"Behind you!" Dante's voice, urgent and sharp.
I turn and there's a man with a pipe swinging at my head and I get my arm up just in time to block it but the impact sends lightning up my forearm and my hand goes numb and my gun drops again.
He swings a second time and I duck and drive forward, getting inside his reach, my shoulder slamming into his chest, driving him backward into a support beam, and I hear the air leave his lungs in a rush.
I get my hands on the pipe and wrench it away from him and bring it down on his head and he drops.
I feel movement to my left and I spin with the pipe and catch someone in the ribs, the impact solid and satisfying, and he folds and goes down gasping.
"Enzo!" Rafael's voice, warning.
I look and there's someone on the catwalk above us with a rifle and he's aiming at Dante who's still pinned down, still exposed, and I'm too far away to reach him and too far away to shoot and I watch the trajectory and I know exactly what's about to happen.
I move before I decide to.
I'm crossing the distance between us at a dead run and Dante sees me coming and his eyes go wide and I hit him from the side like a linebacker, both of us going down hard behind the machinery as the shot rings out and punches into the concrete where he was standing.
We hit the ground and roll and I'm already bringing my gun up to return fire at the catwalk when I feel it.
Cold. Sharp. Spreading.
I look down.
There's a knife buried in my side, just below my ribs, and the man I knocked Dante away from is still on the ground with his hand on the handle, and he pulls it out and I feel the hot rush of blood immediately.
"Fuck," I say, which seems inadequate.
Dante shoots him.
The man goes down and stays down and Dante is already coming towards me, his hands moving to my side, pressing hard.
"How bad?"
"Bad enough." I can feel the blood soaking through my shirt, warm and wet and too much. "Not fatal if we move fast."
Rafael appears, breathing hard, blood on his face that I don't think is his.
"Clear?"
"For now." Dante doesn't look away from my side. "But he's hit. Knife. Deep. We need to move."
Rafael takes one look at the blood and his face goes hard. "Can you walk?"
"I can do whatever I need to do to get out of this building."
They pull me up and the movement sends a fresh wave of pain through me and the world tilts slightly but I hold it, forcing myself to stay present, stay conscious, stay functional.
We move toward the exit and I'm leaning on Dante more than I want to admit and Rafael is covering our backs and I can feelthe blood running down my side, soaking into my jeans, leaving a trail.
We make it to the car and they get me into the back and Dante presses something against the wound, a jacket maybe, and the pressure makes me grit my teeth but I don't make a sound.
Rafael drives and he doesn't ask if I'm okay because he can see that I'm not, just focuses on getting us back to the compound as fast as the car will go.
"Stay with me," Dante says, and his hands are still pressed against my side. "Don't you dare pass out, Enzo. Isabella will kill me if I bring you back unconscious."
Isabella.
I think about her waiting for me at the compound to come back so we can tell Matteo together, waiting to start the life we just decided we want to have.
