Looking around, I see his imbecile of a brother that shot writhing and gurgling on the floor, bleeding out and dying, shot by his own brother, but I’m not even moved.
Smoke is quickly filling the warehouse and I see fire catching at the back wall where Cole found the second exit. There’s no way to get out through there now.
Falling down to my knees, feeling so fucking useless, I hold Mia with my one working arms, so tight to my chest, she’s all I see now. I quickly press my palm down on the bleeding wound, applying pressure to try and to stop the wound from bleeding out but there’s so much blood, it’s almost useless.
“Julian?” Mia croaks, her eyes open through slits.
“Hey, baby,” I whisper brokenly. “I’m here.”
“You came for me,” she whispers. “How did you find me?”
“Little Minx, I’d find you anywhere.”
She smiles sadly, looking up at me.
“This time, it might be a little too late.”
And just like that, she loses consciousness, her eyes closing shut spooking me like nothing else in this world.
“No, baby, stay with me, okay?” I whisper for her ears only.
I can feel the heat of the fire on my back, but I rock her in my arms back and forth, clinging to her with a desperation that clogs my throat. I can hardly breathe, can hardly speak.
“Why did you do it, Mia?” I demand angrily. “That bullet was mine…”
She groans in pain and I realize I have to get her the fuck out of here. I have to keep the vow I made to myself. With my head close to her chest, I wait to hear her heart, but I can’t hear anything over the roaring of the flames getting closer to us.
“You have to hang on,” I whisper incessantly, my eyes stinging with something foreign. “I fucking love you, Mia! You better fucking hang on, do you hear me?”
Her pulse is faint, her breathing shallow as pools of blood pour out until it covers us both. She’s wrapped in this blood coated sheet, limp in my arms.
“No, baby you fucking stay with me!” I whisper-snap at her, holding her with my one arm as tight to my body as I can. “Wake up, Mia! You have to fucking wake up.”
A chill sets into my bones. The fire is roaring behind us, spreading quickly. Cole doused the place with gasoline while I engaged the fucking bastards and lit it up, but the fucking bastard failed his one mission. To get Mia out of here and now…
“Mia, for fuck’s sake!”
In my panic, I hear sardonic laughter. My head snaps up. I still can’t see where he went but I know one thing.
“I’m going to kill you!”
“Well, I don’t think you’ll get a chance,” a voice starts. I snap my head up and see the snake drags himself quickly across the floor toward the other door until he’s right by the open rusty door, with a smirk on his face. “This is the end for you, Fitz. Best you embrace it and die with some dignity.”
I don’t say a word but the red tint that has fallen over my eyes, the volcanic fury in me is boiling up. I spot the knife that fell beside Mia from the corner of my eye as the imbecile goes on.
“How do you suppose this looks?” Shane taunts, his voice loud above the dying of his own brother. “I’ll tell you what he looks like. Double homicide, arson and well, you are fucked.”
I need to grab that knife, but I can’t relieve pressure from Mia’s gunshot wound.
Forcing my right arm to move, I grit my teeth at the excruciating pain, I grab the knife slowly and tuck Mia to my lap, her head on my chest.
I used to throw knives before. I was never as precise as Cole, but I know a few things but right now, I need a deadly shot and with a broken arm, well, I just have to make sure I end this fucker and make him fucking pay!
“You killed your own brother,” I grit but he just laughs.
“Yeah well, I’ve wanted to do that for years, man,” Shane says. “But I didn’t get the opportunity until today and fuck I took it, and it feels great!”
I clutch the knife, finding its balance, ignoring the pain in my hand.
“This was your plan all along. To kill your brother and frame it on me.”
“Well, to be fair, I wanted to pin it on your fucking brother, but I have no idea where he is,” he sighs dramatically. The fire is getting bigger and closer, but I don’t move, my mind laser focused on thing. “But no matter, after they lock you away for manslaughter, I will find your brother and do what I’ve always wanted to do.”
A growl rips out of my throat.
“Holy fuck, look at that fucking beast lurking in there,” Shane taunts. “I have to tell you, it terrified me the way you broke down the door t get to your whore, the rage in you, Fitz, I guess that’s what fuels a man like you. My brother was right, just like your sick, down syndrome brother, you are going to kill your pathetic whore… oops, yeah, you just did.”
I can hear him laugh and Mia gasp in pants, her eyes closed tight.
“And now, because you failed to see the trap and you made it worse by setting fire to the place, you’re about to lose your beauty.”
I don’t say a word, bidding my time as I pin him down in the smoke.
“Bet you didn’t even realize it, huh? Every move, every step was well calculated and you didn’t fucking see it! I have to admit, you and I were on par when we both decided to light shit up. I myself started a fire too, guess where?” he shouts. “At my fucking house!” He laughs. “And guess who was seen there, raging and foaming at the mouth with the need to kill me? Your brother!”
At that, I fucking snap.
In a move so fluid and languid, I make the knife an extension of my hand then release it.
It hurls across the warehouse and hits its target, right in the chest. Only it hits the wrong side than. I was intending, but the bastard screams in shock and sudden pain.
“You son of a bitch!”
I see him aim the gun at me. I think this is the end. Right here, with Mia dying in my arms and me, failed yet again.
I knew this night wasn’t going to end well for me but if it all ends in fire like this, smoke filling the place almost immediately making it hard to see, then it is what is it.
“Mia, I love you baby,” I whisper in her hair.
But nothing happens.
The gunshot I’m waiting for doesn’t come. Instead, I only hear the sound of the fire and something else in the distance coming closer.
The sound of firetruck and police sirens.
When I look up at the door, I see Shane frozen and perched up. He heard them too and now, he’s panicking,
“Shit, they’re not supposed to patrol this place.”
“Not when there’s a fucking fire, you dipshit!”
He looks at me, then looks out at the open door and then back at me.
“Either way, Fitz, you’re not going to make it out of here alive!” he seethes and then he surges to his feet and grabs a can of something… gasoline!
He unscrews the cap and starts pouring it everywhere, close to the door and then he flips a lighter, looks at me while he steps back, standing in the open doorway with a fucking smirk and then he drops the fucking lighter.
Fire catches instantly but I’m not bothered by fire.
The fucker’s smirk falters as he clearly sees that I’m perfectly calm.