Smoke (The Carelli Family Saga #1) - Eden Butler Page 0,68

my neck. I stretched an arm toward the paddle and slipped it out of the kayak.

“Maggie! Now!” When I didn’t move fast enough for him, Alejandro pulled on my neck, yanking me back.

I turned with the paddle tight in my fist. One, two jabs of the wood into his gut. Then another across his jaw and my ex fell back, the gun slipping out of his hand and behind him on the pier.

He wailed, cursing me as he rocked on his side, fingers reaching for his back pocket. I moved, adjusting Mateo to my other hip, taking a chance that I’d hurt Alejandro enough to keep him immobile.

I was four steps away from him, staring at the figure running up the pier when something caught my ankle, pulling it. I fell, turning so that I landed with Mateo screaming and shaking on my chest.

“Stupid puta!” Alejandro screamed, his cheek bloody, lip split. When he tried pulling Mateo from me, I fought him, locking my arms tight, the baby’s face against my collarbone, his terrified, sobbing screams echoing on my skin. “Give me my son! Now!” Then something cool, hard and sharp slid on my skin.

I went still as my ex-husband pushed a large switch blade at my throat.

His eyes were wide, frantic as he stared at me. Blood dripped down his chin and over my face, his cheeks shaking as he moved closer. “He is mine and I’m taking him.”

“Ne…never…”

Gritting his teeth, Alejandro moved his hand, pivoting his wrist so the tip of the blade cut me. The sharp sting tearing against my skin. I kicked out, catching him in his nuts, then landed another jab in his gut.

He screamed, rearing back, raising the knife overhead.

A livid, loud voice screamed, “Don’t do it, mother fucker.”

Alejandro jerked his gaze up, his expression shocked, disbelieving.

My ex-husband was a stubborn man.

He didn’t listen.

It cost him.

He lunged forward, and the blade came right for me, getting closer and closer. I turned away, covering the back of Mateo’s head with my hands, saying a quick prayer that might save me from this death or forgive me in the next life.

But the pain didn’t come.

A bullet did.

The first caught him in the chest. Alejandro staggered, growling like an animal too amped on adrenaline to know it’d been tracked.

The second went straight into his neck and the blood gushed from him like a geyser, spraying down his shirt and all over the pier.

Mateo still cried, but the sound had lowered into a quiet sniffle.

I sat up, kissing him, hugging him. “My love,” I told him, turning to find Dimitri standing ten feet from us. Then I scrambled up, hurrying when he went down to his knees. “Sweetie! No, please!”

“It’s…fine,” he said, not fighting me when I pulled his head into my lap.

“You…got shot. Oh… no.”

“Grazed me…the first time,” he said, waving off my hands when I yanked his shirt open. Mateo crawled away from me, sitting between us, leaning down near Smoke’s head. “He’s…a good boy. Strong… tell him I…”

“I won’t tell him anything.”

There was so much blood. His shirt was covered in it, and it was pouring down his stomach.

“You…you tell him when you get better.” I dug in his pocket, finding his phone, my fingers shaking as I tried to find someone to call.

Dimitri’s hand over mine stopped me. “Bella, they’re already coming,” he said, pulling me toward him. “Dino…followed us.”

“Dimitri …please don’t…”

“Couldn’t if I wanted to.” He quirked an eyebrow when Mateo reached for his chain, grabbing the crucifix, but I took it from him.

“It’s covered in blood,” I said, then gasped, wiping it clean on my shirt. “Look at this.”

Dimitri’s eyelids drooped when I held up the crucifix. It was bent in half, the Christ figure in the center missing and in its place was a slug from Alejandro’s gun.

Mateo leaned toward Dimitri, laying his head next to his. I felt my chest ache once again.

“Pop, pop,” the baby said, and Dimitri’s eyes went wide, a smile breaking out over his face.

“He didn’t…” He reached for Mateo, head shaking. “This one, Christ…” Twisting his head, he grabbed the crucifix. “Good luck, that’s what this kid is, Maggie…”

“And what does that make me then?”

“Baby,” he said, pulling my face toward his. “You’re…my everything.”

In the distance, there was the squeal of tires, then a bustle of slamming car doors. Dino and Ricky called Dimitri’s name and I heard their approach, tried to turn toward the sound, but Dimitri pulled my face back to him, his