Chapter 8 - THE SACRIFICE
Clara didn't reach for the gun aimed at her own head. She reached for Sarah.
With a ferocity that defied her age and her illness, Clara slammed her body into Sarah’s legs, throwing off her aim.
The gunshot cracked like thunder, the bullet shattering the stone pillar inches from Gabriel’s head.
Chaos erupted.
Gabriel’s men, positioned on the balconies, opened fire. The courtyard turned into a deafening warzone of muzzle flashes and shattered stone.
Gabriel didn't shoot back. He sprinted through the crossfire, tackling me to the ground and shielding me with his body behind a heavy marble fountain as bullets rained down around us.
“Are you hit?” he yelled over the gunfire, his hands frantically checking my shoulders and face.
“I’m fine! Gabriel, your mother—”
We peered around the edge of the fountain.
Through the pouring rain and the smoke, I saw Sarah struggling to her feet. Clara was on the ground, bleeding from a gunshot wound to the stomach. The cartel guard who had been holding her hostage lay dead nearby.
Sarah looked down at Clara, her face twisted in pure hatred. She raised her gun to finish the job.
“Sarah, NO!” I screamed, stepping out from behind the fountain.
Sarah paused, her eyes locking onto mine.
In that split second of hesitation, Gabriel stepped out beside me. He didn't raise his weapon. He threw it onto the wet grass.
“It’s me you want, Sarah,” Gabriel yelled, his voice cutting through the dying sounds of the firefight. The cartel men were retreating, realizing they were outgunned by Gabriel’s reinforced security.
Sarah breathed heavily, pointing the gun at Gabriel’s chest.
“You ruined me,” Sarah cried, the cold cartel queen facade finally cracking, revealing the broken, vengeful girl underneath. “Your family took my father. You took my innocence.”
“I loved you,” Gabriel said firmly, taking a step toward her. “And you gave us Maya. Don't do this in front of her sister. Don't make Maya’s aunt watch her mother become a murderer.”
Sarah’s hands shook. She looked at me, standing in the rain, my clothes soaked, begging her with my eyes.
For one heartbeat, the sister I used to know flickered in her eyes. The girl who used to braid my hair. The girl who bought me ice cream when our dad died.
Slowly, Sarah lowered the gun.
But Victor’s betrayal hadn't died with him.
A single, rogue cartel sniper on the ridge, loyal to Victor’s old regime, didn't care about Sarah’s hesitation.
The red laser sight danced across the courtyard, bypassing Gabriel, bypassing Sarah.
It settled directly on my chest.
I didn't even have time to scream.
Gabriel lunged.
The sniper’s rifle cracked.
Gabriel slammed into me, throwing us both backward onto the wet grass. I heard the sickening sound of the bullet impacting flesh.
Gabriel collapsed on top of me, his heavy body entirely limp.
“Gabriel!” I shrieked, scrambling out from under him.
Blood was pouring from a wound in his back. He wasn't moving.
“Gabriel, please, no!” I pressed my hands against his back, desperately trying to stop the bleeding, the rain washing the blood over my fingers.
I looked up.
Sarah was staring at us in absolute shock. The cartel SUVs were peeling out of the driveway, abandoning her.
Sirens wailed in the distance. The police—the real police, called in by Gabriel’s secure line—were arriving.
Sarah looked at me, then at Gabriel’s lifeless body. She dropped her gun, turned, and disappeared into the treeline, becoming a ghost once again.
I fell over Gabriel’s chest, sobbing hysterically into his ruined shirt.
The antique silver pocket watch slipped from my pocket, tumbling onto the grass. The glass face was shattered from the fall.
May you like
The hands of the watch had stopped moving.
It was exactly midnight.
