Page 192 of The Devil's Fire

A stinging sensation sliced through my upper arm as he moved faster than I could evade, giving him the opportunity to slash me. Fueled by fury, I grabbed his arm, twisted it, and landed repeated punches to his face.

“Piece of shit.” I sneered.

I pressed him against the tree, forcefully smashing the back of his head against the trunk. I grabbed his knife, and I stabbed it into his throat with such force that it pierced all the way through and into the trunk of the tree.

I looked at my arm. The cut was deep, and thick blood trickled down my arm, but I ignored it as we ran towards our car, getting in quickly as Lorenzo sped away.

I grabbed my phone and called Luca, only for it to go straight to voicemail.

“Raffaele, track Althaia down. She’s wearing the earrings.” I told him as I tried to call Antonio. It kept ringing, letting me know it was bad on their end.

Fuck!

“Antonio! Tell me what’s going on.” I spoke as soon as I heard it pick up. His breathing was heavy, and I gritted my teeth as I knew I couldn’t expect anything good.

“Fuck, man. I have no idea what happened. We got ambushed. They broke into the house, but Althaia and her mother got out and drove away. We followed as soon as we could.” He said hurriedly, but stopped talking as I heard more gunshots coming through the phone.

“Althaia?” I growled out, feeling my heart beating faster as I waited for his answer.

“I… I don’t know. They fled into the woods. I tried to follow, but more of these bastards kept coming!”

“Fuck!” I yelled out and punched the dashboard. I tightened my hold on the phone, my fingers trembling with frustration, as I felt completely powerless in the car.

“I got their location!” Raffaele turned to Lorenzo, giving him directions as he drove as fast as he could.

“Hold them off! We’re on our way.” I ended the call by throwing the phone to the bottom of the car. Gripping my head in my hands, I felt a whirlwind of emotions now.

Althaia, baby, hang on. I’m on my way.

sixty-two

Althaia

We kept running deeper into the depths of the dark woods. Our bare feet pounded on the forest floor, trying to escape the people chasing us and the bullets flying by. But my pace had slowed down. My body begged for even a small gulp of air, my lungs burning for a break, but I had to keep going.

I still hadn’t fully recovered despite what I told Damiano. My body was weak and heavy, covered in sweat as my legs threatened to collapse. If it wasn’t for my mother’s tight grip on my hand, pushing me to keep going, I would be dead.

“Over here.” My mother led us behind a towering tree, its trunk wide enough to hide us.

My body gave out, and I crumpled to the ground. I gasped for air, feeling a sharp pain with each breath. Nausea threatened to overpower me, but I somehow held it at bay and shifted my attention to calming my breath. My mother sat down on the ground and rubbed my back, trying to help me as best she could.

I rested my back against the tree, closing my eyes when I felt lightheaded.

“It looks like we lost them. For now.” My mother whispered.

The woods were silent. Not a single gunshot or rustle of movement reached my ears, making me question how far we had run into the depths of the forest.

“Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?” My mother asked. I opened my eyes and gripped her hand tightly in mine.

“I think I’m fine.” I panted. I couldn’t tell if I was hurt or not because right now, I couldn't feel a thing. It was as if my body had gone numb.

“Are you okay?” I asked her, and she nodded silently while her eyes darted around, scanning our surroundings. “Mom… what’s going on?” I whispered.

She looked at me with a pained expression on her face as she swallowed hard.

“I’m so sorry…” She whispered back, her eyes glistening while holding my hand in hers. “This was not supposed to happen. I just wanted to protect you. Everything I did was for your protection. But I failed.” A tear escaped her eye, and she pulled me into her, hugging me tightly into her body.

I already had tears streaming down my cheeks as I sobbed into her shirt, wrapping my arms tightly around her.

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