Flowers And Death - VegasPete (English Version)

Chapter 23

The noise of cars and motorcycles speeding through the city was like a distant warning, but in the abandoned house, the silence was almost sepulchral. The moon was at its highest point, and the long shadows of the trees created a distorted, almost surreal scene. Pete was unconscious, shivering from the cold and moaning in pain.

Vegas, unlike his bodyguards who were in the car, was riding his red motorcycle at high speed, passing between the cars with agility. In his mind, there was only Pete, and nothing else. After receiving that call, he called Xiao Zhan, and asked him to track where the call Pete had made had come from, and in less than five minutes, Vegas had a call back.

The roar of the engine filled the night air, mixing with the cutting sound of the wind. Vegas gripped the handlebars of the motorcycle, his body leaning forward, as the motorcycle accelerated through the dark streets of the city. He could hear the insistent sound of the cars behind him, the high beams illuminating his silhouette.

The wind whipped his face, and the asphalt passed under his wheels at a speed that made everything around him seem like a blur. Vegas maneuvered with precision between the cars, which became moving obstacles. Adrenaline pulsed through his veins, and he knew that a single mistake could be fatal. He leaned sharply to the right, guiding the bike into a sharp curve that took him to a narrow side street. The tires screeched on the asphalt, but the bike remained steady. He had to get there as quickly as possible, Pete needed to get there. With that thought, Vegas accelerated even more, dodging trash cans and abandoned tents, while the concrete walls of the buildings passed by him at a dizzying speed. Vegas felt his heart race even faster, as if it were possible. He was close to arriving, but that little bit seemed like an eternity. Accelerating even more, he turned right, and at the end of the street he could see a large house abandoned by time. And as if his life depended on reaching the end of the street - which it probably did - Vegas felt his heart beat like crazy, and the wind cut his face. The motorcycle's speed was already exceeding, the needle that marked the speed didn't even work anymore.

Arriving near the abandoned house, Vegas turned the handlebars, skidding the motorcycle inside, with the wheels screeching against the rough concrete. The place was poorly lit, but with no time to care about what was around him, Vegas didn't even bother to park the motorcycle, he just stopped accelerating and jumped, abandoning his beloved motorcycle anyway.

The door creaked as it opened, and the heavy air of the abandoned house invaded Vegas' lungs like a cold blade. He stopped for a second, his heart beating at such a frantic pace that he could barely think clearly. The absolute silence of the room was suffocating, broken only by the light sound of breathing - panting, irregular.

He ran through the rooms, but couldn't find Pete in any of them, and just as he was about to call Xiao Zhan and scold him, saying that he had located the wrong place, Vegas remembered that he hadn't looked in the back of the house. Running to the backyard, he opened the door, looked around.

And then he saw him.

Pete lay there, lying in the tall grass. His naked, crumpled body was marked by bruises visible in the moonlight. His pale skin contrasted with the dried blood that stained his face, his disheveled hair falling over his eyes. His chest rose and fell with difficulty, as if each breath was a battle. The rope marks on his wrists were deeply embedded in his skin.

Vegas felt the ground disappear beneath his feet. The world around him seemed to dissolve in a blur of sensations: the smell of blood and grass, the muffled sound of his own breathing, and the crushing weight of the vision before his eyes. Every fiber of his body screamed in pain at the sight of him like that. It was as if the entire universe had closed in around that image, making it impossible to think of anything else. He didn't even hear the sound of cars braking and doors opening and closing in front of the house.