Mafia Men: Nikolai's Inferno - Chapter 116: Chapter 116

-Nikolai.
"Evangeline..." Scott lightly tapped her face. "Come on, sweet cheeks, you're stronger than that," his voice was desperate, pleading.
My feet were glued to the ground, my mind had stopped working. My body was in complete paralysis, and my brain stuttered.
I was struggling to breathe. I just fucking saw the woman I love getting shot... twice and I did nothing to stop it. My mind had completely shut down when the first bullet left the barrel and connected her skin.
I lost her.
I lost her.
I lost her.
I lost my wife.
I didn't want her to die, no, I don't want her to die. I have no fucking idea what I will do without her.
I saw him shooting her, not once but twice and I just stood there. My hands shook as I looked down at the gun in my hand, my fingers loosened around it and it dropped to the floor with a thud. I was trembling, shaking. I have never felt this way before. I have never felt this unbearable, agonizing pain in my chest before. My lungs felt like they had filled up with water, and I felt like I was struggling to breathe - why did I not do anything to stop it?
Someone pushed me out of the way and went to her. Lorenzo, it was Lorenzo. He limped over to her and pulled her out of Scott's arms, crouching down beside her limp body.
He checked her pulse and a hopeful smile pulled over his lips, "She's alive, she is still here," his voice echoed in my head.
I blinked.
Shook my head, side to side, to get back to reality.
"Marco, fucking get her to a hospital!" Scott shouted holding his injured leg, another echo.
I just stood there and watched as they yelled out instructions to one another, taking all the wounded people to the hospital. There was a burn in my eyes that I couldn't seem to get rid of.
Marco picked her up, Scott and Lorenzo were wounded, so they couldn't. I watched as her arm dangled and blood dropped down to the floor through her delicate fingers. There was no strength in her body. My eyes followed as they ran past me, taking her out of the doors.
Everyone around me started to leave, Marco had taken her out of here. I heard the revving of the car engines before multiple cars drove away.
A stabbing pain went through my heart. A restlessness gnawed at my chest, fear ghosted over my skin, raising the hair on my body.
I stared at the puddle of blood where her body had been laying a few minutes ago. I let it happen, Scott was the one that saved her, Scott was the one who killed him; Scott went to her aid first while I stood there... Even though the betrayal was still there but I didn't fucking had it in me to hurt her in any way. I pushed her back and even that made my hand burn. 3
"Don Niko, you're bleeding," a voice resounded in my head, I frowned and looked at the man before me.
"We need to get out of here before the police arrive," another shouted in my face, their voice echoing.
"Where did they take her?" I managed to ask.
They both glanced at one another before one of them asked, "Mrs. Costello?"
I swallowed and nodded, they went on telling me the name of the hospital, it was ours, of course, it was. I don't know why I even asked that question. I finally moved my feet to get there, I walked out and got into a car as one of my men drove me to the hospital.
I stepped out of the car and made my way to the front desk. I asked the front desk about my wife and ran down the hallway. My heart thumping louder than my footsteps pounding down the hall. I felt like I was going to fucking explode. Like my heart is going to burst out of my chest. I finally saw Marco leaning against one of the walls.
I walked to him, "How is she?"
His head snapped in my direction, "Niko, I-"
"How is she?!"
He swallowed then put a hand in his pocket and pulled out my mother's diamond necklace, earring, and bracelet riddled with blood, her blood. All stained with the fresh blood of her wound. He passed them to me, carefully placing them in my open palm and I could almost feel her pain in my bones.
"The doctors took it all off," he told me.
I didn't fucking care about the fucking jewelry, I needed to know if she was alright.
"HOW IS SHE?!"
"I don't know, man... they took her to an operation theatre. I have no fucking idea."
My heart hurt so fucking bad as I walked backward until I felt the wall press against my back. I had no control over what was happening and I felt like I was dying inside. I slowly sank onto the ground, holding my head in my hands, helplessly slumping to the cold, hard floor. Every breath felt like a stabbing wound in my chest
"You let her die..."
I frowned, my muscles tensed up. I looked up to a beaten-up Lorenzo, glaring at me through swollen eyes.
"What?"
"You let her die. You let him shoot her..."
I ignorantly shook my head, "She's not dead..."
A relief... a relief that I've been repeating to myself, again and again, to help with the overwhelming guilt that crept up.
"Why didn't you do anything?" Lorenzo asked, "Weren't we supposed to protect her?"
I glared at him, he was standing against the wall opposite me, returning my glare with his own.
What did he want me to say? That for the first time in my entire fucking life, I didn't know what to do! That for the first time, I felt myself to be the weakest man to ever walk the earth?! That for the first time, I
felt helpless, powerless?! That for the first time, my limbs wouldn't move, they wouldn't fucking respond to any commands. That I wanted to be the one on the receiving end of those bullets instead of her? If I could make it happen, I fucking would have in a heartbeat.
"She kidnapped you," I stated.
He nodded, "She did..."
"She did this to you..." I said, referring to his injuries.
He shook his head. "No, she didn't. It was that asshole Enzo."
"She had nothing to do with this..." another voice added.
I got off the floor and faced Scott, he had a plaster cast on one of his legs and had a crutch tucked under his arm.
It was a fucking surprise, Scott always needed a reason to bitch about Evangeline. He was never the one to take her side.
"What?"
"It was him Enzo, he planned this alone. I heard him talking to her, he was there to kill her as well. He wanted us to believe that it was her and we did..." he sat down on one of the chairs, "He fucking played all of
us and that includes Evangeline!"
My heart sank. My mind went back to earlier tonight when it all went downhill.
"You played me?"
"No, Nikolai, I have nothing to-"
"You set me up, Evangeline..."
"I didn't..."
"You betrayed me... again" My whole life people had told me how brilliant I was, how cunning, how clever. No one can get away from me. I had managed to do the impossible in the underworld, I had portrayed my family as legit. I have played the FBI and CIA like a fiddle. I was always in control, I always knew what to do. I always planned my next move. I was calculative and sharp.
But right now, I felt so fucking stupid.
How the fuck could I not know? Evangeline can never be this manipulative or wicked. Whatever she had turned into now didn't matter because she was still my Evangeline. The Evangeline that I had known from the very first day I had met her.
Lorenzo and Scott were explaining whatever happened in the background but I couldn't hear them, only her voice resounded in my head.
She didn't deserve this...
"I love you, I love you so fucking hard, Evangeline Costello, please, don't ever leave me again."
Her smile, her eyes, everything came back to me, I watched the bloodstained necklace in my hands.
Heartbreak it was heartbreak. I have never had my heart broken, it made me irrational, ludicrous, and insane. I had never felt my heart shatter before, it drove me to uncontrollable anger and extreme
foolishness.
I didn't give her a chance, a chance to explain herself. She tried, she fucking tried.
I had been so fucking angry, so fucking furious when I learned about the Morettis attacking us. I should have been the one to kill that bastard. I should have been the one to send him to the fucking hell at least
that would have fucking made me feel better about myself. 2
I sighed and rested my head on the wall behind me, closing my eyes... knowing nothing will ever be the same between us.