Page 40 of The Sting of Love
“Where is Mario?”
Dushkin goes quiet, and tears continue to run down his puffy cheeks. “Tell me now, or I’ll kill you.”
“He’ll kill my family if I tell you. I have a wife and a baby. Please, please.”
“Motherfucker, you have a family and get involved with shit like this?”
An alarm rings through the office, almost like an answer to my question. It sounds like the fire alarm, but it’s not.
“That’s the alarm I set up in Mario’s office,” Gibbs says quickly.
“Take care of this piece of shit. I’m not done with him,” I instruct. “Guys, back me up,” I order Lois and Saul, and we take off like we’ve got lightning attached to our feet.
I leap up the stairs and get to Mario’s office just in time to see the fucker stuffing his pockets with something from his desk drawers. His computer flickers on lighting him up with the glare from the screen.
When he sees me, he pulls his gun and starts shooting.
I duck, taking cover behind the cabinet. I put my knives back in the sheath and grab my guns. I manage to shoot two bullets but he evades them and jumps through the window.
I don’t waste time. Adrenaline pumps through my body and sends me after him.
I leap through the window and land on the boarded path of the docks. Mario is ahead of me, running and pushing people out of his path. He waits to get to the end of the dock, where the boats are moored, to start shooting back at me.
I shield behind pillars but keep moving forward, evading bullets and people. Those who can see and hear are already taking cover. This is so bad already because it’s going to attract attention, most notably the cops. They’re just as big here as they are in the States on anything mafia related. No one wants trouble, and this is next level bad. The last thing I want is anybody getting caught in the crossfire.
Mario gets to the end of the dock, and a nightmare plays out before me when he grabs a girl who was trying to get away. My blood turns to ice when he holds a gun to her head. That makes me stop in my tracks and I lower my gun instinctively.
“I’ll do it, you motherfucker. I will kill her!” he barks and glares at me with wide, terrified eyes. He looks scared, but he knows he has the upper hand right now.
“You asshole. You screwed us all. You had it good.”
“You fucker, listen to you all high and mighty. Ihaveit good. My job with you people was just a route to success. I don’t know how you found out what was going on, but you aren’t going to stop me. I had to go through hell to get to where I am today,” Mario shouts and presses the gun to the girl’s head.
I look to her as she starts to cry and begs for her life. Mario responds by laughing.
“Let her go. She’s not part of this. Let her go!” I demand.
“You telling me what to do, asshole. You’ll never be the boss of me,” he shouts back.
In the distance, an engine roars to life. A motorboat speeds toward us, and he glances over his shoulder. When he starts to back away, I realize that must be his getaway.
He pulls the girl with him, and I raise my gun again. I catch sight of Lois with his shotgun on top of the yacht to my left.
He nods to me, and I run forward at the same time he fires a shot and gets Mario in his shoulder. Mario drops the girl and winces as blood pours down his arm.
I shout as the fucking bastard decides to be spiteful and shoots the girl. I’m too far away. Helpless again. Useless. The boat arrives, and he holds his arm, blood dripping from it as he throws himself onboard.
A stone drops in the pit of my stomach when I see Xiou on the back of the boat eyeing me dangerously as the boat takes off. He just stares at me, his jet black hair billowing out in the wind, with a firm expression that’s enough to tell me I just signed my death warrant.
I push that out of my head and focus on the girl bleeding out in front of me. She’s crying and screaming. I rush to her and drop to my knees to check where she’s injured.
Fuck. He got her in her stomach. Shit. There’s blood pouring from the wound.
“Call an ambulance,” I cry. She stops crying and panic takes me when her eyes roll back in her head. “Call for an ambulance!” I shout louder.
The blood on my hands reminds me who I am. I can’t look at it and not remember that day so long ago when I held my mother in my arms and watched the light leave her eyes.
Sirens wail in the distance and more blood comes.
