Mafia Men: Nikolai's Inferno - Chapter 115: Chapter 115

.Evangeline.
I took a long breath as a tear slid down my cheek dropping to the ground. The barrel of the gun dug into my forehead harshly. His knee between my chest was making it difficult to breathe.
My hair was all wet, and the back of my head was bleeding profusely, I took a deep breath but it hurt my ribcage. I exhaled, and inhaled again, realizing I was scared. My head swam; I tried to return to reality. My stomach tightened, but I can't just give up, not like this.
I gasped, my throat burned in agony, blood licking out from my mouth. He had banged my head against the floor so many times that it was getting difficult to comprehend what was going on around me.
I still tried to fight back, my hand raised sluggishly, slick with blood as I tried to grab him. He slapped my hand away, laughing at my pain.
"I don't want to kill you, Evangeline. I did care about you for a short amount of time in between. But you need to understand that it was not your place, I was ten, ten years old when Luca Moretti took me in. He raised me like a son, he made me believe that it was me who will get everything after him but the second he got to know about you, he flipped. Just because you had his blood, doesn't fucking mean it was your fucking birthright. I worked for it day and night, I deserved it, and you showed up one day and took everything from me. You were just a little girl and he trusted you with everything," he laughed but it was filled with pain. "And to add insult to injury, he handed you to me. He asked me to train you..."
I weakly pushed him away but it did nothing to him. "Get a-away from m-me..."
"You know what the worse part is? My own brother respects and loves you more than he does me. He is the only one here who thinks that you are the one leading this attack. He is so fucking loyal to you, it's fucking aggravating!"
I coughed. "I... I trusted you too, Enzo"
He nodded, pursing his lips. "I know... but you were not made for this, Evangeline. I realized that from the very first week when I trained you. You lead with your emotions, you're one of the good ones. There's no place for emotions in the underworld. You just didn't fit in but I gotta give it to you, you tried. You tried so hard but you still aren't good enough and now you're going to die and the man you love will always hate you-"
The next second, Enzo flew off from over me, and with my blurry, distorted vision I saw Scott trying to fight him off.
A gunshot went off and the sound of it rang in my head, again and again.
I squinted my eyes and looked to my side to see Scott dropping to the ground.
"No..." I tried to get up.
"Fucking Costello scum!"
I saw Enzo repeatedly punching Scott in the face, I cleaned the blood off my face and scrambled towards the gun laying on the ground. Blood filled my mouth, the pain blinding.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" I heard Enzo's voice behind me.
The next second, doors burst open and multiple footsteps resounded all around me. Again, wiping the blood off my face, I glanced at the men that had entered.
It was Nikolai, Marco, and the rest of their men. Nikolai's eyes zeroed in on my face, then they went to the gun in my hand before they finally settled on Scott, who was unconscious and bleeding from the bullet hole in his leg.
"Let him go!" Enzo sneered, glaring at them.
I frowned and followed his gaze, I was still highly disorientated but I could now make out everything that was happening all around me.
Marco was holding Dante by his hair as he kneeled bruised and battered in front of them. Marco had a sharp blade attached to his neck, ready to slit his throat on Nikolai's order.
"Let him go before I kill your bitch!" Enzo turned the barrel of his gun towards Scott as he faced Nikolai.
Each labored breath reverberated through me like sonic waves but I still got to my feet, standing tall between all the men.
"I didn't do it..." I managed to say.
An unbelievable scoff left Nikolai's mouth. "You still want me to believe that you have nothing to do with this?"
I glared at him, "If I wanted to kill you, I would have done it to your face," my gaze flicked to Enzo, "I wouldn't have attacked you behind your back like a fucking coward!"
Enzo gave me a smirk before he stepped closer to me and flicked the barrel of his gun toward Scott's unconscious body, "Boss, all you have to do is say the word and I will kill him."
I frowned, cleaning the blood that trickled over my face from my head. He had figured it out, he knew that Nikolai will blame me for the attack. He was now acting as if I were the mastermind behind the whole attack. Maybe, this was his plan all along.
A strained smile pulled over my lips, I had nothing to prove to him that I didn't do this. By the look on his face, Nikolai had made up his mind about me. He lost so many of his men tonight and he was blaming me for it.
"I love you, I love you so fucking hard, Evangeline Costello, please, don't ever leave me again."
His voice and his words resounded in my head mixing with the burning, excruciating pain and love for him that ended the second it began.
I looked between all the men and saw Dante in Marco's grip. Dante gave me a miserable look that told me that all of our men were either dead or were about to die. I was over, Nikolai had won.
"Let him go..." I said to him, my eyes welling up with tears.
Nikolai clenched his jaw. His hateful, heated gaze burned into my skin.
"Take me instead, let Dante go..."
He breathed out a slight humorless, mocking laugh. "I already have you. Look around yourself, it's over. You're done. Whatever you had planned fucking backfired on your own men." "Let him go, please..."
"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times? Shame on both of us and Evangeline, I don't fucking do well with shame. I'm not gonna let you make a fucking fool out of me once more."
I nodded, "Kill me then, shoot me, do whatever you want with me but let Dante go!"
"You think I'll give you an easy death? It will be a mercy and people like you, don't fucking deserve an ounce of mercy."
I staggered in my heels, I had lost so much blood that I could now feel the weakness creeping up in my limbs.
My eyes went to Enzo for a mere second, he was still playing a game. He was acting like he was waiting for me to say something.
I dropped to my knees, my hands slammed onto the floor along with the gun I had in my hand. The dress clung to my skin, soaked with my own blood. I blinked as tears rolled down my cheeks. "Marco..." Nikolai called.
My head shot up in their direction. Waves of deep, throbbing pain mixed with sharp, stabbing agony took over my body.
I shook my head from side to side, "No..." a whisper that fell on nobody's ears.
"Do it!" Nikolai ordered.
Two words, it was just two words, and Marco slid the blade across Dante's neck. Gushes of blood sprayed out of his neck as Marco let go of his hair and he dropped without uttering a sound.
"NOO!" Enzo's voice reverberated through the walls of this hall. Like a raging bull, he turned toward me. "You did this, IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT, YOU FUCKING BITCH!"
Then a gunshot rang out.
I had no idea who had fired it until the metal bullet connected with my skin. My shoulder jerked back as it was struck by the bullet. I looked to my side at where the bullet had carved a hole into my shoulder. Then I felt it again, this time in my stomach.
The lump of metal penetrated my stomach, my weak body flew back, It felt as if I was thrown back good five feet.
Waves of pain echoed and surged throughout my body. I could hear nothing but my heartbeat in my ears. It was dwindling, faint.
The last image I saw was Scott getting up, and throwing Enzo to the floor. He snapped his neck before he crawled over to me. "Evangeline..." his voice was so distant.
I felt the life being sucked out of me and my eyes were beginning to close...
The last thing I saw was Scott's shocked expression, it imprinted upon my mind without the oxygen to sustain it.