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Chapter Twenty One- A Time for Dying
Kendall was standing in the nursery, looking down at baby John, when she heard a short knock on the door.
She looked over and saw a tall, blonde haired man sticking his head in. A teary smile came to her face. "Leo."
He was a good friend of Bianca's and had grown close to Ryan years before when Ryan's first wife died. Her heart was donated to Laura, who was Leo's wife at the time. The two men bonded over shared pain and shared faith in miracles, fate, destiny and karma.
Sometimes one life had to be given to save another, one dream lost to gain the chance for someone else to dream at all. It wasn't fair; it was life.
Leo's light eyes met Kendall's darker ones, and pain flashed into both.
( Tears are in your eyes
Come on
and come to me now.
Don't
be ashamed to cry.
Let me see you through
Cause I've seen the dark side too )
"I don't want to intrude," Leo said. Even as he said this, he was opening his arms and she was rushing across the room into them.
She cried, into his broad, strong chest "Ryan's...gone. It doesn't feel real...how can he be gone? I can still feel him..."
Leo smoothed his hand over her hair and murmured, "He loved you too much to ever truly leave you. You'll always feel him."
(I'll stand by you
I'll stand by you
won't let nobody hurt you
I'll stand by you
Take me in,
into your darkest hour
and I'll never desert you
I'll stand by you ) ( The Pretenders)
XXXXXXXXXXXXX
Sofia Germaine Alcazar started to sob, as she stood on the deck of The Omerta, the yatch owned by her husband's family. Lorenzo was lost into a grief fueled madness, a darkness she couldn't pull him back from.
"Go," Jason told her. He nodded at the ladder that Sofia was standing near, holding her baby in her arms as tears streamed from her face onto the child.
She felt Jason was the calmest of the men who stood pointing guns her way. Ryan, the one Lorenzo held prisoner, was shaking and inching ever closer to Lorenzo. He might start firing at any moment.
The other man was frozen in place but his eyes were hard, filled with a coldness that offered no room for reprieve. He was planning to put a bullet into Lorenzo, she could tell, before this day was done.
Sofia knew there was only seventy- two seconds left before it would be too late for talking, negotiating, begging, or bargaining. When those seconds ticked by all that would be left was a time for dying.
Lorenzo glanced at the briefcase again and then everything started to happen quickly.
Jason jogged toward Sofia, yelling, "Go. Now."
Johnny took deliberately slow steps toward Lorenzo, wanting to move past Ryan before he started shooting.
Ryan sucked in one large painful breath and said to Lorenzo, "You aren't even sorry. You're a monster without an ounce of honor, just like your brother. You aren't fit to be alive when a good man like Max Giambetti is dead. Why don't you say his name like your men made Kendall say Luis."
Lorenzo shook his head, no.
Ryan cursed at him and yelled, "Say it!"
Lorenzo pulled the trigger on his gun, aiming at Johnny, then he dived toward the deck.
"NO!" Sofia screamed, her eyes pinned on him. Jason grabbed her and forced her to look at him.
"Save your baby," Jason said. She finally focused and started to make her way down the ladder, holding her baby tightly in one arm and she gripped with ladder with her other one.
Jason spun around and saw bullets flying back and forth between Lorenzo, who was pinned behind a trunk that held life jackets, and Ryan and Johnny who kept moving closer to him as they unloaded their weapons. Jason threw himself to the ground and crawled over to the briefcase, confirming what he suspected. A bomb stared back at him.
49 seconds remained on it.
Another guard of Lorenzo's came running onto the deck, his gun was pointed straight at Ryan. Just before he could fire, Jason put a bullet into his chest.
30 seconds remained on the bomb and bullets were still flying all around him.
XXXXXXX
Lorenzo felt his heart rate slow down, by sheer force of will he calmed himself. Time started to move slowly. He spied from the corner of his eye Sofia disappear over the side of the yatch, taking his baby daughter with her. They would survive this day and be his legacy.
He had accepted his fate the moment he learned Luis was dead. He would die while avenging his fallen brother. But, first, he would make these thieves who stole him away paid- with fear and heartache and rivers of blood. And he would make sure they left all their loved ones behind weeping tears that never ended. Lorenzo wanted them to feel what he did when he put his brother into the ground.
The bullets kept getting closer to him but zinging past and hitting the boat. Lorenzo stuck his arm out and fired a few more shots but he was shooting blind. He knew he had to stand up, if he hoped to hit them.
