I can always tell a gunshot to kill from a training one, or a raid of revenge from a single shot to kill. And what we heard downstairs were definitely gunshots of revenge.

Pretty sure is not my business to interfere, I don't give a fuck about Benito's bad blood with anybody else but I, but Mia is shivering with fear in my arms, and the sight of her, cuddled to my chest, covering her ears and squeezing her eyes right makes hate the world, the earth, and the skies altogether.

And trust me, I know these are not the only gunshots to happen tonight. By the rhythm of it, there is a hunt going on downstairs.

"What was that?" Mia is whispering keeping her ears covered and eyes closed tight.

I'm all wrapped around her like a bulletproof blanket and this is my excuse to hold her strongly a little bit longer.

"Is it over?" she asks, opening one of her eyes and stopping herself from breathing to hear better, making me nervous in the process of trying to end this blissful moment I have.

She lifts the sharp tip of her nose to look at me, with a smile on her lips and light in her eyes that make me stop breathing myself and become more determined not to loosen my grip.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying the moment but... don't you think I should go downstairs and see what's going on?" she says bluntly as if going downstairs is a walk in the park.

I want to reply but gunshots are heard again with an indefinite period between them and so I know the hunt is not over.

I tighten the hold around her, grabbing her head with one hand and pushing it stronger into my chest.

"Non aver paura, Mia. Sono con te tesoro. Non ti succederà niente. Mi senti?" (Don't be scared, Mia. I'm with you sweetheart. Nothing is going to happen to you. Do you hear me?)

Contrary to my words, she starts shaking again in my arms and here I understand that for the sake of the woman I love, I need to intervene. Revenge is never revenge till you eliminate all family members, and I swear to  God and fucking Heavens, if something happens to my Mia, I'll burn half of the earth.

"Mia, ascolta tesoro, tu rimani qui, chiudi la porta dietro e non esci mai finché non vengo per te. Capisci?" I tell her grabbing her head into my palms and starting straight into her horrified eyes. (Mia, listen, sweetheart, you stay here, you lock the door behind and you never get out till I come for you. Do you understand?)

She listens carefully to each of my words and nods like a good kid listening to her elder.

"Raffa, per favore trova mamma. La sua stanza è la seconda a sinistra. Ha detto che sarebbe andata a letto prima, ma..." she says and I wipe the tears coming out of her beautiful eyes then kiss her cheeks, her paper white cheeks. (Raffa, please find Mom. Her room is the second on the left. She said she would go to sleep earlier but...)

"Certo, tesoro, certo. Ti prego, non uscire da questa stanza. Prometti? È molto importante che resti qui." (Of course, sweetheart, of course. Just, please, don't get out of this room. Promise? you must stay here).

"Yes, Raffa, I promise," she says and kisses me again. "Please be careful," she pleads and steals kiss after kiss delaying the moment I leave her room.

With a broken heart, I push her away so I can rip myself out of her arms curled around my neck and I move to the door, opening it carefully and suddenly meeting her mother.

"Signora Benito..." I greet her quickly, startled to see her here already.

"You! What are you doing here?!" she yells and frowns at me, scolding me as if I'm a child.

"Sst, not so loud, Signora Benito," I reply and grab her waist pulling her inside and placing her next to her daughter.

"Mia, baby, are you okay? Are you injured?" the mother becomes frantically worried about her daughter.

"I'm fine, mamma, I'm okay. Don't worry. Raffa will go down for Papa and Julian. He'll take us out of here, you will see," my sweet little lady places all her trust into my hands, looking at me and begging me to do so. "Will you not, Raffa?"

The struggle inside of me delays my confirmation. I'm afraid that once I see Benito face to face I'll be highly tempted to kill him rather than save him.

"Will you not, Raffa?" Mia repeats with the right amount of pressure on each word strong enough to bring me back from my revenge dream.

I nod. By the end of the day "us" can very easily mean her and her mother, and that's it.

"That if the shooting downstairs is not done by his own people," Mamma accuses.

"Stay here both of you. I don't need extra worry down there," I replied staring at the woman with anger.

