Save Me

Chapter 9

Lucca and I stop at the local flower shoppe, and I let him pick out five of the seven flowers we're buying. He picks out a purple Iris with a little bit of yellow on the pedals, a pale pink Arum Lily, a dark pink Dianthus, a bright yellow Buttercup, and a pink Magnolia with orange in the center. I pick out a white Rose, and a red Rose. Purchasing the flowers, we leave the shoppe for the cemetery which is about a five minute drive from the shoppe, and when we arrive, we climb out, and Lucca cutely carries his flowers while I carry mine to Gabriele's headstone.

We come here to visit Gabriele at least once a week, but if there's a holiday, or one of our birthdays in the same week, we come two to three times a week. Grabbing the dead flowers off of Gabriele's headstone, Lucca and I place the new flowers there before sitting down on the grass in front of his headstone.

Gabriele's headstone reads: 'Gabriele Alessandro Coasta 

                                                            Beloved Son, Father, Boyfriend

                                                            Born: January 28, 2002 - Died August 1, 2022 - Age 22

                                                            Taken from this world to soon, but never forgotten'

"Papa, I tell daddy something?" Lucca sweetly asks, looking up at me from his spot on my right.

Nodding my head, I tell him to tell his daddy whatever he'd like, so Lucca starts rambling about anything and everything. Now, do I understand everything that's coming out of his mouth to his daddy? Absolutely not, but he's content and happy talking to Gabriele, so I'm happy and content. Leaning back onto the palms of my hands as Lucca decides to crawl into my lap as he continues on with his one-sided conversation, closing my eyes as the breeze blows over us, and I feel instantly calm, as if Gabriele is letting me know that he's there with us.

Smiling softly, feeling content since the last time we visited Gabriele, and when Lucca's done talking with his daddy, he says he's ready to go, so we make our way back to the vehicle where I parked. After settling Lucca and myself into our seats, we head home. We're about five minutes from home when I notice a white SUV trailing us, and I instantly know this isn't going to be good. I have Lucca in the car with me if they decide to start shooting, and yes, my vehicle is bullet-proof, it doesn't mean that shit won't go wrong.

Reaching over to my cell, that's resting in a cup holder with the screen facing toward me, I tap the screen, and when it brightens, I tap the red emergency button that our tech underboss installed on our phones. This sends out an emergency signal to everyone in our family with our current location as our phones move.

Swearing under my breath, so Lucca doesn't hear me, I hope that I can make it home before anything bad happens with Lucca in the vehicle. Keeping my focus split between the road in front of me, and the SUV tailing me, I speed up some as I pass two of the vehicles in front of me, and my heart feels as if it's going to beat out of my chest.

Turning onto our road quickly, I press down on the accelerator to speed up because I'll feel safer once we're on the property. We are about a hundred feet from the long driveway, crossing over a side street, when I'm hit in my door by a black SUV. Thankfully, they weren't going very fast when they hit my vehicle, but it was enough to spin my vehicle around, and shatter the driver's side window inward toward me.

The vehicle comes to a stop at the end of my driveway, and I have to blink hard several times, trying to clear my blurry vision, but it doesn't help much. Turning my upper body toward the backseat to check on Lucca, and he seems fine physically, just scared which is understandable.

Before I have time to do anything else, Da, Alexi, and a few henchmen are opening mine and Lucca's doors to check us over before pulling us free from the vehicle. When the ringing in my ears starts to subside, I can hear squealing of tires, and shots being fired, and that's also when I notice the engine is steaming, and my car is totaled. Dropping to my knees, ignoring everyone around me but Lucca as I pull my son into my shaking body as we both sob harshly.

"Lucca, does anything hurt?" I sob, holding him close to my body, and he assures me through his own sobs that nothing hurts.

"Come on, Milan, you boys need to get inside," Da gently orders, but I can hear the command and nervousness in his voice as he, Alexi and the henchmen surround Lucca and me.

They guide us up the driveway, and into the house, and Da has me sit on the couch while I hold Lucca in my arms still. Several of the henchmen have disappeared, and return a few minutes later with the medical kits, clean wet flannels, clean dry flannels, and hand these to Da and Alexi.  They kneel in front of us, and Da helps Lucca turn in my lap to face him, so he can clean the dirt, and my blood off of his skin while Alexi cleans me off.

I sit there in silent shock while holding Lucca tightly to me with his back against my chest, and his head resting on my shoulder as I stare at Alexi's face. I can tell he and Da are scared, and that Alexi and Da are softly speaking to Lucca and me, but I can't hear them through the loud ringing noise in my ears.

Someone gently taps my right cheek, the opposite one where Lucca's head's located, and I focus my eyes on Alexi, and I'm assuming he's the one who tapped my cheek. Watching his mouth move to form words, I make out enough to know that he's asking me if I can hear them, so I verbally tell him with a quiet voice that I can't, and that I'm watching his mouth. He nods before slowly asking me if my ears are ringing, and I tell him 'yes'.