•|Their Joy|•

37.

Sergio's soulless body sank to the ground with a thud. His eyes were wide open with terror pouring out of them along with tears. His mouth spilled blood, and so does the multiple places on his body. Blood pooled around his body as the shooters took in a deep breath.

Leonardo steps out of the large green monster bushes. He kept staring at Sergio's body with keen abhorrence.

Matteo, Rocco, Marco, and Alexander sped toward the pale and limp bodies of their siblings. "Shit," Matteo swore. "Leonardo, we have to leave immediately. They both have been shot." He shouted.

Leonardo snapped his head in their direction as Matteo, Rocco and Alexander carried Antonio's body. His eyes caught Marco carrying the bloodied and almost lifeless body of Allegra. Blood dripped down from her back to the ground.

Everyone scurried inside the black SUV and managed to somehow bandage Antonio who gained consciousness but slightly. "Alle-g-ra-"

"Don't talk. We are almost at the hospital." Leonardo orders. Fortunately, Sergio's building was near a hospital which the boys noticed while arriving there.

Once inside the hospital, Antonio and Allegra were hurried inside the operating theater. As an old doctor was about to enter the room, Marco grabbed him by his collar and threatened him. "I want both of them fit and fine. Or the next person in that room would be you, just without any doctor. Battling your fucking life."

Sweat ran down the doctor's forehead as he nodded hastily. Quickly shuffling inside the room, he started his work.

"Fuck!" Alessandro roared and slammed his fist into the metal gate of the storeroom. The metal dented under the pressure as the skin around his knuckles cracked.

"We were so fucking late. So fucking late." Matteo muttered under his breath as he swiped his hands through his hair. "If we had arrived earlier, this wouldn't have happened."

Leonardo stood rigged beside them, not spewing out any word. Marco and Rocco kept pacing outside the room.

"We need A- and O- blood. If any of you have the same blood group please follow me in the blood donation center." One of the nurses came out of the OT and explained hesitantly. Leonardo and Alexander left with the nurse after nodding at the rest.

Half an hour later, the door of the OT opened, and a stretcher with an unconscious Antonio rolled out. "He is out of danger. We are shifting him to ICU to keep an eye on him for a few hours, though the bullet just grazed his arm, there has been a lot of blood loss."

As the other nurses wheeled Antonio to the ICU, Leonardo stopped one of them. "What about Allegra?"

The nurse stepped back hesitantly, almost fearfully. His dark, angry eyes and furious expression scared her further. "S-she is still in the O-OT-"

"We fucking know that. How is she?" Alessandro's furious gaze and loud voice made the nurse flinch.

"Alessandro." Leonardo warned. "She is still in there, Mr Valentino. I can't say much about her situation." Said the nurse after gathering some courage.

Leonardo nodded, and the nurse ran away. Every milli-second was like an hour for the boys who waited and paced outside the OT.

Images of the dreading event swirled through their minds.

Just as Leonardo and the boys stepped out of the SUV, they heard a gun going off. Their panicked gazes met with Leonardo, who quickly ran towards the large bushes.

Leonardo pushed the bushes away from his sight and saw Sergio pointing his gun at Allegra. They were close enough to see the smoke coming out of the gun. Allegra's groan was barely heard over the psychotic chuckles of Sergio.