I spin on the balls of my heels and exit the room while I pull out my gun, holding it for my dear life and tiptoeing on the long corridor while my senses sharpen in expectation of danger.

Walking down the stairs, one by one, I hold my arm straight and my gun ready and as I approach the base I can see on the left side, right in front of Benito's office, the bodies of two unfortunate participants in the shooting.

I can't tell if they are Benito's men or the adversaries. All I know is that I should be aware of both parts.

Reaching the last step and before turning to the right to access the living room, I squeeze the gun, feel it with my arm and get ready for anything or anyone I might find there.

I hear steps around the room. I know for sure someone is still alive, so I take a deep breath and step out with my arm straight forward.

"Don't move!" I yell to the man standing with his back toward me, looking between the bodies laying on the floor.

He's tall, with wide shoulders and bulky arms, holding a gun in his right hand and aiming down as if he's ready to shoot any moving loving thing. The white shirt he's wearing is strained with blood and his left arm is bleeding.

He swiftly turns around when hearing my voice and I recognize Benito. His face frowns and madness reigns his eyes, staring at me in shock.

"Raffaello... cosa ci fai qui?" he asks with no reaction to my gun pointed at him. (What are you doing here?)

"Che cazzo è successo qui?" I ask without lowering my gun. (What the fuck happened here?)

A weird feeling gets me, a temptation to shoot him and take my revenge struggles with the admiration I've grown to have for him.

"Well, that's a question for your friend, Fabio," he replies completely ignoring me still aiming his chest with my gun and pointing somewhere down, at Fabio's body.

"Cazzo..." I hiss, staring at Fabio.

Next to him lays the body of another man I know, one that has recently been introduced to me by my best friend, Benedetto Santi, the son of my partner in the deal that Benito took from me.

"I guess it's no surprise for you to see them here. You could have come yourself, you know. I have no intention of killing you. You should know better," Benito continues implying that I have something to do with the raid on his house.

"It wasn't me, Benito," I tell him. "And I have no idea what they are doing here."

"Hm," Benito hums walking around and checking on Fabio and Benedetto, hoping to find life in them still.

"They came to tell me that they knew who snitched the shipment from you and how we can return it to the Moroccans costing me only the money I took for it. You see, the shipment disappeared after I got the money from the Mexicans, and now... I have the Mexicans on my tail... the Moroccans are trying to kill me and you... are you sure it wasn't you, kid?" he asks, tilting his head and pinning his black orbs on me, filled with accusations.

I take a moment to think carefully about what to reply. Saying no will not make him believe me. Admitting will probably bring a bullet into my brain because despite my arm holding the gun toward him, taking just one trigger to push to kill him doesn't actually align with what I feel right now.

The tension between us added to the one I already have in the entire muscle mass of my body makes both of us sharpen our senses to help us catch that one single second when we can shoot, kill, and get away alive.

"That needs mending," I say motioning my gun to his left arm where his blood is dripping from.

"Drop your gun, kid. I'm not your enemy," Benito replies totally unbothered neither by his wound nor by my gun.

My heart says I should do it, my brain says otherwise. My heart goes to Mia and the pain the death of her father will bring, my brain tells me she'll never want me again if here and now I should take my revenge.

In the corner of my eyes, I see movement somewhere behind Benito. One of the supposedly dead killers seems not to be so dead and a gun raises from the ground held by a blooded hand when I aim at it, determined to save Benito for a later time when I will kill him with my own hand, I see his eyes gauging at me, maybe because he thinks it is him whom I'm targeting but I aim the arm holding the gun behind him.

"No!" Benito roars at the same time as my gunshot, two actions in a fraction of a second to which a third one adds, a burning pain in my back, thrusting the muscles to the left side of my back and exiting to the front together with the entire mass of air I have in my lungs.

Suddenly, the balance center in my body gets messed up and I have to strongly pin my feet to the ground to keep standing although I know I won't be able to do it for long.

I know I shot the murderous hand behind Benito with a single bullet but there were two shots, I heard them loud and clear and no, it wasn't Benito because the only move his loaded right arm did was to throw the gun away while charging himself toward me, horror blooming into his eyes when I fell in my knees, unable to stand on my feet or breathe.

