and hoists Geddy into the passenger’s seat.
“He’s in!” he shouts over my gunshots.
“Switch up!” I shout.
Rikki stands and shoots, rushing around the front of the car to the driver’s side. I’m damn near army crawling to get my father.
I get to him and grab him by the arms, lifting him up and dragging him to the back door. Rikki’s already got the door open for me. “Hurry up, man!” he shouts.
“Don’t… Leave me… Sasha…” I hear Dad say under Rikki’s gun.
I yank as hard as I can until we’re both in the car and he’s practically on top of me. Rikki kicks the door closed and dives in on the driver’s side, starting the car as he leans down to shield himself from the hail of bullets coming for us.
The car pulls off, but the gunshots don’t stop. Rikki’s ducking and trying to drive as the back window bursts into pieces over my head. I’m leaning over my father, trying my best to cover him.
Rikki turns down the block and the gunshots stop. I lift myself up. My father is lying in my lap. His suit is riddled with bullet holes. Blood is seeping out in rivers, soaking his white shirt red.
His breathing is ragged as blood drains from his mouth. “Hold on, Dad,” I tell him. “We’re getting help. Rikki, get Marius on the phone.”
Rikki doesn’t respond, but a moment later, I hear him speak aloud, “Call M-Doc” and the car speakers trill with the sound of Marius’s phone.
I feel the vibration of my father’s voice against my legs. “Sasha,” he says. Shit… He hasn’t called me Sasha since I was a boy. “Son.”
“Don’t talk, Dad. We’re taking you to get patched up, all right? Just stay still. Save your strength.”
He reaches up and grabs my hand, squeezing it tight. “You… you’ll make… a fine Pakhan.” He says it in Russian, and my blood turns cold. “You’ve trained for… for it… your… whole life… You’re the man I always hoped you… you would… be…”
“It’s going to be a while before I’m Pakhan,” I respond back in Russian. “Years. You still have a lot of time to rule with an iron fist.”
He doesn’t say anything for a few seconds, then he whispers, “Natasha… my love… how… I have missed… you…”
“Dad,” I say, panic setting in. He hasn’t spoken my mother’s name since she died. Streetlights from outside cast quick, passing flashes of light over his face. His eyelids are dropping and his mouth is barely moving.
“You are… so beautiful…”
His grip loosens around my fist and he goes limp in my arms. The sound of the car and Rikki’s voice as he talks to Marius fades away as I hold my dead father in my arms. My eyes start to burn and something deep in my chest feels like it’s cracking in two.
“Wake up,” I say, grabbing his hand. It’s still warm. I squeeze it and say again, “Come on, Dad. Wake up. Please. Please, don’t… don’t go… Not yet.”
Rikki’s stopped talking and I feel the car slow down and stop. He turns around, looking at me with wide eyes.
“Alex?” he says.
I can’t speak. The pain is lodged firmly in my throat.
Our father is dead.