It's been forty minutes since Benito is inside. And I worry.

I worry because there's no sign of explosions, not even a trace of a boat or any other movement around us. Emerging from the pitch black night, we all wait on our toes and nerves ringing in our ears but nothing so far, and I start to doubt that Benito really has any friends.

"Should we try to get in?" Julian asks in a whisper as if doing that would betray the orders of his father.

I shake my head as a no.

"Nobody is coming," he reasons.

"You should know better, kid. He is your father. Does he have any friends?" I ironically ask turning my head and giving him a smirk.

"My father is a decent man," he speaks roughly and gives me the stare of hate.

"Well, then you should trust his plan."

"I'm afraid something happened," he replies.

"They are still talking, kid," I tell him, showing him the screen of the heat detector directed to the room we know to be the home office and where three orange silhouettes are sitting.

Julian stares at the screen in silence and decides to insist no more.

"We wait," I reply, not really convinced of it myself but it doesn't seem to be any threat for now. They're talking, moving hands, walking around, and from afar they look like friends having a chitchat.

"The boat is here," Charles announces running back at us and pulling the radio station from his belt. "Everybody on position! Remember: surveillance cameras first, immediately after the first explosion. Ropes! We get in! We take down any moving target! We protect Don Raffa, Don Enzo, young Julia, and Miss Mia. That's all should get out of this hell," he orders and I see shadows moving through the trees readying their guns and themselves to move.

"Don Raffa, I'm coming with you..."

"No, Charles, I get inside together with Julian. You take a part of the to the annex and neutralize the targets there. They will all run towards the explosions and fire. You'll catch them off-guard. Have another team at the north side toward the sea and let them hit everybody they find there. Shoot to kill..." I try to complete my indications despite Charles' protests that I can read in his eyes but the explosions hit and chaos erupts.

I take a strong hold on my machine gun, sticking it to my cheek, the way I know I can control it the best, take a fucking deep breath and God help the one that stands in my way before I have Mia.

Feeling a gun in my hand again reminds me that I still am the man I used to be, and I like the feeling. I fucking missed it! That and the thirst I have to save my woman wake my every sense, and I really need that right now.

The year that passed without having a hope to see Mia again, less to talk about being around her, the love that has been growing in my heart from the very first day I saw her in that university office, hiding in a dark corner as a beast waiting for its prey and the moment to jump and fetch without knowing that the prey will eventually eat me, the whole of me, my mind, my blood, my flesh, my every breath, and every sweat until she finally became to be today the only reason of my existence.

And tonight I'll take her back against all threats and all denials coming from anybody on earth and hell together. If I don't take her out alive, hell will freeze when I enter, because my death is the only cause to stop me.

We all move at the same time and start with shooting the surveillance cameras first then throw ropes over the fences that we climb like an invasion of spiders, each one having a clear task with a clear target and thirst to kill.

"Julian, stay with me, back to back," I tell him unnecessarily though, he's already in position. 

As we make our way toward the front door, some of Parma's men show up from the annex where there is already a feisty fight in process and I get Charles didn't manage to eliminate them all.

Easy task. We hit them like there's no tomorrow as most of them are running toward the fire unaware of what is just about to happen.

Two more explosions lit the sky on the northern side of the estate and I could tell they had hit the house as flames rose to the sky like devil's tongue.

My heart shrinks in fear that it might have hit the side where Mia is held.

Julian shoots first and fast, two bullets only with milliseconds between them, and the guards at the front door are taken down, easily, opening us access to the mansion.

"Good job, kid," I whisper and he smirks, the same proud smirk his father has but our moment doesn't last too long as a door slides open to our right and by the blueprints we've studied earlier, I know that's the home office where Benito and Parma had their talk.

Julian fires two shots in the direction of the noise, but nobody shows up and through the crack of the door, I count at least two bodies. The thought of Benito being dead in there messes with my brain for a moment but I don't have much time as Julian plunges toward the place and I have to fetch his shirt and stop him.

