Page 131 of Fracture

“You know, mother, I actually want to see you die. I want to watch the light fade from those fucking eyes.”

He reaches out and grabs her by the back of the head, yanking her upwards. He’s half-spun her towards us when a bullet tears through the side of her head, sending bone fragments and brain matter up in a cloud of red.

It takes me a second to even place the shot, to recognise what’s happening. My eyes move to the other side of the room, over Oswald’s inert frame, to where Michael was lying just seconds before. But he’s not lying unconscious on his back anymore.

Michael is on his knees, a gun aimed at us. Levi realizes too late as his mother’s dead body slumps against him, and dropping her is losing him time. Michael swings the gun in his direction, and Levi isn’t raising his weapon fast enough to fire first. Michael has a clean shot.

I shove myself against Levi just as the gun goes off, pushing him to the ground with Gloria’s dead body wedged between us. Michael curses, and I see from underneath the table that he’s getting to his feet.

I snatch the gun from Levi’s hand and rise back up over the edge of the table, dipping back down as Michael fires off another shot.

“Dylan!” Levi pushes Gloria off him, but I put out a hand.

“Stay down!”

Michael is stalking towards us, and I don’t have much time. I drop underneath the edge of the table, and take aim at his knees. I squeeze the trigger, the shot landing in Michael’s thigh.

He cries out, crashing to his knees, his hand flying to the wound. He looks up, in time to see me getting to my feet, and raises his gun.

But this time, I’m faster.

The gunshot rings through the dining room, and Michael’s eyes go wide. His gun clatters to the floor, and he lifts shaking hands to his neck. The wound is enormous, blood pulsing from his arteries in violent crimson streaks that splatter the floor around him.

He looks at me, eyes clouding as death takes him, and his mouth moves but no words come out. He tries to snatch a breath, but there’s nothing but more blood, coating his tongue and lips in a thick film.

He crumples to the floor, face down, arms spread beside him. His body convulses a few times, and then he goes still.

I put the gun down on the table, my chest pounding. It’s over. It’s finally over.

“Dylan?”

I look down at him, and smile. “I’m here,guapo.” And then I remember the pain in my side.

I put a hand to where blood is pouring from between my ribs, and Levi is on his feet instantly.

“Fuck, Dylan, oh my god.” He presses his hands to the wound, shaking his head, his big blue eyes wide and wild as they meet mine. “I’m sorry, oh my god, I’m sorry. I wasn’t fast enough. I should have been faster, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry baby.”

I give him a weak smile, feeling the blood bubbling from the wound as the air is sapped from my lung. “You did great,guapo. It’s alright. I’ll be alright.”

But I can feel that I’m not going to be alright. My breath catches in my throat, and I falter as Levi cries out and tries to hold me up.

“Baby, no, no, not like this, not here, please.” He growls as he tries to keep me upright, buckling under my weight as my vision begins to grey. “Dylan, no, come on, get up, please,please.”

“I’m sorry,” I murmur against his neck, tracing my fingertips along his jaw. “I’m sorry. I love you.”

“No.”

I’m on the ground, my head cradled in Levi’s lap, his desperate, bloody face gazing down at me.

“Don’t you die on me, Kovac.” He shakes his head, dashing away a tear. “Don’t you dare fucking die on me.”

“You look after our girl,” I tell him, and sirens begin to wail in the distance. “You hear me? You go, and look after our girl.”

“I’m not leaving you!”

“Yes, you are.” I smile up at him. “You blame this all on me. You didn’t know anything. You blame this all on me, and you go look after our girl.”

“Dylan, stop! I’m not leaving.”

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