Chapter 118 Beefing?
Dante's POV
A single word.
A voice that hit a spot in my memory. I'd probably heard that voice once, twice at the most.
But in this moment, it felt as though it's been the only thing I've heard all my life.
I rushed to Nico's side as a croaking voice responded from the other terminal.
“Don. Nick. Help,” we managed to hear before the signal cut again.
“Hello, hello!” Nico yelled into his phone but nothing came back.
I stepped back and threw my hands into the air. We are fucked, and Serena's as good as gone.
“Nobody,” Nico finally muttered the word I'd been waiting for.
“Nobody's fucking left,” I completed it for him with an exaggerated scream before kicking a fallen branch into the air.
“What the fuck?!” I shouted again. “Like what the actual fuck?!” I added.
“Don,” Nico called but I ignored him as I shot a tree not so far away.
“I'd been outplayed. I was outplayed by a fucking druggie!” I shouted, firing again at wherever my hand went.
“Don, that's not it,” Nico said but I ignored him again.
“Who the fuck gets outplayed by a man who eats crack for breakfast?!” I yelled and shot at another tree.
Nico then stepped forward out of nowhere and grabbed the gun out of my hand.
“This isn't helping,” he said firmly and I raised a brow at him.
“Oh really?” I asked sarcastically. “I don't see you bringing any bright ideas,” I challenged.
“That's no excuse to waste precious armory and expose our location to anyone hunting,” he challenged back.
I didn't hold back though.
“Let them come!” I yelled. “Let them fucking come. I'll bury every one of them with you inclusive if you don't hand over my fucking gun!” I spat out, staring at him angrily.
He didn't flinch, just held my gaze for a second too long. I raised my brow and stretched out my hand for it when he made no move.
He looked away after shaking his head. “I'm sorry, Don. I can't do that,” he replied calmly.
I raised a brow again. “The fuck?”
“You aren't thinking right now, this gun in your hand is as dangerous to you as to anyone else,” he replied without meeting my eyes.
“Oh yes it's dangerous to you, now hand over my fucking gun, Nico!” I said harshly.
“No,” he replied and turned to my eyes now.
We stared at each other for a long moment, neither of us spoke a word during that time, we just held our gaze.
“We need a plan,” Nico finally said.
“Hand over my fucking gun,” I said slowly.
“We need to plan, Don,” he repeated.
“Hand over my fucking gun,” I repeated slowly and he ran a hand over his hair and stepped back.
“You know what?” He asked before tossing my gun to the floor in front of me. “Here’s your fucking gun,” he added and walked around.
I smiled and looked between him and the gun.
“You know more?” He came rushing back to where I stood. “Have mine too,” he added, tossing his to the ground beside mine. “Goodluck aiming for all the birds and doing absolutely nothing while the reason our whole family is in chaos is a short drive from Luca's fucking hands,” he spat out and walked away again.
I chewed my tongue and lifted my chin to the side before running a hand through my hair.
I had acted unnaturally, lost my cool cause of her capture and Nico was right, this wasn't the best way to go about it.
“We've sacrificed a lot, Don,” I heard Nico's voice again and ran a hand over my face. “You think it doesn't hurt my pride too?” He asked as he reached where I was.
I walked back a few steps and sat on a fallen log with my head in hands.
“You're not the only one who gave their all to ensure she was safe,” he continued. “Hell, I never cared a shit for her when I risked my life to fight a war that I had nothing to do because of you,” he added.
At this point, I could barely say a word. Nico had me pinned back.
“It hurt as shit to see her get pulled into that van after I put my head on the line in a shaky car chase in the middle of the woods,” he went on.
A thought ran through my mind from his earlier sentence. It hurt him to see her taken away?
I thought of many things around that sentence but chose to go with the safest option, it must be his pride or something he's talking about.
Why else would he feel shit with Serena getting dragged away.
Nico walked over and sat by my side heavily before breathing out heavily too.
“We'll find her, we'll find her mom, we'll make Luca pay for everything. But we need to be smart about everything, it's obvious now that it's either Luca's got serious help or he's evolved into something unimaginable,” he said softly.
He's right, Luca couldn't be doing all these on his own. He was never this smart, he would never think of these without any reasonable help.
“The Luca we knew wouldn't have planned this out this good, he would never have lasted toe to toe with you. But this Luca is pushing us to limits we would never have neared,” he added.
I lowered my head and after he went a few minutes without saying a word again, I felt it was finally my turn to speak.
“Everything you've said so far has been spot on, so spot on that it's got me feeling like a fool,” I said gently.
“We both know you aren't, you are human, we all are. Shit gets to us and we react how best we feel we should, you aren't exempted from that,” Nico replied.
I nodded repeatedly and kept staring down and noticed how hard it was for me to spot the leaves again.
It was getting dark and I hadn't noticed.
“Sitting here won't get us anywhere, and shooting at tees would certainly not get us there either,” I admitted softly.
Nico nodded and got up, stretching out a hand for me. I stared at the hand skeptically before taking it.
“You have a plan?” I asked as he pulled me to my fight.
He didn't respond at first, he simply smiled, letting go of my hand and stepping forward a bit before leaning down and picking up our guns.
He stretched mine out to me and I took it slowly.
“While you were acting out, I noticed something that could be of great help,” he said with a smile.
“Really?” I asked. “What's that?”
But he didn't reply at once, he just turned to his side and nodded.
“Follow me.”