Page 37 of Saved By A God
Shutting my eyes, I take the seconds I have left to tell him how I’ve always felt. “I love you, Enzo. So much.” My tongue swipes over the dust covering my lips. “With all my heart, and with every breath. It’s been you from the beginning, and it’s you at the end.”
“Christ,bella mia,” he shouts. “Don’t do it. I’m almost there.”
“I love you.” Opening my eyes, I watch as they form a circle around me, one of the men holding his hand up, signaling for me not to do anything drastic. Their eyes are dark and emotionless. “I love you, Enzo,” I gasp as my breaths speed up incredibly fast. “I love you.”
“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!” I hear Enzo hitting something repeatedly before letting out a heartbreaking shout. I can hear he means it when he says, “Just hold on for me so I can tell you face-to-face how I feel. Please.” My sight blurs with tears, and my chin quivers. Closing my eyes again, I just listen to Enzo’s harsh breaths. “Rosie!”
“I love you,” I whisper.
One of the men grabs hold of my arm, and out of time, I do the only thing I can to protect everyone I love.
Enzo
“Rosie!” I yank the steering wheel to the right and cut over a sidewalk to get past traffic.
Just as I finally lay eyes on the fortress in the distance, deafening blasts tear through the air.
Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom.
My heart stops dead in my chest.
When the shockwave hits me seconds later, rattling the car hard enough to make the steering wheel jump beneath my hands, a massive cloud of dust erupts into the sky, climbing higher and higher as the ground quakes hard.
“No!” My voice is raw with devastation and unspeakable pain.
I lose sight of the fortress for a moment as I take a turn at high speed. As soon as it comes into view again, I see the building collapsing into itself, floor after floor dropping toward the center.
“Rosie!” The shout is filled with a desolate horror ripping through me.
Steel twists. Concrete buckles. Entire sections disappear beneath rolling clouds of dust as the structure folds inward.
“Fuck.”
I crush the accelerator harder, the distance between us suddenly feeling impossible.
The fortress continues sinking into itself until nothing remains except a mountain of rubble surrounded by thick gray dust.
My grip on the steering wheel tightens until pain shoots through my hands.
When I notice the line is still connected, I say, “Rosie, answer me.”
The only sounds I hear are emergency alarms wailing in the distance and the strain the Mustang is taking.
The closer I get, the worse the scene becomes. Dust hangs thick in the air, and pieces of debris litter the area around the demolished building, with flames burning hot through piles of broken concrete.
“Please say something.” I force the words through a tight throat and clenched jaw. “Rosie.”
My pulse hammers violently against my ribs, like my heart is trying to break free from my chest.
The next second, the call disconnects, but then Rosie’s voice comes over my speakers. “Well, shit. That just happened.” She chuckles. “If you’re getting this message, I had no choice but to blow up the fortress, and chances are good I went with it.” I hear her let out a sigh. “Anyway. I made a little farewell video that will be sent to you, Dad. Play it at my funeral. Someone go to my parents, and please don’t leave Enzo and Gianna alone for the next few days. Watch over them for me. I love you all.”
When I can’t drive any closer, I bring the Mustang to a screeching halt. There are abandoned vehicles everywhere, some overturned, others just hunks of twisted metal with thick layers of dust covering them.
Between all the gray, movement catches my eye, and a man struggles to his feet. Seeing he’s wearing a balaclava, I shove my door open and lunge out, running toward the fucker. He shakes his head and staggers to the side before I grab hold of his shirt and rip the balaclava off his head.
“Talk,” I growl. “Who do you work for?”
Only slurred words leave his mouth, then the horrifying reality that he was probably outside when the building came down sinks like lead into my bones.
