Fracture

31. Dylan

CHAPTER 31

DYLAN

This asshole’s speed catches me by surprise.

I fire on sheer instinct, aiming for his shoulder because I don’t want to hit Levi. At this range, the bullet could go straight through this fucker.

Blood spurts from Levi’s nose, and he goes down as my bullet tears into Michael Gray’s shoulder.

But this fucker barely flinches, instead turning tail on me with a roar. I don’t have time to fire again as he lunges at me, throwing me to the ground. The gun goes off, but the bullet strikes the ceiling uselessly.

He’s on top of me, the gun pointed straight at my face, but before he can fire, he’s torn backwards as Levi locks his hands around his neck. He slams him down to the ground, landing two hard punches in the guy’s throat.

“Fucking fucker!” Levi bellows, grabbing him by the collar and slamming him into the ground, then striking him in the jaw two, three, four times. “Who’s the fucking thug now?”

A bloody Oswald seems to rise from nowhere, charging at Levi, armed pathetically with a steak knife, and I fire at him over Levi’s head. The bullet lands square in the old man’s forehead, and he hits the ground immediately.

Gloria starts screaming, launching from her chair and trying to run from the room.

“Oh, no you don’t.” I get to my feet and give chase, gaining on her easily. I grab the bitch’s hair and drag her backwards as she shrieks and flails blindly at my arm. I slam her down on to the table, holding the gun to the base of her skull. “Stay the fuck down.”

“No, no please,” she whimpers, hands shaking against the gleaming tabletop. “Dylan, oh my god, please, please don’t kill me.”

“I’m not going to kill you.” I look over at Levi, who is still holding Michael down against the floor. His shoulders are heaving, blood trickling from his nose, over his lips. “Your son wants that honor.”

Gloria begins to cry again, holding her hands out beside her head. “Please, please don’t kill me. I’m sorry. I’ll admit to everything. I’ll say anything. I’ll do anything. Just please, please don’t kill me.”

“You think that’s good enough for us?” I press the barrel of the gun into her flesh. “You think we’ll be happy with that? You’re fucking wrong.” I lower my head and she flinches as my breath washes over her hair. “I don’t negotiate with psychopaths.”

“You’re the psychopath!” She bucks underneath me, casting a venomous glance over her shoulder and crying out as I slam her head into the table.

Levi rises to his feet, eyes on mine as he wipes the blood from his face. He grits his teeth and looks down at Michael, before landing a kick in the side of the man’s head that has him going still instantly. Out cold.

“Fucking asshole,” he snarls, before looking back at me and sidling slowly across the room. “Well, mother, looks like this is it, huh?”

Gloria wails, hands shaking, legs threatening to give out underneath her at any moment.

“Levi, no, baby boy, no, you can’t do this!” She collapses on the table, sobbing and clawing at her face. “You can’t, you can’t, please! Please! ”

Levi moves to my side, holding out his hand. I hand the gun to him, and he holds it for a moment before putting it down to his mother’s head. She’s blubbering now, pleading and whimpering as she realizes that she’s taking her last few breaths.

“You drugged Stella?” He asks, his voice cold and calm.

Gloria doesn’t respond, just continues to plead and cry.

“You drugged her? You put her in the hospital? You did everything you could to hurt her?” Levi shakes his head, running his tongue over his bloody teeth. “And now you lie here, begging not to die?”

His finger moves to the trigger, and he tilts his head.

“You know, mother, I actually want to see you die. I want to watch the light fade from those fucking eyes.”

He reaches out and grabs her by the back of the head, yanking her upwards. He’s half-spun her towards us when a bullet tears through the side of her head, sending bone fragments and brain matter up in a cloud of red.

It takes me a second to even place the shot, to recognise what’s happening. My eyes move to the other side of the room, over Oswald’s inert frame, to where Michael was lying just seconds before. But he’s not lying unconscious on his back anymore.

