Page 84 of Vow of Hate

The bullet lands in his stomach, knocking him to the ground. Matteo stumbles back with wide eyes. My mom gasps.

Dante lays on the ground, clutching his stomach, slowly bleeding out.

“No!” I scream.

“Matteo!” Gabriel snaps, ripping the gun away from Matteo.

I bend down beside Dante. “You can’t die on me. You can’t die. He needs to get to the hospital. Now! Please!” Neither Gabriel nor Matteo move.

But it’s my mom who goes into action.

She grabs Dante’s arm and puts it around her shoulder and motions for me to do the same. Together, we walk him out of the basement. Gabriel follows while Matteo remains behind.

Without a word, my mom helps me get Dante into her car. I get into the backseat with him while she practically dives into the driver’s seat and takes off, away from the house. Gabriel remains in the driveway, watching us go.

“Stay with me,” I say to Dante, pressing my hands against his bleeding stomach. He coughs and blood bubbles up from his mouth.

How ironic. He shot my mom in the stomach and now he saved my mom from accidently being shot again… by getting shot in the same place.

“Dante.” I sob. “Stay with me.”

He grabs my hand weakly. “Sienna…”

“Don’t talk. Just focus on staying awake, ok?”

“I do want to… marry you,” he struggles to say. “I do.”

I gasp. “Ok. I want to marry you too. Is that why you changed your mind?”

“It was for… you. I decided to… make peace… for you.”

“But you were the one strapped to that table, being tortured. Not me.”

“I couldn’t… risk you getting… killed. You were waving that gun around… like a madwoman.” He chuckles even through the blood in his mouth. “I was proud.”

“Only you would be proud of me when I was acting crazy.”

“Soulmates, I guess.”

His words make me smile but it doesn’t last long because Dante’s eyes roll back and he passes out. I check his pulse. Still beating but barely.

“Drive faster,” I sob. My mom glances at me and Dante in the rearview mirror and picks up the pace.

I tap Dante’s cheek but he doesn’t wake up. My finger presses into his pulse on his wrist and I don’t let it go until we reach the hospital. By the time we do, his pulse has grown even weaker. I can barely feel it.

Mom almost hits someone as she pulls up to the ER. “I need help!” she shouts, getting out of the car. Two doctors come running over. Together, they help get Dante out of the car and onto a gurney.

“Is he going to be ok?” I ask as they wheel him into the hospital. “Is he?”

The doctors speak to each other as they assess Dante’s wound. I don’t understand anything they’re saying. It’s all a blur.

“What happened?” one doctor asks me.

“He was shot.”

They take Dante into a room and tell me not to follow. I remain outside the glass wall and watch them get to work on him. But the moment I see them put a tube into Dante’s mouth, I know I can’t watch.

I stumble back with a sob and fall right into my mom’s arms. She had them open and waiting for me.