Page 67 of Bound to Him

“I think it grazed me. What about Christian?”

“I got his shoulder.”

I looked out and saw Christian standing up, rage all over his face. Five of his men lay in bloody puddles around him, three still shot at us from behind their covers, and two had run off. He screamed and unloaded his gun in every direction he could. I quickly looked over where Antonio was and saw him and Vinnie crouched behind a table with their guns drawn, shooting at his last few men.

Once his clip was empty, Christian turned and ran for the door. I acted quickly, pushing through the pain in my arm and standing up to run after him, knowing that Antonio, Vinnie, and Tony would cover me from where they were positioned.

In my peripheral vision, I saw another of our men drop to the floor, and it pissed me off. Was that Johnny? Fuck! Things weren’t supposed to go this way! Christian was supposed to stand down, but he got too fucking confident.

“Christian!” I shouted loudly. He looked nervously back over his shoulder before ducking out the door. I powered after him. Outside, my shoes crunched over the gravel, and I heard a shot going off periodically inside. They must be finishing things off in there.

Out here, I ran after Christian. The idiot obviously thought his men would cover him, but he was running alone, scared out of his mind. He was like a fish in a fucking barrel, but I didn’t take the shot. I wanted to teach him a fucking lesson; he wouldn’t get that kind of mercy from me.

When he realized I was closing in on him, he turned around with a knife in his hand. His arm with the shot shoulder hung loosely. I stopped running and started laughing.

“Okay, buddy. You wanna play with toys?”

Breathing heavily from the run, I circled around him, pulled out one brass knuckle, then another. My arm had gotten its strength back now, and I readied myself, pulling my coat off, dropping it on the ground, and getting the knuckles on. Christian shook his head with a smile.

“You can’t kill me,” he started, “I’m not alone out here.”

“Sure looks like it to me,” I said, looking around and stepping closer to him.

He swiped the knife at me, and I pulled back, barely missing the blade. The next time he swiped, I grabbed his arm and turned, slamming him into the ground. He shouted out in pain, dropping the knife, as he grabbed his shoulder.

Before I could pin the fucker down, his two runaways jumped out at me from behind a nearby car and tackled me to the ground. When we hit the gravel, my cheek tore open on the small stones. I felt the men stand up but before I could, they were kicking me. I got a blow to the shin, to the back, to my ribs, and to my stomach.

“Fuck!” I shouted. This fucker wasn’t supposed to get away! I heard him chuckle darkly, as he stood up from where I grounded him.

“You thought you could get me—”

Crack!

A shot went off somewhere in the distance and hit Christian in the chest. He fell to the ground while his cowardly men turned, searching for the shooter but couldn’t find him. They looked back at me, standing back up, and looking pissed. One of them ran forward to punch me, thinking I’d been weakened.Oh, hell no.The adrenaline made me stronger. I lifted my fist and punched him in the forehead—my brass knuckle busting his skin open and cracking his skull. He fell to the ground instantly.

His friend looked at me, wide-eyed and trembling. He turned and ran. About 50 feet ahead, running toward his getaway car, he was punched in the gut and then shot in the back of the head as he hit the ground. Vinnie appeared from behind the car, looking down at the guy. Then Antonio appeared next to him with his gun in his hands, holding it down while searching for me. I immediately knew he was the one who shot Christian from afar—Antonio always had the best aim out of all the boys.

I turned and looked at Christian. The motherfucker was still alive. He was clawing at the gravel, trying to reach his man that I’d dropped next to him to get to his gun.

“Oh, no you don’t.” I chuckled. “Look who’s laughing now, huh?”

I stepped over him and sat down on my knees. He was barely alive, but still very much conscious.

“Fuck… you,” he managed to choke out, blood dripping down from his mouth.

“Na, man. Fuck you and your fucking pencil dick—” I punched the left side of his face, splattering blood everywhere. “Fucking pedo cunt—” I punched the right side. “You will never touch her again!” I punched him on the left again, then added one straight onto his nose for good measure.

“Te fugo, schifozz’ stronzo!” I shouted into his face, but he was gone.

I sat trembling with anger, staring down at him. His face was a bloodied mess. His chest was bubbling blood. There was silence all around me—no more gunshots, no more shouts. What I did hear was the gravel crunching under Antonio’s shoes as he walked up to me and touched my shoulder.

“He’s gone,fratu. You did it.”

I breathed deeply a few more times, not able to rip my eyes away from Christian, just in case he stood up again.

“Come on, the commissioner’s on his way. We gotta clear out.”

Vinnie took me by the arm and pulled me up. Antonio put his hand around my neck and nodded. “You did good, Hux.”

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