Page 4 of The Mafia Assassin's Redemption
Oh fuck. Is it the kid?
I dive back in through the flames, jerking my head left and right. “Where are you?”
Noanswer.
“I’ll leave you to burn if you don’t answer.”
Another whimper. Muffled. I jump over the sofa and dart toward a closet that’s covered in flames. Using my thick coat, I turn the scorching metal handle.
Inside is a child, eyes silver and wide, long blond hair in pigtails.
Shit, he’s a girl. I reach for her, and she screams.
“We go, now,” I roar.
I grab her and haul her up in my arms, wrapping my coat around her as we rush out into the night, right as more Serbs show up to finish the job. I dive behind a hedge, holding the kid tight. Shouts reach my ears.
“Make sure every one of them is dead. Search. Now!”
Thank fuck they didn’t see us…
“Listen,” I whisper against the girl’s ear. “We have to move silently or I swear to fucking God—” I stop. “Okay, now.”
I creep through the darkness, keeping the girl tight at my side, not daring to let her go as they search. Occasional shouts hit the air but nobody crosses our path.
“Stay close to the fence,” I whisper, “and me.”
My car’s hidden ahead, but the dancing flashlights in the distance tell me they’re closing in on us.
We’re going to have to run across an open field to reach my hidden car. Then I can hand the girl to Ma, who’ll know what to do.
If we make it.
“Come here.” The kid shrinks back. She’s gotta be what? Ten, maybe? “Come. Here. Harry?” I dig the name from my memory.
I was supposed to be there in time to save them all.
She nods and takes a step closer.
“I need you to hold on to me, Harry, and not let go.”
Harry looks like I’m the monster and maybe I am. I failed my mission. The images of her mother?—
Fuck.
Not. The. Time.
“Okay.” She latches on.
I pick her up and fucking run.
“Quinn,” I say to the fifth hospital. “It’s Quinn.”
“No one by that name, sorry. If?—”
I hang up. Same fucking story, every fucking time.
I want to throw the phone against the wall of the safe house at the edge of Dublin, frustration cutting into me.
