Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad-Chapter 949 : Sharp Focus

*Bianca*

After Taylor fell with the gunshot to his left leg, I took the gun and two extra magazines he held out to me and took off for the woods. I didn’t even try to be stealthy. There was no time for that. The wounded behind me were being taken care of by Alessandro and his men.

Taylor was in a location where most of the fighting was already done, so he’d be as safe as possible. I had reloaded my little thirty-eight for him, so he’d have at least a modicum of firepower. I did not like leaving him, but I could not stop myself from going after Leo either.

“You’ll be alright?” I asked him.

“Yes, now get the fuck out of here, Bi, and go get your man!” he gasped, pushing at my shoulder.

I kissed his forehead. Regardless of all he’d done to mess things up with me and Leo, I still loved him like a brother. Even though I had not meant it before, I really would forgive him for his messiness of late.

When it mattered most, he had done all he could to help me get Leo back. While he lay in wait for help and could possibly die of hypothermia, he had given me his weapon and urged me to go get Leo.

“Thank you, old friend,” I whispered, while my feet pounded into the snow, carrying me ever closer to Leo.

The gunfire from both sides along with the new snowfall muffled the sound of my footfalls. I ran full out until I neared the flank of the men that were following behind Leo.

I knew where Leo was taking us, and I decided to stop following behind them just in case the men caught on to the fact that I was there.

I split off from the group of them, listening to the gunfire and constantly praying that the man I loved did not get shot. I did not care about the men who had come to destroy us. All I cared about was getting to him before Michael did.

As I ran, I thought about how Michael seemed to think it took a platoon of men to kill only one. It seemed to me that he thought Leo was far more dangerous than he was. Or, maybe Michael just preferred to play dirty.

For someone like Michael, it was not about power. It was about winning. If he could kill Leo, he would have won in his mind even if it took most of his men dying to accomplish this single goal.

To me, it was a senseless waste of lives. The men who literally gave their lives so Michael could feel like he won was an atrocity. They followed him and maybe even respected him, but he was no leader in my eyes.

No one who cared about the people under their care would ever mount an attack on this grand a scale without reason. For Michael, it was a show of power. To me, it was a show of cowardice. Only a coward would bring so many men to what was supposed to be a man-on-man fight.

Finally, I neared the clearing where I figured Leo was leading the men to. When I ran headlong into the clearing, I stared in horror at Michael sighting down the barrel of his semi-automatic at an unarmed Leo. I saw the pale lines of Leo’s face. He looked ready to face to his fate.

Everything had to have happened in a minute. But it was as if time slowed to a crawl. I witnessed the entire scene frame by frame. Leo stood, staring at Michael, waiting for him to pull the trigger.

Michael’s finger pulled the trigger as slowly as possible. Sparks flew out of the mussel of the gun. The bullet that soared out of the gun and made its fiery way to Leo.

Right as I was sure the bullet was going to hit Leo directly in his chest, Leo leaped out of the bullet’s direct trajectory. I was sure Leo got hit in the shoulder instead of the heart. But the impact of the bullet plowing into him and his ungainly leap sent Leo flying backward into the ice-covered lake.

With the crash and crackle of the lake’s breaking ice, time began to speed up again. It was as if reality took on a plethora of hues, sounds, and everything was in sharp focus. It was as if all of a sudden the universe took on sound and shape again.

The shadows were uncovered by the hovering full moon. The entire clearing seemed to be under a spotlight. I had Michael in my sights.

I wanted to cut his heart out and feed it to the dogs. I wanted to shoot his balls off his body. While I was a damn good shot, I did not have time to concentrate that hard on a target and pull the trigger that kind of precision called for.

All I could think of was that Leo was bleeding and in icy cold water. I did not even know if he would be capable of swimming in that cold of water. Hyperthermia was only moments away for him if I did not get him out of that water fast.

I hate to admit it, but I panicked, and with sheer instinct guiding my actions, I shot Michael in the right side of his chest. Like Leo, he attempted to jump out of the path of my bullet. I was glad to see him fall and blood staining the ground.

