We exited the house surrounded by my father's boys, which by the way, are much less than I've remembered.

I can tell he's in a bad shape. No wonder Lucas was left unharmed.

I hear him saying something about Benito and I can only guess he's taking me to him.

They are working together, and it's a good thing Lucas is staying away. I don't care what happens to me as long as Lucas is safe.

I know my father very well. He is going to trade me again but hey, what could be worse? To be used by someone I love and live every day with the pain of being hurt instead of being loved back, or to be used by someone I don't care about?

Eventually, this is what I've been born for, to be traded.

I'm glancing carelessly out of the black windows of the SUV while my father keeps silent.

He surely is stressed.

I'm not. I'm blissfully careless about what is going to happen next, but I still have a knot in my stomach, sensing danger coming.

Strangely enough, even though I know my father is taking me to Benito, I know I can find Enzo there.

I've never felt fear around Enzo, he has never been anything but kind to me, and that gives me a calming vibe.

Even his father is not so scary, although I know he is after Lucas.

But Lucas is smart enough to take care of himself.

Besides, if I'm going to be a good girl and do whatever my father or Benito wants, Lucas will be safe.

And with that thought in my mind, a peaceful wave engulfs me, making me shut my eyes and hope that the trip to our destination will be long enough to take a nap.

I see Gio in the middle of the warehouse rushing the guys to the cars, checking their weapons, and rerunning the plans for one more time.

I've told Gio this is our best chance to get Becca, as Robert is alone, and he can be easily hit.

I check my two weapons to be fully loaded and shove some extra munition in my pockets, making sure the knife is where it's supposed to be, glued to my right leg, under my pants.

"Lucas, we need to go. Like now or else we'll miss the ambush spot," Gio says, peeking his head at the door of the warehouse office where I'm preparing myself.

The wheels in my brain keep rolling, repeating the plan of the hit over and over. My muscles are rock hard with the anxiety mixed with the hope of having Becca back home by the evening.

I snap my head up and stare at Gio, thrilled that the time has come. I nodded and threw the jacket on, following him outside.

We get in our cars and drive away from the warehouse premises at high speed to make sure we get to the decided spot before they do.

I'm in one of the cars in the back seat and Ben is driving while Jack and Gio are in the first car, just in front of mine.

I take my phone out and dial Gio's number.

"Yeah," he says.

"I need you or Ben to take Becca out of there no matter what happens," I tell him straight.

"We'll take you both out of there," Gio says stubbornly.

"If you have to choose..." I insist.

"I won't choose, Lucas!"

"Gio, it's a fucking order!" I tell him in a softer voice than I've intended, like not really meaning it because I know he won't follow it anyway.

He gets too fucking stubborn sometimes.

"We arrived," he says and hangs up.

I'm fairly sure he is happy to have the last word, lucky bastard!

We stop our cars hidden above the under passage from where Robert's convoy will emerge to the surface after a tunnel of about five hundred meters.

He's not stupid and for sure he's expecting something to happen here, so we better be fucking faster.

"Ben, let me drive. Get in the back," I tell him, and getting out of the car I remove my jacket, roll up my sleeves, opening a few more top buttons of my black shirt.

My anxiety increases to unbearable levels and my mind runs by itself to Becca while my phone buzzes and I pick it out I see a call from Gio.

He's on the other side of the road and while holding his phone to his ear, his frowned eyes are fixed on me, sending me strong messages to pick up.

I smile and nod once, pressing my lips in a thin line and rejecting the call.

I know he doesn't like I'm taking control of the car we're driving, and he insists on sending a message that I see popping up on the screen of my phone.

G: "What the fuck, Lucas? We've got this! You know we do!"

I can tell he's pissed. And I know he's right, but I really need to have things in my own control this time.

This isn't just any hit. This is getting Becca back. Alive. I have to be in control.

I turn off the screen of the phone and get in the driver's seat, ignoring everything and everyone, especially Gio, waiting for the time when Robert's convoy will come to the surface.

We are all prepared, each man in his place, strategically scattered around the underground tunnel access.

I glare at Gio on the other side of the road, and he looks tense. I'm above tensed.

