“Shit,” Dante mutters, running past me to where an arm peeks out from the pew.
I rush to the front of the chapel where I left Jaelyn…where she now lies. I turn her over to see a huge, angry-looking red bump on the corner of her forehead. I run my fingers down the front of her black shirt, but there’s no blood.
Just holes…where the bullets lodged into the Kevlar vest she’s wearing?!
I press my head to her chest.
Oh, holy fuck!
“Jae,” I whisper, smoothing her hair away from her face. “Jae!”
A few seconds later, her eyelids flutter lift. “Sergio?” she moans. “Oh my God, are you okay? What happened?”
“You were shot, but you’re wearing a vest,” I say. “How? I didn’t give you one.”
“Bruno,” she murmurs, lightly grazing her head and wincing. “He made me put his on, just in case. The last thing I remember is someone coming in here and shooting at us.”
“You must have hit your head after you got shot. I guess they figured you were already dead with the number of bullets lodged in this thing,” Dante says.
“What about Bruno?” she whispers. “And Nate?”
Dante gets up and walks toward the altar, dropping to the carpeted floor. “Christ,” he mutters. “Bruno’s hit.”
My heart damn-near stops as I wait for him to drop the bomb. “Is he?—?”
“I can feel a pulse!”
I let out the breath. “Fuck, but we have to find Matteo. What if Becerra sent us here to?—?”
Dammit! That’s exactly what he did!
I help Jaelyn onto the pew. “Dante, stay here. I’m going after Becerra. Give me your gun!”
“Dude, you can’t hit shit with those bum hands. Let me go!”
“No, this is my problem to fix.” My words to Matteo come rushing back. I did this to our family. I brought him in, brought all of the shit in.
It’s up to me to blast it all the fuck out.
I backtrack toward Nate’s room, the sound of sirens getting louder and louder with each second that passes. I don’t understand how they haven’t made it here yet, but there’s no way Becerra walks outta here in cuffs.
He’s gonna be dragged out in a fucking body bag!
My legs pick up speed as I round corners in the direction of the emergency surgery room. At least they still work the way I need them to. I skid to a halt outside of the closed door and kick it open, to find Matteo standing right inside, next to Nate’s gurney.
Becerra is standing right behind my brother, guarded by Matteo’s massive chest.
“Glad to see you could make it tothismeeting,” I say, holding the gun in my outstretched hand. “Looks like we have business to handle after all.”
“Not much, actually. Just one decision. You’ve seen what I can do, what my men can do. Bring me into your syndicate and Matteo walks out of here without a single bullet wound. I may cut off his hand though. You know, an eye for an eye and all of that shit.” Becerra smirks from his position behind Matteo.
Matteo’s jaw twitches as Becerra shoves his gun into his back, making it arch. “I don’t give a shit what you cut off, but you’re not getting near our organization, you cocksucker!”
“We’ll see about that,” Becerra says with a shit-eating grin on his face. “I have other tricks up my sleeve if the other families need any more convincing. I’ve come a long way to make this arrangement work. Killing the rest of the Torres family was just icing on the cake. I knew I’d need to hit it big to be considered by your syndicate.” He snickers. “Pun intended.”
So taking out Jaelyn and Nate wasn’t his real play?
This guy is a twisted motherfucker.