[1] A War of Blood and Hearts | ✔️

CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN

CRYSTAL

"No!" Crystal watches from her spot as Alonso runs to his mother who stumbles a few steps back. Before she can collide with the floor, her son holds her body and falls down on his knees with Camilla still in his arms.
"Camilla" Lorenzo kneels down next to his wife and son. Milo steps away from an unconscious Zaire and gets closer to them, but not close enough to invade their privacy. Alberto and Ignazio look at each other with panic and fear in their eyes. Lucas stands next to Nicholas while both of them stare at the blood that spreads across Camilla's baby blue shirt and on the soil underneath her. Leora stands above her family on the ground with tears in her eyes. It is lucid that she wants to kneel down next to her family, but something holds her back. As for Mila, She runs to Brent as he coughs out blood and takes his last few breaths. She completely ignores the fact that her lover shot Camilla.
Crystal feels a weird emotion run through her mind. While she does not care about the older woman, she does not wish for her to die.
"Where is Freya? She can help!" Alonso looks around frantically.
"She is at the roof." Nicholas answers.
"I will go get her." Lucas runs into the house without waiting for a response.
"Lorenzo" Camilla whispers as she reaches out to her husband.
"I am here darling, I am right here." Lorenzo holds her hand tightly with his as he wipes the tears on her face with the other. Crystal watches Alonso as he starts crying. The sight almost causes her to shiver. In all the months she has known the Italian man, he has allowed her to see his soft side a few times. However, even with Alonso being an emotional man, she has never seen him be this venerable.
"I am scared."
"You do not have to be scared because you will be just fine." Even from a distance, Crystal can see the uncertainty in Alonso's eyes. She wants to feel pity for him, but she does not know how he feels. After all, her birth mother died when she was a toddler, and she never cared about Angelica. Therefore, she does not really know how it feels to lose a mother even though Allegra is dead.
"Where is she?" Freya emerges from the house with Lucas following right behind her with a bag, Freya's medical bag Crystal guesses.
"You will have to step away so I can examine the wound properly." Freya kneels on the floor next Alonso. To Crystal's surprise, the two men immediately obey the doctor by letting Camilla go, but neither of them moves away.
Freya opens her bag which Lucas placed on the ground beside her and takes out some scissors.
"We need to get her to a hospital, now! I cannot pull the bullet out. It is way too close to her lungs, without the right equipment, I could kill her. " Freya declares once she cuts Camilla's shirt and cleans the blood as best she can.
Within a few seconds, Ignazio and Nicholas run towards the garage.
"I do not know if you noticed, but we are the mafia, we cannot go to any kind of hospital." Alberto hisses at her even though it is lucid that he barely hears what she says.
"Well then, I know someone who can help. She is not a doctor, but she has the equipment I need to treat a wound like this one."
From the corner of her eye, Crystal sees Mila start to get up and move away from a now dead Brent. Hence, Crystal's instincts kick in. She jogs towards Mila, pulls her by her hair, and points the gun at her temple.
"Do not tell me you were planning to run." Crystal whispers in Mila's ear. The Brazilian woman hears stuttering, but before the traitor has the chance to let any words out, two cars approach and stop right before them.
Everyone watches as Nicholas and Ignazio get out of the cars. Due to Alonso's state, everyone looks at Nicholas awaiting his instructions.
"Alright, Freya will go with Camilla Lorenzo and Alonso to a place where Camilla's wound can be properly treated." Immediately, The Italian mafia boss carries his mother in his arms while Freya presses on the older woman's wound with Lorenzo's jacket. The four of them head to the car Ignazio brought. As they settle in the vehicle, Nicholas turns to Ilya who Crystal completely forgot is there.
"I want you to go with them. Both Alonso and Lorenzo have their guards down, and Freya will be occupied with Camilla." Ilya only nods before he follows them and gets into the driver's seat.
Through the car's window, Crystal watches Alonso, who sits in the passenger's seat, as he watches his mother with teary eyes. For a split second, their eyes meet and Alonso mouths I love you to her before Ilya drives off.
Silence fills the air for a few moments, before Nicholas turns to her. Despite the coldness in his eyes and the tense posture he has, Crystal still sees a glimpse of his worry and uneasiness.
"I want you to stay with this bitch and try to get her to tell you everything she knows."
"I will stay with her." Alberto's voice is almost undistinguishable. Nonetheless, the Brazilian woman nods. Mila tries to break free from Crystal's hold when her husband's face turns utterly blank. Crystal hits her on the back of her head with the gun. Consequently, Mila goes limp in her arms.
Crystal contemplates letting her collapse to the floor, but she does not out of respect for Alberto's feelings.
