Chapter 66

Chapter 66
Sofia's POV

Luca’s weight sagged heavy against me, his shirt soaked red. My hands pressed hard to the wound, but blood kept slipping through my fingers.

“Stay with me,” I begged, voice raw. “Don’t close your eyes.”

His lips parted, a broken breath escaping. “Sofia…”

“Don’t talk,” I choked. “Just hold on.”

Bullets cracked down the hall, stone splintering. Diego’s roar cut through it. “Move! They’re closing in!”

Alessandro crouched beside me, eyes sharp even through the smoke. He pressed two fingers to Luca’s throat, checking the pulse. His jaw clenched. “He’s fading fast.”

“No!” I sobbed. “We can’t leave him.”

“We’re not,” Alessandro said, voice flat but fierce. He looked at Diego. “Cover us. Now.”

Diego swung around the corner, firing wild bursts. “Go, go!”

Alessandro hoisted Luca across his shoulders, grunting under the weight. “Keep pressure on the wound,” he ordered me.

I pressed my hands harder, tears burning. Luca groaned but didn’t wake.

Alessandro moved fast, dragging us down the side hall. Flames licked the walls, smoke choking the air.

Behind us, Rafael’s voice thundered. “Don’t let them escape! Bring me the girl!”

Boots pounded closer.

“This way!” Alessandro barked, veering down a narrow stairwell.

We stumbled into a lower corridor, half collapsed, water from burst pipes soaking the floor. Diego kept firing back, curses spilling between every shot.

“They’re everywhere!” he shouted.

“Then we make them bleed for every step,” Alessandro growled.

We burst into a storage room, half-buried in rubble. Alessandro laid Luca down on a crate, his hands already tearing fabric to bind the wound.

I dropped beside him, trembling. “He’s losing too much.”

“Keep pressure,” Alessandro said sharply. His movements were quick, efficient, but his jaw was tight. “If we don’t stop the bleeding, he won’t last ten minutes.”

Diego slammed the door shut, shoving a broken beam across it. Gunfire rattled outside, fists pounding on wood. “We don’t have ten minutes!”

“Then buy it,” Alessandro snapped.

Diego growled, turning his back to the door, rifle ready. “Fine. Let them come.”

I pressed harder, my hands slippery with Luca’s blood. “Stay with me,” I whispered over and over. “Please.”

His eyelids fluttered, barely open, his voice faint. “I… told you… never… letting go.”

My throat broke. “Don’t you dare let go now.”

The pounding outside grew louder. Bullets punched holes through the wood. Smoke thickened.

Alessandro tightened the makeshift bandage, tying it firm. “It’ll slow it, but he needs real care.”

“Where?” I asked, frantic.

“Safe house. Five miles,” he said.

“That’s too far!”

“It’s all we have.” His eyes cut to Diego. “We move now, or none of us get out.”

The door cracked under another slam.

Alessandro hauled Luca up again, his teeth clenched against the weight. “Stay ahead of me. Don’t stop.”

Diego shoved the beam aside and kicked the door open, mowing down the first soldiers in a hail of bullets. “MOVE!”

The corridor erupted in chaos. Rafael’s men surged from both ends, rifles flashing. Diego’s gunfire ripped through them, brutal and unrelenting.

Alessandro pushed forward, Luca’s body heavy across him, his aim still deadly even one-handed.

I ran at his side, grabbing any weapon I could from fallen guards, firing clumsy bursts. My hands shook, but rage steadied me.

“Through the kitchen!” Alessandro barked, shoving us down another hall.

The room beyond was wrecked—tables overturned, fire crawling across the counters. Soldiers burst in from the back door.

Diego didn’t hesitate. He flipped a table, using it as cover, blasting them down. “Out, now!”

We stumbled into the night air, choking on smoke. The estate behind us burned, flames reaching for the sky.

Engines roared nearby—Rafael’s trucks pulling around the front.

“We’ll never outrun them!” I gasped.

“We don’t outrun,” Alessandro said, dragging Luca toward the treeline. “We outfight.”

Diego’s eyes blazed. “Now you’re talking.”

The forest swallowed us, branches clawing, mud sucking at our boots. Behind, flashlights cut through the dark, shouts chasing us.

Alessandro’s breath was harsh, Luca’s body dragging him down. “We can’t keep this pace.”