Michael is on his knees, a gun aimed at us. Levi realizes too late as his mother’s dead body slumps against him, and dropping her is losing him time. Michael swings the gun in his direction, and Levi isn’t raising his weapon fast enough to fire first. Michael has a clean shot.

I shove myself against Levi just as the gun goes off, pushing him to the ground with Gloria’s dead body wedged between us. Michael curses, and I see from underneath the table that he’s getting to his feet.

I snatch the gun from Levi’s hand and rise back up over the edge of the table, dipping back down as Michael fires off another shot.

“Dylan!” Levi pushes Gloria off him, but I put out a hand.

“Stay down!”

Michael is stalking towards us, and I don’t have much time. I drop underneath the edge of the table, and take aim at his knees. I squeeze the trigger, the shot landing in Michael’s thigh.

He cries out, crashing to his knees, his hand flying to the wound. He looks up, in time to see me getting to my feet, and raises his gun.

But this time, I’m faster.

The gunshot rings through the dining room, and Michael’s eyes go wide. His gun clatters to the floor, and he lifts shaking hands to his neck. The wound is enormous, blood pulsing from his arteries in violent crimson streaks that splatter the floor around him.

He looks at me, eyes clouding as death takes him, and his mouth moves but no words come out. He tries to snatch a breath, but there’s nothing but more blood, coating his tongue and lips in a thick film.

He crumples to the floor, face down, arms spread beside him. His body convulses a few times, and then he goes still.

I put the gun down on the table, my chest pounding. It’s over. It’s finally over.

“Dylan?”

I look down at him, and smile. “I’m here, guapo .” And then I remember the pain in my side.

I put a hand to where blood is pouring from between my ribs, and Levi is on his feet instantly.

“Fuck, Dylan, oh my god.” He presses his hands to the wound, shaking his head, his big blue eyes wide and wild as they meet mine. “I’m sorry, oh my god, I’m sorry. I wasn’t fast enough. I should have been faster, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry baby.”

I give him a weak smile, feeling the blood bubbling from the wound as the air is sapped from my lung. “You did great, guapo . It’s alright. I’ll be alright.”

But I can feel that I’m not going to be alright. My breath catches in my throat, and I falter as Levi cries out and tries to hold me up.

“Baby, no, no, not like this, not here, please.” He growls as he tries to keep me upright, buckling under my weight as my vision begins to grey. “Dylan, no, come on, get up, please, please .”

“I’m sorry,” I murmur against his neck, tracing my fingertips along his jaw. “I’m sorry. I love you.”

“ No .”

I’m on the ground, my head cradled in Levi’s lap, his desperate, bloody face gazing down at me.

“Don’t you die on me, Kovac.” He shakes his head, dashing away a tear. “Don’t you dare fucking die on me.”

“You look after our girl,” I tell him, and sirens begin to wail in the distance. “You hear me? You go, and look after our girl.”

“I’m not leaving you!”

“Yes, you are.” I smile up at him. “You blame this all on me. You didn’t know anything. You blame this all on me, and you go look after our girl.”

“Dylan, stop! I’m not leaving.”

The sirens get louder, and black spots begin to dance in my vision.

“Levi, go. Please go.”

He’s staying there, not moving, not leaving me. They’ll find him. They’ll put him away. Stella will be all alone. I try to tell him that Stella needs him, that he has to think of her, but words aren’t coming out when I try to speak. Just gasping breaths. The wound doesn’t really hurt anymore. Everything feels strange, and warm. My limbs won’t obey me.

Levi is still looking down at me, shaking his head, his pleas sounding as though they’re coming from another room. Suddenly, his head shoots up, and he bellows. There’s movement out of the corner of my eye, and there’s a black flash, followed by the muffled shot of a gun.

Levi is thrown backwards, and I reach for him blindly.

Levi.

Levi.

Levi.

But my hands don’t work anymore. Nothing works.

The sirens wail, louder and louder. There are shouts, and more gunshots. Then there’s no more light, and no more sound.

There’s just nothing.