"I am staying as well, both the American and the Russian mafia know about this place. Thus, it is likely that they will come here when they do not hear from their bosses." Ignazio glares at his dead brother's body.
"Alright, my father and I will take Zaire to a safe place. He is incredibly weak and he has a target on his back."
"I will put him in the back seat." Milo walks towards his youngest son on the ground.
"We will take Leora with us." Nicholas says as he watches Milo laying Zaire in the car.
"No!" Leora immediately yells as she runs to Ignazio and clutches his arms.
"I want to stay with Nazi." The tears in her eyes fall down her cheeks. Crystal watches the Italian man as he attempts to stop himself from pushing Leora away. She guesses that he tries to be sympathetic considering her mother is literally fighting for her life. He looks over at her, but she cannot figure out what to say, so he turns to her brother.
Nicholas immediately walks over to her and gives her the softest look Crystal has ever seen him give to anyone.
"Leora, staying here is not safe. At any minute the place can get ambushed and you do not know how to fight. If Ignazio is busy keeping you safe, his attention will be divided and there is a good chance he could get hurt. Now, I know for a fact that you do not want to be the reason behind him getting hurt, now do you?"
"No," Leora whispers as she shakes her head in horror. Crystal smiles at her brother's manipulating abilities. With a few sentences, he is able to get into Leora's head.
"Alright hen, so in order to keep him safe, you have to keep yourself safe, and the only way to do that is if you come with me."
"But why cannot he come with us? Crystal has Alberto with her." Nicholas looks her in the eyes for a while before he sighs.
"Fine. He and Lucas can take a car and follow us. How does that sound?" Leora only nods.
"Good, now get in the car." Once she gets into the passenger's seat, Nicholas faces Ignazio.
"Do not follow us. I cannot have Crystal and Alberto here alone with her." The Brazilian mafia boss glares at an unconscious Mila. Ignazio nods.
"What about me?" Lucas asks.
"I want you to call our men in the woods and clean up this mess. Erase all evidence of what happened to Ivan, Darya, and Brent. We cannot have their mafias coming after us. At least not now." With one last look, Nicholas walks away and gets in the car.
"Crystal." Milo pulls the window in the back down and calls out to his daughter. Crystal immediately hands Mila to Ignazio, walks over to Milo, and puts her hands in his.
"I hate the idea of leaving you here, but I know that you can handle yourself. Just promise me to be careful."
"I promise." She gives him a reassuring smile as she feels her heart break at departing from her family. She has to restrain herself from pulling Leora out of the car and sit in her place, but she knows that the right thing to do is to stay here.
She forces herself to find comfort in the fact that they will be heading away from the danger, that they will be safe. That thought helps her calm her nervous, barely. She pulls her head into the car and kisses her father on the cheek and runs her fingers through her little brother's hair for a few seconds before she backs away and goes to Nicholas' window.
Her older brother's window is already down, and she can see the fear of not seeing her again in his eyes. Regardless, he does not voice out the trepidation Crystal knows he has.
"I love you." He settles with the three little words.
"I love you big brother." She gives him a broken smile before she completely pulls away from the car and he drives away.
"I will put her in the basement while you and Alberto bring some weapons from the weapons' room." Crystal nods while Alberto watches Ignazio take his wife away.
"Are you okay man?" Lucas puts his hand on Alberto's shoulder causing his mind to return to reality.
"I... I do not know." Alberto's tone is broken and his eyes are clouded with a broken emotion that Crystal cannot decipher.
"I will go and do a quick search throughout the house to make sure that no hostiles are hiding waiting for an opportunity to strike at us."
"Alright, take this." Crystal gives him the gun in her hand since he seems to have lost his, probably dropped it due to the shock of Mila's betrayal. He takes it and starts to walk towards the house.
"This is crazy." Lucas murmurs once it is just him and Crystal. The Brazilian woman looks around her at all the dead bodies and realizes that she agrees with the man standing beside her.
"That is an understatement."
"You do realize that every second we are in this place, the stake of us getting killed gets higher, right?"
"What were we supposed to do? With Camilla's injury we are out of options. Besides, Nicholas was right, you need to get rid of the bodies. If something bad happens, we can always escape and leave Mila behind."
"You are not scared?"
"I am scared of a lot of things that I feel almost numb. I know it is weird, but I honestly think that it is a good think, that way I cannot be distracted by my emotions."
"Okay listen." Lucas turns to face her and places his hands on either side of her face.
"The men and I will dispose of the bodies while you interrogate Mila. However, once the sun is down, I want you, Ignazio and Alberto to meet me in the garage. We have to leave this place as soon as possible."
"Okay." And they part ways.