He said a silent prayer Lord, forgive me these sins as I forgive those who sin against me.....and then he was on his feet again, his gun swinging to aim straight for the chest of the person closet to him. Morgan's right hand man, as close as a brother. The perfect one to kill first.
XXXXXXXXX
Before Lorenzo could pull the trigger, Johnny fired a bullet into his shoulder. Lorenzo fell back against the rail.
"Bomb!" Jason yelled
Johnny's eyes jerked over to him for a fraction of a second. Lorenzo started firing again but just as he did he was shot several times in the stomach by Ryan, then Johnny's eyes swung back and he was shooting Lorenzo too. The mob rival fell into the ocean.
Ryan collapsed onto the deck, exhausted and bleeding from where his stitches had reopened.
Johnny moved immediately to Ryan and hauled him back to his feet.
Jason tried to lift up the briefcase and throw it into the water but it was bolted to the deck. The timer read 13 seconds.
Getting back on his feet, Jason ordered "We got to jump."
He helped Johnny get Ryan to the edge of the ship. Then all three plunged over the side just as the bomb went off, lighting up the sky and heating up the air behind them.
Johnny was the first to surface. He looked around but didn't see anyone else. In his mind images of Brenda and then Carly flashed.
Johnny thought about the promises he made to come home to them alive, to bring Jason back the same way...he thought about how much Carly loved Kendall and how losing Ryan would be a loss they would all carry and make their own, if he gave his life as a sacrifice in a war he hadn't ever agreed to fight, if Ryan died for this family all of them would mourn him till their own last breaths...Johnny only spared a half a second on thinking all this and then he dived back under the water.
He wasn't leaving his family behind in this ocean today.
(You're feeling all alone
You won't be on your own
I'll stand by you...
I'll stand by you
I'll stand by you )
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Brenda drove down the highway. Carly was in the passenger seat, finally calmed down.
"So you're serious about Johnny then?" Carly asked.
"I'm in love with him."
"Crap."
Brenda smiled.
Carly asked, "And what about the next time Sonny comes knocking on your door? He may be busy burning up the sheets with his lawyer right now but he could always get nostalgic for all he thinks he lost with you. Will you throw my Johnny away when that happens?"
"Your Johnny?" Brenda rolled her eyes. "Your Johnny. Your Jason. Is it Your Sonny, too?"
"You can have him."
"Oh, how generous of you. Listen, whatever there was between me and Sonny was over before I ever got in that car accident. I might have promised the rest of my life to Jax back then, but I see now a lot of my heart was already with Johnny. And when he comes back home..." Brenda shot her a look, raising both eyebrows "I'm asking him to marry me."
Carly's mouth dropped.
"Don't even try," Brenda warned "to screw it up either because I won't let you. You are not the only one in the world who knows how to fight dirty for what they want. There is a bed in a mental hospital somewhere with your name on it if you ever even attempt to turn Johnny against me."
"You know what? That's not funny."
"Swear you won't try it then."
Carly gritted her teeth. "I won't. I wouldn't do that...to him. To you...sure. But not him. He's really been good to me...he doesn't think I'm all those names people around town call me...he never told me to just give up on Jason or my dreams for our family. He moved me out of Sonny's and he was even there to hold Michael in the middle of the night, when Jason was out of town and I didn't know if he would ever come home. I want the best for Johnny... he deserves it."
What went unspoken, but Carly knew, was that you didn't always get the happy ever after you deserved. Especially not in their world.
Suddenly the SUV was jolted when another vehicle ran into the back of them.
"What was that?" asked Brenda
Carly whipped her head around and looked out the back window.
BUMP. The vehicle rammed them again. The SUV wheels started to slide off the road. Brenda fought to keep it from flying into a nearby field.
Brenda grumbled, "Damn it, how did I know some of Alcazar goons would find us before we ever got to Pennsylvania? Another Carly plan shot all to hell."
A terrified look came over Carly's face as her hand moved to her stomach. Brenda saw this and immediately said, "Don't even think it. No one is dying here today. That's Jason's baby and we aren't letting anything happen to her. Right?"
Carly nodded.
(Won't let nobody hurt you
I'll stand by you
I'll stand by you
Take me in,
into your darkest
hour
and I'll never desert you
I'll stand by you )
BUMP. The sound of metal scrapping metal punctuated the air.