Page 8 of Matteo
I shuffled toward the exit that should lead to the back staircase but froze midway.
Francesca’s body plunked against mine, and I yanked her into a crawl space near the book return cabinet, tucking us both in the shadows. “What? Why did you stop?” she whispered.
But before I could answer, chaos erupted. The door to the room we were in opened, slamming into the wall behind it. Thescent of blood hit my nostrils just as a man appeared, his clothes stained red.
“No,please,” one of the girls he’d stumbled upon cried.
A guy who looked too young to be holding a gun pointed an AR-15 at the students. Screams rang through the library that not even a million pages could muffle.
Blood splattered all around the library as the sound of bullets rang in my ears.
“Not a peep,” I hissed at Francesca, then turned my back to her, blocking her from sight. I looked up just as the gunman turned his attention my way, despair and something unhinged gleaming in his eyes.
“Who else is here with you?” he yelled, waving his weapon around. “You’d better come out now or I’ll have to come looking.”
My heart thundered in my throat, and the knife Matteo had gifted me cut into my palm. I tried so hard not to look at the blood pooling around the two girls, drawing images from my mind that I had long since buried, but it was impossible. Some mistakes would haunt us for as long as we lived.
I noticed crimson drops on the floor beneath my hand from where I was fisting a Swiss Army knife between bone-white fingers.
And it was exactly that thought that spurred me into action.
I took a step forward and so did he. The moment he was in arm’s reach, I lunged at him, slicing his forearm. He yelped, then swung his hand. Before I could react, he grabbed my wrist and twisted it until I had no choice but to drop the knife. It landed on the floor with a loud clunk, right along with my heart.
I immediately straightened, determined to keep his eyes on me and away from Francesca.
“Do you know the Vitale family?” I frowned at the unusual question while alarms went off in my brain. Something was offhere. “Answer me, girl,” he yelled, causing me to startle. “Do you know the Vitales?”
I swallowed my fear as adrenaline rang in my ears.
“D-don’t kn-know them,” I stuttered, the biggest lie of my life bouncing off the walls.
In the next breath, he trained the gun at me, and I was paralyzed by fear.
Incoherent images flipped through my mind. My parents dancing at their wedding. My twin sister announcing she’d marry the boy with hazel eyes. My first trip to the planetarium observatory where I got to see the stars and planets through a telescope. Baking cookies with my family.
My first kiss. My last.
I wasn’t ready to die, but I knew I couldn’t compete with a gun. And as warm liquid trickled down my fingers, I took a deep breath. Likely my last one.
And then I heard that dreadful, deadly sound.
Click.
CHAPTER FOUR
MATTEO
Apiercing scream I’d recognize anywhere—Francesca—came from underneath a nearby table. She was safe, but Ari wasn’t, standing in the middle of the library and hiding my sister with her own body.
Click.
As if in slow motion, I watched my bullet fly through the air, grazing past familiar blonde strands.
A flurry of bullets followed, filling the air around us. Nikola yanked me back, both of us taking shelter behind the heavy wooden door just as a bullet flew through the space where my skull was a mere second ago. The firing continued for what felt like a lifetime, but then just as quickly as it started, it stopped.
The silence that came afterward was deafening. I eyed Nikola, gave a wordless nod, and we barged into the library. The gunman was working on reloading his AR-15 while Ari stood frozen, blood trickling down her fingers and onto the library’s carpeted floor.
Roaring, I leapt on top of him while Nikola got ahold of his gun, then used it to smash his hand into the floor. I gripped his shirt and smashed his head back, over and over and over,hearing the satisfying crunch of his skull connecting with the hard surface.
