Because he’s the one who took my heart and trampled all over it.He’s about to do it all over again.And he’ll never stop.
Chapter33
GIANNA
The gatein the wall starts rolling open with a metallic hissing noise.My heart rate is picking up, starts thundering as I hear the arguing voices coming from inside, then stops completely as the door also stops, frozen about a third of the way open.
“I don’t have all day,” Ferro yells.“Hurry up and make a decision, Codelli.Tell your friends in there that none of you stands a chance.So you might as well save the women.”
“Shut the hell up, you black-eyed monster,” a man that is not my father yells from the other side of the gate.
He’s probably one of the ones arguing to keep the gates shut.And as much as I want to see my parents, I know he’s right.They should stay safely behind that wall.Chiara and I will find a way to survive without them.But I’m afraid they won’t survive if they come out.
From the corner of my eye I see movement by the wall.Many, many men are surrounding the wall, coming from all sides.Many more than could possibly have driven here in the snake of town cars that brought us here.
The gate starts hissing open again.My father is at the opening, a look of pure wild longing on his face.My mom appears behind him, her face paler than the whitest sheet.But she’s smiling widely as she looks at me and nods, her eyes wet with tears of happiness.Lidia is standing right behind her, the smile on her face just as big as my mom’s.
“Go back in,” I shout.“We’re fine.Go back in to safety.”
Matteo pulls me back, stands between me and Ferro, who yells, “Now!”at the top of his lungs.
And then my worst fear starts coming true.
The men who had been approaching the gate in the shadow of the wall start running, two waves of black converging on the gate.I can’t see my family anymore.All I hear are yells, and screams and gunshots.
Matteo pulls me back further, back behind the line of men who stood next to us but are now advancing on the gate in a third terrible wave.
He cuts loose the zip-tie binding my wrists, but keeps a firm hold on my upper arm as I try to run to the gate too.
“Let me go,” I yell at him, pulling away from him so hard my shoulder aches.
“You can’t do anything,” he says.“You can’t help them.”
“I can die with my family,” I shout at him.“I can do that.”
“Over my dead body,” he says and sounds very angry, but I don’t think he’s angry at me.He’s giving Ferro one of the darkest, most hateful looks I’ve ever seen on anyone’s face.
I use that distraction to stomp very hard on the middle part of his foot.He curses in pain and loosens his grip on my arm just enough that I’m finally able to pull it loose.I sprint towards the gate, to my parents, my sisters, my mom.
Men are fighting everywhere, Ferro is wielding his stupid tire iron and smoke and the stench of gunpowder is thick in the air.I don’t see my mom anywhere, or Lidia, but Chiara is easy to spot in her green dress.Just like me, she’d been dragged away from the gate and two men are preventing her from going where I’m headed.
I’m going into the thick of the fighting, because I’m not leaving here without hugging my mom.I’m tripping over bodies to get there.Bleeding, dead men.If this was a nightmare, I’d be screaming myself awake.But I can’t because this is real.
“Stop this!”my father yells.“Stop it.We yield!”
He’s standing in the middle of the smoke, his white shirt covered in blood.Ferro lowers his tire iron and approaches him, grinning like a mad man.“That’s good to hear.”
Then he turns to his men.“Stand down.”
All goes quiet.But the sound of gunshots is still echoing in my head despite it, louder than the moans and screams of the wounded.
Chiara has managed to escape her guards and is limping towards my dad, because one of her high heeled shoes has come off but is still attached to her ankle by the strap.It doesn’t stop her or slow her down much.
I’m holding my breath as Ferro advances on my dad, blood dripping off his tire iron.“I’m glad you’ve decided to come to your senses and heel, Codelli,” he says is a venomously quiet voice which still somehow fills the whole meadow.He’s nearly reached my father.Chiara has too.I start moving in their direction too.
“But it’s too little, too late,” Ferro announces with a crazed lilt to his voice that hits me like a knife slash might.
He drops the tire iron and reaches under his jacket, as though putting his hand to his heart.But that’s not what he’s doing.
