Out of breath, I kick his limp body away from me.
“Eddie you okay?”
He doesn’t say anything. Pushing myself up using my hands I look to the couch finding him looking at me with that familiar stare. Inhaling a deep breath, I step over to him and find a shot fired right into his chest, blood staining the cushion behind him and down his stomach. Guilt drums behind my ribcage. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Fuck.
Reaching out, I close his eyes, grab his ball cap and put it on his head. That darkening feeling inside of me birthing into something far more furious than I’ve ever felt before. I took Eddie under my wing, and this is what I let happen to him.
He was just a kid, one with a lot of potential.
“Kieran!” Leona screams from the bedroom, and I run to her.
Pushing the bedroom door open, the gun in my hand, she’s kneeling on the bed looking down at her arm which is covered in blood. A bullet went through the wall and hit her. She’s been shot.
My heart skips a beat, fear riddling my own rational thinking as I watch her bleed out in front of me. Usually I’m calm and collected when one of my own is but I’m at a loss of words right now. I am frozen where I stand, watching her panic.
“Am I going to die?” she cries, trying to stop the blood from pouring out. It’s as if an artery was hit, it’s coming out so thick.
I try to inspect the wound but there’s a lot of blood, my fingers slip in it when I try and wipe it away and she wobbles on the bed. Looking up to her, I find her eyes glossed over with a lazy look.
I slap her face gently to get her to come to.
“Stay with me, baby.”
Placing an arm behind her back, I lay her down and run to the closet to grab a pair of underwear of hers. I wrap it around her arm tightly and tie it.
“Does it hurt?” I ask her, using a shirt of my that was on the ground to wipe up the blood on her skin.
“It’s just cold feeling,” she mutters, her head facing the other way.
Shit, I’m out of my territory and don’t know who to call or what to do. New York is hours away, and she’s losing a lot of blood.
Grabbing my phone off the side table, I swipe it awake, blood smearing the screen.
I call the one person that would know who to call in this area.
My dad.
I grit my teeth, not wanting to call him. I should call Matteo or someone under me, but I don’t trust anyone right now.
A shadow passes outside our window and I stand, gun in my hand. Crickets can be heard through the wall, making me more on edge than usual. Pulling the window open I see another person wearing black looking around the corner of the house observing the front. Clouds coming in from overhead, making it hard for me to see the shape of their body. Hanging out of the window I aim the gun, inhale a breath, and as I exhale, I fire a shot hitting him right in the back of the kneecap. That was luck, it’s too fucking dark out here for me to see shit.
A male voice shouts out and he falls to the ground. Climbing out of the window I quickly go to him, he’s wearing a damn mask so I pull it free from his face. Some pale man with a chiseled jaw and beak-shaped nose stares up at me with dull eyes. I’ve never seen him before.
“How many more of you are there?” I ask.
He doesn’t answer, just moans and whimpers.
I aim the gun at his head this time and his eyes suddenly come to life showing a hue of brown.
“Just us, that’s it,” he swears. Placing the gun in the back of my pants I take his and grab him by the hair, I drag him across the grass, the patio and into the house, leaving a trail of blood to be cleaned up behind us. Shutting the front door, I kick him in the face, and he falls to the hard wood. Before he opens his mouth again I kick him again and then fall to my knees and punch him in his face. How dare he come into this house, hurt my girl, and kill a friend. Skin against bone makes a cracking sound as I continue to plow him in the face. His flesh splits under my beating and I relish in his pain, the smell of his blood making me unstable for more. My wrath becomes uncontrollable as I hit him again. Blow after blow, rage thunders through my chest like an animal until he’s limp and unconscious. Blood’s all over my arm and hand, the floor splattered with it.