The Deep End

Chapter 37

•Polina•

I can hear Enzo's men shouting and the sound of two more shots firing but it's miles away. I'm on my knees, frozen at one end of a tunnel and they're at the other, killing the cartel member they'd somehow missed.

"Why would you step in front of me?" The question leaves my mouth as a whisper.

Every moment from the last few months flashes through my head like clips to a movie that was never completed. Warm hazel eyes meeting my gaze for the first time, the soothing sound of his voice, the sweet smile that spread across his lips when he was happy. The way he held me when I fell asleep in his arms, the first time our lips met. He's a part of me I never knew I was missing.

And he took a bullet for me. He put his life on the line for mine, risked himself for me.

Me.

First Enzo facing off Giovanni and now Luca taking the shot for me. No one has ever put me above themselves like that. I've always been the barrier, the one in the line of fire, for as long as I can remember.

I'm stunned. I can't process it, can't even think properly. I can't look up and make sure he's okay, can't see where the bullet hit him.

I know I'm crying, my visions blurry and I can taste the salty tears on my lips but I don't feel them. My thighs tremble, barely able to hold my weight much longer as my knees press into the gritty pavement. I landed hard, they'll be bruised later but they're numb right now, my whole body is numb.

The sound of Luca taking a sharp inhale beside me has me blinking away tears to clear my vision, his tactical pant clad legs coming into view. He grips my forearm, his chest heaving as he pulls me up from the ground. His hand finds mine, forcing me to release my hold on my vest that I didn't realize I had been holding in the first place,  and he brings it to the top of his vest. I gasp as my fingertip meets the hot metal embedded into the fabric.

The bullet.

Relief slams into me and I throw myself against him as he tries to catch his breath. Arms wrap around my body and my nose finds its way against his neck, breathing him in as my fingers dig into the fabric of his vest. I should've known it was bulletproof. They may be fearless but they aren't stupid. Hearing the bullet hit him felt like the world tilted on its axis and suddenly nothing made sense, I couldn't process any logical thoughts, only devastation and regret.

"I'm okay, the hit just took my breath for a second." He pants, his chest still heaving against mine. I'm thankful for each rapid rise and fall I feel and I find myself lost in counting each of them.

One. Two.

Three. Four.

Five. Six.

My eyes are pinched closed, my hands skate up his shoulders and around his neck. "Why would you do that?" I question, my fingers digging into his curls as I memorize the feel of each ringlet I find. "If he had aimed slightly higher it would've missed the vest completely and—" My voice breaks on another sob that wracks my entire body so hard I lurch forward as if a demon is trying to exorcize itself from me.

"Shhhh." He murmurs, a warm palm cradling the back of my head in a comforting hold. "I'm okay."

He is but I could have easily lost him, just like that. A single bullet could've taken him from me and my last memories of him would be me rejecting him, the last emotions I would remember toward him would be anger and hurt. And I would regret it for the rest of my life.

We stand there like that for a while, with me drowning in my emotions and him talking me through them. I know to others it may seem dramatic considering the world we live in but I'm so used to having the things I love most taken from me, I cannot imagine losing him too.