"We get Mia out first. That's your father's orders!"

"But..."

"We have time, Julian. Don't worry. We have time! I promise! Your father is alright. Have you ever seen a dead devil?" I say squeezing the hold on my automatic gun, and putting it back at my right jaw, moving forward to the stairs.

I feel Julian's back on my back and I'm happy he has decided to follow me and his father's orders, although I'm sure it hasn't been easy.

The noise of the gunshots and screams and explosions is scratching my eardrums forcing me to put some extra effort to stay clear-minded and focused. Pretty hard to do if you think that we are in here for more than twenty minutes and I still don't have Mia.

Once we both get to the top floor we proceed trying all the doors we find, one by one. All of them are unlocked and empty, with no sign of Mia, and with each room my chances of finding her drop dramatically, just like my patience.

As we get closer to the end of the hallway my heart starts an insane race fearing Parma had the time to take Mia with him.

"Fuck! Fuck! Where is she?!" I hiss eyeing the last possible chance, the only room that we haven't checked yet and from where smoke is emerging under the door.

"Julian, stay here and watch the access. She might be in here," I tell him and the kid conforms, watching the end of the hallway where we've come from.

Have you ever been on the verge of drowning and suddenly someone pulls out, allowing air to enter your lungs even though a void is still growing in your stomach?

Well, that's how I felt when I tried the doorknob and found it locked. This is the place where Mia is and waiting no second more I shoot the lock and push the door with my leg.

The heat of the flames eating the window curtains is almost burning the skin on my face and the hot air travels fast through my nostrils all the way to my lungs making me cough a few times.

From all the rooms this fucking mansion has Mia had to be in this one. I almost hope the motherfucker Parma took her away from this blast but why would the door be locked still? She must be in here.

"Mia! Mia, are you in here?" I shout making my way into the room and trying to see through the thick smoke that floods my lungs and brain but I can't let it put me down. Not before she is safe.

I try to call her name louder covering the sound of burning wood from the windows completely consumed by fire but before I open my mouth again I finally see Mia hidden by the bed, crouched with her knees to her chin and her hands covering her head.

"Mia!" I shout louder and run towards her, praying to all the saints that she is unharmed.

Her beautiful face now furrowed with tears and soot appears from behind one of her arms and I can see her eyes sparkling with hope when they meet me.

"Raffa..." he mouthes and jumps on her feet with outstretched arms like a child begging to be picked up and I meet her halfway, lowering the machine gun and circling her waist with the other arms.

She smells of burned oranges and sweet vanilla even though her hair smells awfully of burned wood but I'm still losing it, as I shove my hand under the cheeks of her but and lift her till she can circle her legs around my waist, squeezing her hold with despair.

"Shhh, you're okay now, baby. You're safe, you're safe," I whisper in her ear while walking out of the burning room before the fire catches us both.

"I missed you... Oh, God... how much I missed you..." she whispered between kisses peppered all over my neck and face, absolutely unbothered that I had just taken her out of a fire.

Her sobs are all my ears can hear, covering the sound of gunshots, screams, or the fire consuming the house and coming closer as I feel it on my back.

She tightens the hold of her arms around my neck, almost suffocating, the only hold around my neck that I don't mind.

"I knew it! I knew you'd find me. Where's Papa?" she asks, cradling my face in her delicate palms and forcing my stare towards her, insistently searching for the answer in my eyes.

I have no idea what to answer because I didn't even think for a moment to look for Benito or to think if he managed to get out of there safely, or if he was lying dead somewhere.

But now, when Mia's eyes are desperately searching for an answer, I almost feel obliged to find out what has become of her father.

"Mia, thank God you're okay," I hear Julian behind me and Mia lets go of me and hugs her brother instead, filled with hope that Julian will tell her something about Benito.

"Julian, where's Papa? Did he come with you?" she asks him, becoming visibly restless as the seconds pass and she receives no answer.