“Then I’ll carry him,” Diego snapped, grabbing for Luca.

“No,” Alessandro barked. “You keep them off us.”

“I said I’ll carry him!” Diego roared.

Luca groaned faintly, his head rolling against Alessandro’s shoulder. My chest tore. “Please, stop fighting! He needs both of you.”

For a moment, they froze—then more bullets ripped through the trees. Diego cursed and turned back, firing into the dark.

“Go!” he shouted.

Alessandro pushed forward, teeth gritted, Luca bleeding against him.

Branches snapped overhead. A spotlight swept through the trees. Trucks cut across the forest edge, engines growling.

“They’re circling us!” I cried.

“We need the river,” Alessandro said quickly. “It’ll hide our trail.”

“River’s suicide!” Diego shouted back, shooting another man down.

“Staying here is suicide!” Alessandro snapped.

We crashed through brush until the roar of water grew loud. The trees opened into a steep drop, a river raging below.

Alessandro’s jaw tightened. “We jump.”

I froze. “We’ll drown!”

“Better drowned than captured,” Diego shouted, shoving me forward. “Go!”

Alessandro didn’t wait. He tightened his grip on Luca, then leapt into the black water below.

“SOFIA!” Diego grabbed my arm and dragged me after.

The river swallowed us whole.

The current ripped me under, spinning me in icy dark. My scream drowned in bubbles. I clawed upward, lungs burning.

Hands grabbed me, pulling me to the surface. Diego’s face broke through, his arm strong around me. “I’ve got you!”

Alessandro surfaced ahead, Luca still clutched in his arms, his face set in grim fury.

“Swim!” he shouted over the roar.

We kicked hard, the current dragging us miles downstream. Gunfire cracked from the bank, bullets splashing into the river.

“Keep under!” Diego roared, shoving me down beneath the surface, holding me close until the shots grew distant.

When we finally broke air again, the night was silent but for the river’s rush. The estate was gone, the lights far behind.

Alessandro hauled Luca onto a rocky bank, collapsing beside him. Diego dragged me out, coughing, soaked and shivering.

Luca lay pale, lips blue, blood still soaking his shirt.

“No,” I whispered, dropping beside him. “He’s too cold. He’s bleeding again.”

Alessandro ripped his jacket off, wrapping it around Luca. “We need shelter.”

Diego scanned the trees. “Cabin. Old hunter’s shack, half a mile.”

“Then move,” Alessandro said, lifting Luca again.

We stumbled through the woods, soaked, half-dead, every step agony. At last a dark cabin appeared through the trees, broken roof but walls still standing.

We forced the door open and collapsed inside.

Alessandro laid Luca on the floor, ripping bandages from his pack. Diego lit a lantern, dim but steady.

I knelt beside Luca, clutching his hand. “Stay with me. Please.”

Alessandro pressed fresh cloth to the wound, his face carved from stone. “It’s bad. He’s lost too much.”

“He’ll make it,” Diego said fiercely, though his eyes betrayed him. “He has to.”

“Not without real medicine,” Alessandro muttered.

I looked between them, my chest breaking. “Then what do we do?”

Alessandro met my eyes. “We get him to the city. Doctor I trust. But Rafael will be hunting. So will Marco.”

“We’ll fight through them all,” Diego said.

“And if we can’t?” Alessandro asked quietly.

Diego’s jaw clenched. He said nothing.

Silence filled the cabin, broken only by Luca’s shallow breaths.

Then his eyes flickered open, weak but burning into mine. “Sofia…”

I squeezed his hand tight. “I’m here. I’m not leaving.”

His lips moved faintly. “Don’t… let them… take you.”

“I won’t,” I promised, tears slipping. “I swear.”

His eyes closed again, his body slack.

“No!” I shook him, sobbing. “Stay with me!”

Alessandro checked his pulse. “He’s still here. Barely.”

Outside, the night split with engines and shouts. Flashlights swept through the trees.

“They found us,” Diego snarled, grabbing his rifle.

Alessandro rose, his gun steady, his face grim. “Then we hold the line.”

The cabin walls shook as boots surrounded it, voices shouting in two directions—Rafael’s men on one side, Marco’s on the other.

Two armies. One shack.

And Luca bleeding out between us.