Page 45 of The Silence Lies

No. Wait.

There’s banging coming from the side of the car. I rush to the driver’s door, prying the beat up metal away until Giovanni has enough space to crawl out. He’s looking worse for the wear, but aside from the gash on his temple, he’ll survive.

My breathing picks up speed when I don’t see her, though. There’s no way I’m allowing her to die on my watch. I rush to the other door, panic burning through my bloodstream as I yank at the crumpled door.

“Sera! Sera!” I freeze when I see her, my breath catching as I’m spun into what can only be described as a sick cocktail of relief and awe.

There in the broken glass, she sits frowning at me. She’s covered in scratches, bloody cuts mar her beautiful skin, but in the moonlight she looks even more stunning.

She climbs over the seats effortlessly. She doesn’t seem to care about her dress or the glass or the fact I’m leaning through the window in awe at her. She pulls herself up and uses her bag to push the shards of glass out of the way. “You going to help me or just stare, Fontana?” she quips.

Relief washes through me as soon as she hooks her arms around my neck.

“Are you okay?” I rasp as soon as her feet hit the ground. “I thought…” Shit. I won’t deny that seeing her alive was probably the last thought going through my mind after that collision. But I can’t tell her that.

“I’m fine,” she pants, but I can tell she’s lying. Her forehead is cut open and in the shadowy light I can see her busted lip.

I go to run my thumb over the delicate torn skin, hoping she doesn’t push me away.

“Luca!” Levi calls out.

Chaos surrounds us. The cacophony of bullets whirring past us force her to cower. I use my body to shield Sera while I draw out my second weapon.

“I’ve got her!” I shout back just as gunshots resume—or maybe I just ignored them because I was focused on other things.

Giovanni is already leaning over the hood of the car, aiming at the men approaching with his own gun.

“There’s three of them,” I count. There were four.

One is dead on the ground beside the car closest to Marco. He’s crouching, slowly heading towards the others. We’re not outnumbered, but these assholes don’t give a fuck. They’re storming ahead of us, aiming at anything and everything they can.

Giovanni takes one out, the body dropping onto the ground with a sickening thud.

It takes one moment of pause before the other two are back at it. But they’ve forgotten about Levi. He takes out the second, and I take out the third.

Before I can comprehend what is happening, my body is shoved sideways.

Two gunshots fire out.

And then there’s just silence.

I spin around just as a man drops into the grass from the tree line behind us.

What the—

“Figlio di puttana,” Sera hisses clutching her arm. All of the sudden, her legs give out from underneath her and she drops to the floor.

“Sera!” I feel my knees crunch as I bear my weight down on them. “Sera!”

Blood trickles down her arm, spilling through her fingers.

“What the fuck, Bianchi?“ I scream at her, clutching her sweaty face.

“He was going to kill you!” she winces.

I don’t have time to process what I’m feeling. I should be grateful, I should be relieved, I should be anything but angry, but it’s my go-to emotion. And right now I’m furious that she would put herself in a vulnerable position.

Should have fucking let him.

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