Julian hugs her and looks questionably at me over the top of his sister's head, wondering what to answer.

"Mia, you have to get out of here first. Julian will take you to my house and you both wait for me there, no matter how long it takes. Julian, take two people with you, go straight to my villa, and don't move from there," I tell her saving the young man and staring at him with eyes almost popped out of my head and emphasizing every word.

Julian affirmatively nods his head with revived strength and is grateful that I make shorter the agony of his sister's questions.

He grabs Mia by the arm and pulls her away from the area we are and which swiftly becomes the closest thing to purgatory while I remain rooted to the floor, waiting for Julian to take Mia out before I run to the office downstairs in search of Benito.

My heart breaks into a million pieces when she starts fighting and pushing her brother away, realizing I'll stay.

"NO! No way! I'm not living again! Raffa! Raffa!!" she yells and struggles to grab my hand which is only a few centimeters away, the longest few centimeters I've ever seen.

She frowns staring at me with anger and pain, realizing I won't do anything to stop Julian.

So I thought! Because deep down I knew I must do nothing, I must let her go and finish what her father and I started here, but I caved.

What if this is the last time I see her? What if this is the final time I can hold her, feel her skin to skin, and smell the scent of her hair? What if...

"Raffa!" she shouts one more time, the loudest than any of the times before and I stretch my hand grabbing hers and pulling her to my chest where I bury her with one arm and cage her with a kiss, a kiss that she welcomes with deep moans and a hunger that could move mountains.

Her delicate palms travel on my back from the waist up to my neck where hangs herself for her dear life and refuses to let go.

"Babe... Mia, wait..." I mumble through kisses trying to stop her stubborn lips.

"You don't get to do this to me again," she scolds me suddenly stopping and gluing her eyes to my face.

"I have to, baby. I have to, but I promise, this time nothing will stop me from coming back. Nothing!"

"Raffa, this time I'll die, I know..."
she says sobbing and begging but I decide to taste her lips one more time, knowing that I have no reply to satisfy her.

"Julian, leave!" I shout pushing Mia away while he grabs her and swiftly runs she keeps her eyes staring at me till they both disappear running down the stairs.

I wait a few seconds more before I get down myself, just enough to let them get out of the house but before I move I hear Charles in the radio station I carry at my belt.

"Don Raffa, can you hear me?!" he shouts, and only now do I realize that there are no gunshots anymore. The only thing that can be heard is the wood cracking under the flames that have almost reached the back of my shoes.

"Tell me, Charles," I reply running toward the stairs knowing that Julian must be out by now, or else, we are all dead.

"You need to get out, NOW!"

"I can't. I have to search for Benito," I reply breathing heavily and ascending the stairs two by two and busting into the office where I see three bodies on the floor and one of them is Benito.

"Raffa, half of the mansion is on fire! You need to..." he keeps shouting but I ignore adamant to take Benito out, dead or alive.

"Benito! Hey, wake up!" I yell, grabbing the collar of the suit jacket and shaking him strongly.

I make a quick check and I see he's not hurt although blood is splashed all over his face.

"Benito, wake the fuck up!" I shout again and finally, he opens his eyes, staring at me confused.

"Are you hurt?!" I ask.

"Where's Mia?" he says standing up and ignoring my question but I don't bother.

If he's good enough to stand up, he's good enough to walk out but before we manage to do just that, and because I have to wait for him to clear his brain while vigorously shaking his head, a blast catches us from behind, a deafening sound piercing our ears while I turn my head to the front door and see Charles jumping in and grabbing us both by the shirts and pulling us out.

There's no time to walk, so we all throw ourselves out on the front stairs and roll on left and right, away from the flames that make their way through the door frame like devil's tongue.

I hear my shoulder bones cracking and an excruciating pain blocks my back at the place of the old gunshot when I hit the marble outside and a deep roar burns my throat before I black out.

~~~~~
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