We have confirmation from the guy we've left behind at the farmhouse that Becca is in the second car in the queue, and we'll be notified when they get into the passage.

From that moment on, we have exactly two minutes to load our guns and ambush them.

My left hand is already on the gun, the right one holding the gear, my foot propped on the speed paddle, and when my phone buzzes once, I know the two minutes start the countdown.

I read the message on the screen, and I breathed deeply, focusing on the tunnel exit and the gun in my hand.

G: "Ready!"

I clench my hand on the gear and I'm fully prepared.

I saw the front of the first car appearing and I hit the speed paddle, with my foot pressed all the way to the floor and my left arm out of the window holding my gun.

I know Robert must have bulletproof cars so I'm aiming for the wheels, but my heart clenches because that means the car can flip over and I'm not sure how secured Becca is inside.

Our cars run left and right, close to Robert's convoy, and as we try to get closer to them, hell on earth erupts.

A shooting spree bursts from all sides. I'm being covered by my guys as I aim for the second car where I know Becca is.

I drive centimeters far from it, but I can't see inside, the windows are tinted black.

Shooting the wheels to force the car to slow down, my worst fears come true.

I see the second car in the queue flipping over a few good times and getting out on the sandy side of the road. I manage to cross the road and get on the other side, as my guys in the car are shooting around a rain of bullets, covering me.

I need to get to that fucking car! I need to get Becca out of it!

I must have dozed off during the drive, the sunlight warming up my eyes through the eyelids, but at some point, everything darkens.

Lazily I open my eyes just to notice we are driving through a tunnel, not too long one though, as I can see the daylight at the end of it.

I cuddle a bit more in my seat and turn my face to the right just to see my father typing something on his phone.

If before I'd wished for the drive to be longer, now I couldn't wait to reach the destination. The air around my father and my brother was dense and unbreathable.

I shift my eyes from one to another, my father's face is hard and frowned while my brother's face expresses nothing, most probably being high again.

I turn my eyes back to the window as the light is coming through, telling me the tunnel is finished but when the sun rays hit my face, the chaos of shootings breaks out around us.

My father snaps out of his phone and throws it away, fetching his gun, becoming all too hasty to open the window and start shooting at the cars that suddenly attach to ours, driving alongside us, shooting at us as well.

I start shouting and duck my head between my knees while the driver yells at my father to close the window, a bullet might hit us through it.

I can't understand who is shooting who, where the bullets are coming from. I sat down behind the driver's seat, trying my best to hide.

"Who the fuck is it? Who's shooting?" Pete is yelling, holding himself tight as the car is speeding insanely with the driver trying to lose the ones following and shooting at us.

I'm crying desperately, yelling, and tears are pouring down my face, trying to find a place to hide better.

A few seconds later, I feel myself flipping over, hitting the ceiling of the car, my body bouncing up and down like a ball, hurting my head, my arms, and fresh scratches burning my skin.

The car comes to a halt at some point, but I'm too dizzy to react on the spot.

I hear the creaks of the doors opening and a hand grabs strongly my arm, pulling me outside the car.

Squeezing my eyes shut I follow the stranger dragging me out. I don't care who is it. I'm simply happy to be taken out of the crashed car.

I don't know where my father is, or my brother, I don't hear anybody speaking, only bullets being shot, and I'm wondering how come none of them hit me.

A strong arm wraps around my waist and only then do I feel a well-known bitter wood scent, filling my nostrils.

"I got you, baby," I hear him saying and I open my eyes to see Lucas' face so close to my own.

With his left hand, he is holding a gun, shooting around, and with the right one, he presses my head on his chest, doing his best to cover me from the bullets and hide my eyes from the horror around us.

I grabbed his torso, allowing him to take me to safety, hiding behind his car, but soon I heard other cars coming close and a booming voice that I know.

"Carlos, grab Rebecca and cover Tate! Now!"

I look behind to where the voice is coming from and I see Marciano Benito with a weapon in his hands, getting down from one of the newly arrived cars.

Shifting my eyes to the left I see the car I got off from and my father crawling down from it but as soon as he gets out, bullets thrust through his body, splashing blood everywhere.

