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“I’m taking what’s mine,” my little brother hisses.
My hand falls around a flash grenade just as the realization of what’s happening hits me. It’s like the shockwave from an atomic bomb
.
No...
How could I have been so blind?
“You’ve been behind all of this!?” I shout, hardly even able to believe it. “You betrayed me!?”
“I’m just following in your footsteps,” Dante teases. I turn the corner to confront him but I’m immediately met with another round of bullets.
I jump back behind my corner, but Dante’s not far now. He’ll be at my heels in a second. I clench the flash grenade in my hand, my heart breaking.
“You betrayed me...” I whisper, more to myself than to him.
The words ring hollow. Even with all of our past troubles, I can’t believe it. “Why!?” I ask it loud enough for him to hear.
“I’ve already told you!” he shouts. “You never listen!”
He volleys another round of ammo at me and my protected corner begins to erode under the approaching fire. My heartache keeps me from fighting back... but when the thought of Catalina being somewhere in this building flashes back into my mind, I’m shocked back to reality.
“Where’s Cat!?” I demand, hovering my thumb over the safety pin on the flash grenade.
“You’re never getting her back. She’s mine,” Dante yells. An explosion rattles the ground and I hear my little brother grunt as he’s thrown against the wall.
I take the opportunity to step out from behind my cover and confront him. “What the hell do you want with her!?”
Dante’s gun has fallen from his hand; it lays a few feet away from his feet as he gingerly lifts himself back up.
“I saw her first...” he mumbles, straggling over to his gun.
The memory of him saying that exact same thing when I rescued Cat from him on her first night here flashes across my mind.
“What does that mean?” I ask, trying to throw out an olive branch. There’s no way I’m losing Cat... but I don’t want to lose my brother, either, not even if he betrayed me.
“It means she’s mine,” Dante shouts as he lunges for his gun. I wait until he grabs it, hoping against hope that he might change his mind—but when he turns on his back and aims directly at me, I know he’s lost. There’s nothing I can do right now for him. I need to find Cat and get her out of this battle. Dante can wait... but I’m not killing my brother.
I rip off the safety pin on the flash grenade in my pocket and toss it towards him. It explodes in the air between us and a volley of bullets rip through the chaos. They nip at my heels as I make a run for it.
Another blast explodes in the distance, but I don’t pay it any mind. My focus is entirely on finding Cat; I can’t think of anything else.
33
Catalina
“No! Let go of me!”
The cold uncaring hands don’t budge from around my wrist as I’m dragged through the hellish skeleton of the once great mansion palace.
It hasn’t been that long since I heard the first sounds of gunfire, or saw the light from the first explosion, but the main floor of the mansion already looks like a war has passed through.
... No, not passed through. Still raging.
A ground-shaking explosion erupts out on the front lawn and I’m nearly thrown off my feet. The guard who’s dragging me through the rumble doesn’t stumble, though. He’s laser focused on getting me to some unknown point.
“Where are we going!?” I demand, for the thousandth time.