That’s all I had time to see before I ran to the lake as Leo surfaced.

“Deo, Mio,” I muttered, as I got closer to Leo.

The lake was dyed a deep ruby from his furiously bleeding wound. He was shivering with cold, skin and lips blue, and he did not seem to be capable of helping me wrestle him out of the lake. I pulled him as far away from the lake as I possibly could.

Leo was a muscular and in shape man at the best of times. He had always been a little heavy to me, but with the weight of the water dragging him back, it was almost impossible to get him very far. At this point I was happy to just have him out of the water.

That did not mean he was out of danger. Despite me wrapping the wound, he was still bleeding heavily, and I could not seem to get him warm. I was terrified for him. I tried to pull him into my arms to warm him as best I could.

“Na na no,” he stuttered, shivering so hard he could barely speak. He kept trying to push me away, but his attempts were weak and ineffective.

“Leo, I need to get you warm,” I protested.

“I da don’t want you to di... die with mmm me.”

Leo continued to stubbornly attempt to push me away

“Shh, now, let me take care of you as best I can until I can find help for us,” I whispered against his cold lips.

I listened to his labored and shuttering breathing and shouted out into the darkness for help. Even the moon had deserted us, hiding behind an errant cloud. We huddled there in the cold, getting colder as Leo’s clothes went from wet to icy.

“Help! Is anyone out there?” I shouted as loud as I could. I hoped one of Al’s men were out there and would hear me and come to help us. But nothing worked. The dark felt like it was closing in on us. there was no more ethereal white glow from the full moon.

I could not help it, but I dissolved into tears. They fell onto Leo’s cold face, as I had a meltdown right there in the middle of that clearing in the freezing cold and where the two of us could easily die from the elements.

Screw it, I would not continue to be a coward. I had let my fears send me fleeing all the way back to Italy. I would not let pride and fear rob me from loving him now when we were both so close to dying.

“Leo, all of my fears were so stupid. I want to be with you, and get married, and have our baby. But you have to be there for all of it. I need you to be there. Do you hear me, Leo?” I cried.

“I’m ssss so sorry, sss sweetheart,” he whispered with a gasp and shiver.

I kissed his lips, but he was too cold.

“Leo?” I asked, kissing his cheeks and closed eyelids. “Leo!” I shouted, but I still did not get a response.

He had fallen into unconsciousness. I racked my brain for the symptoms of hyperthermia and what not to do when I was in a situation where I did not have any heat and trapped in a relentless cold climate.

I remember hearing that a person should stay awake as long as they could. Falling asleep could lead to unconsciousness and eventually death. Death would not get Leo. I was going to get us out of this someway. But how?

I looked around us. Everything was covered in snow. There was no wood appropriate for kindling. Everything was covered and nothing would be dry enough to ignite enough of a spark to light a fire. I felt helpless.

I kept yelling for help, holding onto Leo’s body, thinking that it was getting colder, and it was starting to snow again. Tears trickled down my cheeks. I was about to lay down beside Leo and just give into despair.

“I’m sorry, baby,” I said, cradling my tummy.

Before I completely shut down and resolved myself to death with Leo in the snow of the clearing, I heard voices.

“Help” I screamed in the direction I heard the voices coming from. “Please help us!” I called again.

“Where are you?” I heard a deep masculine voice call out to me.

“It’s Bi, I bet she’s with Leo,” I heard Mia’s voice calling out to the person who was running full tilt toward Leo and I.

When I saw Alessandro, Mia, the paramedics, and that stupid horse and sled Leo had shown up on freezing, looking like something out of a child’s Christmas cartoon, I nearly started weeping with joy.

I was so happy to see them. I held tight to Leo until the paramedics reached us and started working on him. I answered as many questions as I could for them while they did rapid work to cover Leo and get him warm. I think one of them did a field IV and they loaded Leo onto the back of the horse drawn sled.

Because of the sled, we were able to get Leo to the hospital in time. Leo was still unconscious and seemed to be a deathly shade of blue as he was taken straight into emergency surgery.