Page 14 of The Devil's Deal

And once he flashes the light on their faces, my eyes go round, my lungs frozen inside my chest. My hands shake, and warm liquid trickles down the inside of my leg.

That’s my father and brother on the floor with a gun pointing at them.

My pulse pounds so hard, I’m afraid the bad men will hear it.

Chiara’s dad stands over them, holding the weapon at his thigh. Walking closer to my father, he rips the tape from his mouth.

Dad cries openly, turning to his right. “It’s okay, Matteo. Daddy’s here.”

“Daddy won’t be able to do shit for you, kid,” Faro says with a humorless laugh.

My heart beats in my throat. This can’t be real. It’s a dream. I close my eyes, counting to three. But when I open them again, I’m still here, about to see my father and brother die.

I want to run, to help them, but I’m frozen here like a coward, pissing my pants as Faro points that same gun at my brother.

“Please, Faro. Please don’t hurt the boy. He did nothing wrong,” my father whimpers, his voice breaking. “You can do what you want to me, but leave him out of it. He’s innocent.”

Faro snickers cruelly. “The mistakes of the father always come back on the son, Francesco. You should know that.”

I pant heavily, terrified.

“Say goodbye to your son before it’s too late.”

My eyes hurt from the tears that fall. The middle of my chest is heavy as I put both palms over my mouth, wanting to throw up.

“N-no. No. Please no,” Dad wails, leaning into my brother as they both cry. “It’s okay, Matteo. It’s okay. Shh.”

My brother only cries louder, the whimpers cutting into my heart.

“Want me to do it?” another man, who looks like one of Chiara’s uncles, asks.

They all look like her uncles, I think. I’ve seen pictures of them.

“What the hell, Agnelo?” Faro yells. “You think I don’t fucking have what it takes to off some kid?”

“What the fuck are you playin’ games for, then?” Agnelo asks. “It’s the middle of the fucking day. You should’ve waited until tonight.”

“The cops here are in our pocket. Who the hell are you afraid of?”

“It’s not the cops,” another man says. “The kids from the school come to this shithole. You want to kill multiple kids today?”

“Don’t look, okay, son?” Dad tells Matteo. “Ju-just look at me and close your eyes.” His voice cracks with a sob. “I love you, my boy. You hear me? Papa’s sorry. I love—”

Pop.

I gasp as the bullet hits my brother, my mouth and my eyes widening from the horror. My lips tremble, my body shakes, near crumpling to the floor.

“Matteo!” my father screams as he drops over Matteo’s body. I have never heard him scream that hard in my life.

My brother’s body falls, his boyish face planted on the floor looking at me, blood oozing out from around his body. I silently cry, my shoulders rocking. I weep into my hands as Faro kneels in front of my brother’s dead body, grabbing my father by the shirt.

“Get back on your knees, you motherfucker.”

But my father refuses, sobbing, pushing his way back down to my brother.

I want to kill Faro and his brothers. Rip all of their hearts out of their chests. If only I had a gun, I could shoot them from here.

“You think I’m done?!” Faro asks. “You think this is it?”

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