Chapter 160 The Price of a Crown
\[Lilia\]
If there’s one thing I could use to my advantage, it's the element of surprise. He didn’t know I am capable of manhandling a person, and he doesn't know that I am nimble for my size.
Taking a deep breath, I drew my elbow and pummeled it hard into the soft flesh right under Ronan’s ribs. His pained grunt blows on my ear utterly caught him off guard. Twisting against his grip, I tried knocking his gun, but he was able to pull the trigger.
My head spins and my eardrums rang deafeningly at the proximity of the blast. My action messed with his aim, and instead of blowing my head off, the molten hot bullet seared through my shoulder blade.
“Fuck!”
I'm tired, but adrenaline shot through my veins, and in one swift motion, I brought my knees to his gut. His grip finally loosens on me, and I quickly remove myself from him. Pivoting on my heels, I watched Pa’s terrified expression, Kael’s bellowing voice sounded muffled in my ears just as the crossfire started.
I ran to Pa, rain of bullets whirring past me like a holocaust swarming down on us, striking the ground next to my feet, but I pushed myself forward. Pa met me halfway, limping as he crashed his body into mine, knocking us off into the ground. A blast of pain seared through my back and to my shoulders, embedding the bullet deeper into my flesh.
My sharp cry of pain was muted by gun fires and explosions going on around us.
“Don’t let the motherfucker escape!”
“He’s getting his chopper!”
“Damn move!”
I can barely hear Kael barking orders, and if I'm not mistaken, I heard Sasha and Val among them.
“C-Cara, keep your head, d-down.” My attention turns to Pa. Blood dripped out from his mouth, as he struggled to speak. His eyes bore on me, with his arms wrapped around my head protectively and his body draping on top of me, shielding me against the pelting bullets.
“Pa.”
My voice trembled, wincing each time his body jolted, and I could hear bullets penetrating his side. Too many of them. But all I could do was curl my hands against his chest. I can't move. He had his weight pinning me down.
However, despite the pain, he still manages to smile down at me. Blood painted his teeth, and now they trickled down his nostrils, and so are the tears streaming down his eyes, dropping them to my cheeks, mingled with crimson.
“I-I love you. You...your mother. I’m sorry, cara.”
I'm crying as well, terribly sobbing, frightened to know what's coming next and I am not ready to accept it.
“Pa, please, don’t.” I am practically begging him, my vision of him blurred with my tears, but I blinked them out.
“Hush now, amore mio,” he sputtered just as another bullet struck him on the back. He's enduring too much pain and I can not bear to see him like this. Yet, his smile never falters in an attempt to offer me some comfort even though it was futile.
“I already gave my blessing to your husband—”
My whole body jolted in shock, just as a loud explosion shook the ground. My vision suddenly bled with red, and a gush of warm liquid splashed on my face. I shake my head to clear my sight only to see a bullet hole embedded in the side of his head.
Where blood was gushing out like an open faucet. His eyes are still wide, but now empty and glassy, lifeless, while he stares right through me.
“No!” I screamed in terror and disbelief, anguish and denial. My heart wrenched and broken as I viciously writhed my arms free from his limp body and grasped his face in my hands. Tapping the side of his cheeks, waking him up.
“Pa!” I choked, crying out for him, hoping he would breathe again, that this was all just a bluff.
Or that I would wake up from this nightmare and everything is okay. That he was just at the lounge sitting, us drinking tea together, telling me things like how much he loved me and my mother.
“Pa, please. Talk to me!” My palms were slick with his blood, and the putrid tangy scent that was drifting through my senses was compounding the mayhem going on in my lower belly.
“Pa, no. Please,” I weep, bawling my eyes out in a desperate attempt to make him talk.
“I'm pregnant and you're going to be a great grandfather.”
But still no response, his eyes wide but there was no life inside them.
He’s gone.
He’s truly gone.
I bite down my lips hard, containing the sobs wracking painfully at my chest. I didn't even notice the burning sensation on my shoulder. I remember being shot as well, but it didn't hurt as much as the internal pain jabbing at my heart as I brought both my thumbs to his eyes, closing his lids shut, forever.
“I love you too, Pa,” I whispered, bringing his head down to the crook of my neck, hugging him tightly as I stared blankly ahead. Not seeing anything other than my blurred vision as I cried hard.
“Doll!”
The heavy body that had been draping over me abruptly lifted, and shapes began to crowd my line of sight. However, I was so disoriented that I could not even concentrate on the silhouettes. My mind was a mess. My heart was bleeding in anguish, and all I could feel was a familiar touch laid on the side of my cheek, caressing me.
“Kukla, I'm here.”
I move only my eyes to look at Nikola’s face. He’s also covered in blood, but I could tell it wasn't from him. I'm glad he’s alright but I couldn't seem to bring a smile. I opened my mouth, trying to utter his name, but instead, a sharp, excruciating howl tore into my throat.
Unbearable, excruciating pain flared in my lower abdomen. Like a knife sticking into my gut, tweaking and clenching agonizingly. I writhed against Kael, curling into my stomach as it intensified.
“Medic!”
I could hear them panicking around me. I have a bullet wound on my shoulder, but all the pain I felt centered on my stomach, and something sticky came out between my legs.
“Master! She's bleeding!” Sasha’s voice drilled inside my ears, and I was just able to peel my eyes open and look down at my dress. There, I saw my own blood pooled between my thighs.
“No,” I gasp between my shallow breaths, shaking my head viciously as my mind reprocesses everything.
“Kael, our baby!”
I stared at him, his jaw clenched, fury blazing inside his mossy hues!
“Get the fucking helicopter!”
He carried me up, and the pain started to numb my body. My vision danced, and my head felt like it was going to crack in half. Yet, I still manage to sweep my gaze around the fiasco.
I saw Ronan’s severed head rolled into the ground, separated from his body and I gagged at the grotesque sight.
He’s dead.
He’s finally dead.
I know he's just misunderstood. Neglected and robbed of his dream. But he had gone too far. He refused to listen and wasted his chance of redemption.
Kael made sure of it to give him the ending seemingly he deserved.
But his death cannot bring back what I had already lost.
Linda, Pa, and now my unborn child is bound to peril.