My eyes widen in horror, but I can't take my look away. He's my father, after all. He's pierced by tens of bullets and his chest is covered in fresh blood as life is draining out of him.

While staring and being dragged away from the scene, I see Pete getting down as well, rushing to my father but soon he also gets hit by a ton of bullets it seems to me, and at that moment I turn my eyes away, overwhelmed by the chaos around. There's nothing more for me to see, anyway.

While I shift my look to Lucas, I feel him stiffen his muscles and an excruciating groan escapes the pit of his throat.

He arches his back and falls to my feet, pinning his knees to the ground. I look behind to where the hit had come from, and I see Pete crashed on the ground with his arm stretched holding the gun he had just shot Lucas with.

Holding himself still kneeled, keeping his back straight to cover me, Lucas collapses a few seconds later, face down and I crumble over him, trying to pull him up with my hands filled with his blood.

"NO! Lucas! No!"

I'm shouting insanely, trying to drag his body closer to the car we've been aiming for earlier, but I can't move him.

His body weighs like stones and he won't move by himself either.

"Come on, Lucas! Come on, baby, help me! Move with me, Lucas, come on!"

I'm shouting and sobbing, pulling him with my full force but I feel a weak squeeze of his fingers on my hand, and I turn my eyes towards him, begging him to stand and move.

"Please, Lucas..." I mumble, locking my eyes with his.

His icy blue eyes are glued to mine, barely blinking, just staring as he tries a smile, his beautiful lips frozen in a shade of blue.

"Becca... love... run," he whispers. "Run, baby... now."

I crawl back to him, everything around us ceasing to exist.

It's just me and him, like in a bubble, covered only by the intensity of our stares at each other.

I leaned over to his face, cupping his cheeks with my hands and a thin red line of his blood escaped his mouth choking him and forcing him to cough blood. It's ripping my heart. No pain has ever caged my heart like the one caused by seeing Lucas shot and cold, with life dangerously drifting away.

"No, no, no, Lucas. Stay with me! Baby, please. I love you. Please, stay with me," I beg while peppering kisses on his face, trying to give him from the heat of my body, blowing life into his mouth while I sob and tremble.

I start crying louder, desperately yelling and dragging his weak body on my lap, stubbornly searching for life in his beautiful eyes that never cease staring at me.

I rock my body front and back, holding his head to my chest, pleading with him to breathe and to stay with me, not to close his eyes, not to give up, not now, not today!

Someone fell next to us, and I saw Gio coming to help.

"Rebecca, run! Now! I'll stay with him!" he shouts, shooting randomly around. "NOW, Rebecca!" he roars one more time and pulls me away from Lucas, forcing me to take my distance. "Ben is over there. He'll take you out of here!" he shows me a place somewhere behind us.

"Lucas... No! I'm not leaving Lucas!" I say, stubbornly refusing to leave Lucas there.

I don't know if he's still alive or not, he is not moving, not breathing, just lying down in the dust next to Gio, his eyes still staring at me.

"I'll take him out. GO, Rebecca!" Gio insists, trying to pull me up, shooting around, and pushing me away.

I flinch at Gio's shouting as if woken up from a deep sleep and I stand up on my feet but still ducking from the bullets, and running in the direction he has shown me.

And as I'm running further, faster I am, almost not touching the ground.

On my right side, I see Carlos shooting and staring, covering me, making sure no bullet hits me.

Behind him, Ben is doing the same, but one bullet hits Carlos in his leg and puts him down.

I take a road between some cars and run like crazy, trying to get away from there but then a body crushes over me, striking me down and I groan in pain when my chest hits the ground.

Some strong arms fetch me and push me to run further, never losing the grip on my hand.

We reach a car, and I'm being shoved inside of it.

As soon as I'm sitting on the passenger seat, I hide my head down between my knees, covering it with my hands.

The man who has taken me here, circles the car towards the other side and hops in the driver's seat, the car starts to move before his door is fully closed and before I even realize I'm being taken away from the only place I want to be right now, from the place where my Lucas might be struggling for his life if he still has life to fight for.

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