I feel the shirt wet on my back although I'm sure half of my torso has been ripped off. The pain, the metal taste I have in my mouth tell me I have been shot, shot to kill and before I hit the ground Benito is already next to me, throwing himself on his knees and grabbing the upper half of my body to prevent it from crashing on the floor.

I look up at Benito who's bent over me and frantically rips off my shirt trying to roll me over and see the damage in my back. Suddenly another young man comes into my view and I recognize Juliano, Benito's son.

"Mia..." I mumble trying to tell them that they need to get Mia. "Her room..." I indicate this because if there was one killer not dead yet, there could have been more very easily.

"Where's Mia?" Julian asks his father while helping him to mend my wound since his father seems so adamant to do it.

"She's in her room. Go get her! Take her and your mom away from here! You got it?!" Benito orders him while gathering some of the fabric of my shirt and putting pressure on my wound to stop the bleeding.

"And call the doctor! Now!" Benito yells and before the young man disappears from my vision and runs up the stairs, he pulls the phone out of his pants pockets to complete his father's orders.

"Starai bene, ragazzo. Giuro sulla mia vita che non ti lascerò morire, mi senti? Raffa?! Mi senti?!" he keeps saying, making sure the pressure he exerts on my wound is strong enough to stop the bleeding. (You'll be fine, kid. I swear on my life I won't let you die, do you hear me? Raffa?! Do you hear me?!)

My right cheek is crushed on the tiles of his living room while my body... well, I can't feel anything but the strong hands of Benito pressing on my back. I hear him talking, I see the struggle in him to keep me alive but I'm not so sure he'll succeed.

Little by little I stop hearing his voice, I want to blink my eyelids don't listen. It's like I don't have them anymore. Even the metal taste in my mouth doesn't feel anymore and my vision becomes foggy.

"Hey! Hey! Raffaello! Non chiudere gli occhi! Non chiudere gli occhi, cazzo, ragazzo! Non è il tuo momento di morire, mi senti?!" Benito yells and grabs my chin, shaking my head, and waking some senses in me. (Don't close your eyes! Don't fucking close your eyes, kid! It's not your time to die, do you hear me?!)

Damn, Benito! True to the legends I've heard about him, he's a frocking stubborn guy. What the fuck he doesn't understand I can't stay alive anymore?! I can't! I don't have the strength!

But when I decided to give in and left my spirit free, I see Mia coming down the stairs together with his mother and younger brother and when her eyes fall on the horrific screen happening in the middle of the living room having me as a main character, she springs from behind her brother and runs straight toward, kneeling and crouching over me while yelling my name and cupping my blooded cheeks in her tiny palms.

Oh, what a piece of heaven her beautiful face is, although I don't like those eyes filled with tears.

She shouldn't cry over me. She shouldn't care so much, she shouldn't waste her youth crying over a murderer like myself who just a few moments ago was contemplating killing her father.

"Raffa, amore mio, chi ti ha fatto questo? Mi senti? Raffa, mi senti?" she speaks between tears and sobs and, jerking herself from her brother's grip who struggles to take her away from there. (Raffa, my love, who did this to you? Do you hear me? Raffa, do you hear me?)

"Leave me," she tells him, ignoring him trying and trying again, always coming back inches close to my face, caressing my face, and staring into my eyes making sure I still keep eye contact.

"Mia... go... with your... brother," I whisper trying to make his job easier but she damn... nothing stops her from what she wants to do.

"No, I'm staying here, with you. I'm not leaving," she says struggling for a smile that right now, seeing it on her face, means the world to me.

"Mia, I love you... I'll find you... I'll come for you and..." I struggle to speak and fuck, I have no idea if I make any sense or if I spell the words correctly or even if I spell them and they are not only in my mind.

"And I'll wait for you," she speaks the very words I've come here to hear from her own mouth. "I'll wait for you..." she yells again while Benito drags her away, his place is taken by Julian whose hands I feel pressing in my back and some other human-like shapes come into my view which suddenly switches off.

It's done.

~~~~~
Dear Reader, thank you for being here. 🤗