I watch as Brooklyn falls to the ground bleeding and bruised. With a roar, I run to her dropping to the ground holding the wound that is leaking blood.

"Brooke keep your eyes open," I demand pressing my hand into the gunshot in her stomach.

"I love you," she tells me with watery eyes.

"I love you too," I tell her as she gets blurry and I realize my eyes are watery.

Her bloody hand comes up to my face and cups it leaving a bloody handprint on my cheek. "I am so glad you're here and that you came to rescue me," she pants.

Zach gets on his knees and opens a bag with medical supplies beside him. He grabs a clothe and hands to me while digging to grab cotton balls and alcohol. I remove my hands from the gunshot and replace them with the cloth blood soaking the cloth within seconds.

"I will always come to find you no matter what mi amore," I tell her brushing my hands across her hair.

"We need a van now she is losing too much blood!" Zach shouts at someone I can not see as I focus on my woman.

"Tell Santino how much I love him and tell-" she gets interrupted by a coughing fit to which blood leaks out the corner of her mouth. "Tell my mother that she has been the best mother I could have."

I glare at her as more blood dribbles out of her mouth and her ridden face turns a deathly white. "Stop talking. Shut the fuck up and save your energy," I demand.

She puts her other hand on my hand covering her wound. "I know what it means when someone starts coughing up blood Mason. I was probably shot in the lungs," she tells me her hand shaking on my hand.

Wheels meeting dirt and rocks is heard and I look up as Brian parks the van in front of us as two men swing the doors open ready for us to transport Brooklyn into the vehicle.

"Zach, get the gurney," I snap. He immediately grabs the gurney from inside and sets it down beside us.

"This will hurt B," Zach says coming to her opposite side. She nods her head as I move my arms behind her to pick her up.

I count down to five and lift her up. She screams in pain and more blood leaks out of her wound. I gently set her down and her eyes slowly shut in exhaustion.

"My love, do not close your eyes," I tell her my voice cracking at the pail face of the love of my life.

"I'm not," she whispers as Zach grabs one end of the gurney and Will grabs the other. I hold the bloody cloth against her wound as I hold onto her hand.

They pick her up gosling her body and she whimpers I say comforting words to her to try and keep her mind off of the pain she is in no doubt feeling.

They slide her into the van and I hop in sitting on the floor next to her. Zach follows me and gets another cloth and places it on top of the bloodied one. He takes over keeping pressure onto the injury. I clutch her hand in a need to feel her smooth hand against my rough one.

The doors slam shut and the van starts down the bumpy boat to my home where a doctor is on standby. I do not look away from the pail body of Brooke. I brush my fingers across her jaw feeling the faint breath of air on my fingers reassuring myself she is still alive.

"If I lose her I do not know what I will do," I whisper my voice on the verge of cracking at the thought of my woman bleeding out in front of me.

"You're not going to lose her Mason. We are almost there Brian is going as fast as he can," Zachary reassured me pressing his hand into my shoulder reassuring me.

Not even 5 minutes later the van comes to a screeching halt in front of my house. Zach pushes open the door and I pick up Brooklyn in a bridal carry and rush into my home.

"Tremal, we need you!" I yell for the doctor.

My mother, Celine, Emery, Rose, Riley, and Viola rush out of the living room. "My baby," Celine cries rushing to me and clutching Brooke's pail hand. Her eyes water before Dr. Tremal rushes down the stairs.

"Come this way I have a room waiting for something like this," he says rushing down the hall with me on his heels.

He leads me to a white sterilized room with an operating table in the middle. I place her down gently as the doctor gets a pair of scissors and cuts her top off her body.

"You need to leave. I have to concentrate on taking out the bullet and you will just growl and groan at what I have to do to your woman," he orders grabbing a needle and squirting some of the anesthesia out of the tip.

"I want to stay," I growl out at him as I watch Brooklyn's breath slow down.

He stares at me for several long minutes before speaking. "Either you get out of the room or I do not operate," he threatens.

I glare at him before standing. I lean down kissing Brooklyn's bloody forehead. "Please do everything you can to keep her alive. If she dies your son dies," I tell him before leaving the room.

***

The minutes tick by as I watch the clock go from 5 minutes to 2 hours. I have not changed out my bloody clothes nor have I washed the blood from my hands. I have sat on a chair my mother had brought into the living room because and I quote 'You can not sit on the white furniture with your bloody clothes. I paid to damm much for you to stain this couch' she told me in Italian.

Riley is with Samuel hearing about the news that Anna her best friend is dead. I have no doubt she will blame me since I am the one who told Brian to bring her along, but I do not care as much as I probably should since she betrayed our trust.

My thigh bounces up and down as I wait impatiently for the doctor to tell us news of the surgery. "Honey, please stop that. She will be fine," Celine tells me picking up a glass of tea and taking a light sip.

"How do you know that?" I question stopping my bouncing knee mid-bounce.

She takes a deep breath and leans towards the coffee table setting down the teacup onto the plate my mother gave to her.

"When she was about 8 she was kidnapped. It was the most frightening thing I have ever been through not knowing if my only child was alive or dead or if she was in pain. Rodrigo became very reclusive and stayed in his office 24/7 trying to find our baby girl. I knew he was blaming himself that she was taken, but in my grief, I blamed him which put a strain on our marriage.

"It was three months later when we found her in a basement on an abandoned island in the Maldives. By that point, I was struggling to get out of bed and walk around. I was sick and on anti-depressants. My husband did not tell me that they found her instead he sent his man and his second in command to go bring her home. He didn't tell me until 24 hours after his men found her that he took me to the hospital she was at.

