Page 110 of The Diávolos: Part Two
“Please don’t make me carry you,” he begs.
The sound of brick and tile falling from the ceiling vibrates in my ears, and I duck and cover my head to avoid the rubble. At the same time, the doors to the church open and a dozen armed men charge inside, holding weapons.
They start firing at us, and I flee down the side, still desperately looking for Evan. Xander tries to stop me and pull me toward a covered area, but I knock him in the nose with my palm. He cries out in pain, clutching onto his face. “I’m so sorry, Xan,” I call out while running away.
The church is now filled with smoke and my chest heaves as I draw in huge gasps of air while forcing the agony from my chest. I think I’m having a panic attack.
But I can’t stop.
I hear shouting behind me and, when I turn around, I find the girls hidden between the pews, yelling at me to take cover. When I glance back at the entrance to the church, I see that Evander and Dion have walked straight into the line of fire, their men spreading out around them, and have started shooting at the intruders. Gianis and Hendrick are nowhere to be found.
But instead of running away from danger, I run toward my husband.
Run, run, run.
I speed around a pew to avoid a large piece of falling debris, flailing my arms to keep my balance.
My heart is thumping so loud that I can’t hear anything but its erratic beat.
I continue to run toward Evan, and he yells something at me when he notices my approach, ducking behind a pew chair, but I can’t hear it. I can see his mouth moving yet the words fly past my head. There’s only one thing on my mind.
Get to your husband.Now.
I glance back at the girls, now joined by Daniel, and they’re all crouched behind a massive pillar near the back of the church, and the looks on their faces send a chill down my spine. When I turn back to Evander, the panic is clear in his eyes.
The perpetrators have been actively shooting at us, and I’ve been moving so blindly through the church in such an adrenaline-fueled haze, I forgot they were even here.
One of the men points his gun at me, and I stop, rigid with terror, too overwhelmed to move.
Evander yells, knocking the barrel of his gun into a masked man, before bursting into a frenzied run toward me, his horror-filled eyes transfixed on me. “Angelica,” he screams.
The blood drains from my skin as I realize I might die today.
I might never get to tell Evander that I love him again. That I forgive him. I will never see my friends, who have become my family.
A hard knot constricts in my throat, making it hard to breathe. I wish for adrenaline to burst through my veins so that Imove, but I’m trapped.
The man raises his weapon and aims through the smoke.
Evander is still shouting and running toward me, hitting any man in his path, desperation etched into every crease of his face.
Glancing back at my friends, I see Aria running toward me. “No, Aria!” I scream. But it’s useless.
She jumps in front of me just as the man fires his gun.
The last things I remember are the blood-curdling shriek that escapes my mouth, Dion’s face stretched into a mask of terror as he struggles to fight off a man and get to us, and Evander’s lips parted in a silent, desperate scream, right before my body hits the ground, Aria crumpling on top of me.
Black spots form in my vision before I faint.
31
EVANDER
“Good stories have protagonists who never give up; great stories have antagonists who never give up.”
—Robert Lee Brewer
Watching Angelica collapse in front of me almost kills me.