"I ran to her room and found my sweet 8-year-old drawing in a coloring book having the time of her life. I fell to my knees and brought her into my arms and you know what she told me? 'Let go I'm not done drawing the unicorn' those few words made me realize that she thought nothing of her kidnap. Even though it broke me to go through that pain of not knowing if our child was okay or not it was like a vacation to her.

"After I held her for what felt like hours the doctor told me what condition she was in and I remember crying into Rodrigo's arms as I hear what she went through," her eyes grow hazy in memories and Emery grabs her hand.

"What condition was she in?" she asks quietly.

"My poor baby was beaten, had multiple ribs broken, had signs of brain trauma, and signs of sexual assault. Later after multiple tests, we found out she suffered from memory loss and had no memory of what happened to her throughout her kidnapping. I have no idea if she remembers anything that happened to her, or if the trauma was too much and it erased everything she went through during that period in time," she finishes rubbing the tears that streaked down her cheeks.

My heart breaks for what Celina has been through having her daughter kidnapped and not recently finding out how her child suffered at a man who sexually assaulted and broke their daughter's willpower to live.

After she finishes speaking Rodrigo enters rubbing his hand through his hair. He comes to a halt seeing his wife tear-stricken and holding onto a napkin in a death grip.

"Mio cara, what's wrong?" he questions rushing over to her and squatting down in front of her. (My darling)

"Nothing, just telling about when Brooke was kidnapped and how heard it was on our marriage," she says lifting her hand and trailing her fingers down his face.

He grabs her hand on her lap and interlaces their fingers. "That time of our life is over darling. No need to cry," he tells her cupping her face in his rough palms that are weighted with deaths he has taken over the years.

I turn away butting out of their conversation and allowing myself to wallow at the thought of Brooke not being in my life.

***

I blink my sleepy eyes and look around the darkened room. Brooke's parents are no longer on the couch they probably went to bed a while ago depending on the time.

I look to the grandmother's clock and see it is 7:30 in the evening. I get up and head to the kitchen. Voices are talking over one another like a united family.

I enter and everyone quiets down. "Is there any news on Brooke's condition?" I ask heading in the direction of the kitchen sink to finally rub off the blood on my hands and arms.

"No, the doctor is still in surgery. Zach went to check about an hour ago and said he was still in surgery trying to get the bullet out," Viola enforms me watching me casually as I scrub my hands.

I watch the blood go down the drain before drying my hands on the towel by the sink. "It should not take this long for someone to get a damm bullet out of someone's body," I exclaim throwing the towel into the sink.

Viola goes to open her mouth, but Dr. Tramel comes in with bloody scrubs. My heartbeat stops at the look on his face.

"Is Brooke okay?" Celine asks standing up from the chair she was perched on. Rodrigo puts a gentle hand on her lower back waiting to catch his wife if she faints due to the news the Dr. is about to deliver.

"It was difficult to get the bullet out because it was lodged between her lung and heart. If I took it out in any particular way it could have stopped her heart from bleeding or dying a slow death of breathing in blood. The bullet did scratch her lung which could cause some coughing of blood. I had to make sure the bullet would not mess with any of her vital organs. She had major blood loss and I had to give her a few blood bags with the help of Zach," Tremal tells us.

"Is she okay?" Rodrigo snaps losing the little patients he had which I could not agree less because I was close to snapping for him to get to the point.

Tremal takes a breath before going on. "More than halfway through the surgery she went into cardiac arrest. I was already stitching her up, when it happened, so I had to figure out what was wrong. Her heart stopped beating for a total of five minutes before I did CPR and her heart began to beat properly. I put her on oxygen and took her blood. I tested it and noticed a poison I have never seen before, but Zach has figured out the correct medication to give her to fight the poison. We gave it to her and we put her in a coma until the poison is out of her system," he says.

A sob comes out of Celine's mouth and she covers her mouth with her shaking palm. "Can we see her?" I question gripping the counter with a death grip.

"Yes, but only one to people at a time," he says before leaving the room.

I look at Rodrigo and nod my head for them to go first. He nods back before wrapping his arm around Celine's waist and leading her out of the room.

"My darling boy sees she is okay," my mother comforts wrapping her arm around my body and leaning her head against my elbow. I nod my head and bend my head over the counter allowing my relief to flow through me.

I silent tear rolls down my cheek and lands onto the granite countertops. I close my eyes and take a deep breath. "Madre I am going to change clothes before I go to see her," I tell her bending down to kiss the top of her head.

She cups my face and I lean my head into her palm. I pull away after a long comforting moment I needed from my mother. Then I walk out of the kitchen and make my way to my old room that has spare clothes for the rare occasions I need some.

When I get into my old room with posters of football teams and baseball teams I used to root for before my life became filled with training and responsibility for being the capo di capi I take a hot shower allowing my muscles to relax at the feeling of the heat beating down on my aching muscles.

I scrub my body clean before drying off and putting on a pair of black cotton joggers and a black hoodie. I put a pair of sneakers on before leaving my room and going to the room Brooklyn is resting in.

Just as I turn the corner to the one-way hallway Brooklyn's parents are coming out of the room. "My dear, I am sorry about my outburst earlier, but you never get used to the loss of a child," Brooke's mother tells me making me wonder when Celine lost a child.

They walk past turning the corner and out of sight. I reach for the handle and take a deep breath of courage to see what my beautiful woman looks like beyond this door.

Hi, my lovely readers,

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