Bleeding Out { Rafe Adler }

Part 8 - Emptiness

"Everybody just.. calm down okay?" Nathan said.

"Well, this is interesting." Rafe said. "Nate.. Samuel."

"Put your guns down! All of you." Sam demands.

"No." Rafe said calmly.

"Rafe! This guy's on edge." Nadine said and I could see on her face that she was scared.

"Oh don't worry about him, Nadine. These guys don't kill anyone in cold blood. It's just not their style." Rafe responded.

"You want to bet her life on that?" Sam is mad. I don't think I've ever seen him this mad ever before in my entire life.

"Go ahead then. Shot her!"

"Rafe.." I whisper.

"I die, you both die." Nadine said.

"So be it!" Sam seemed like he didn't care about anything right now and I hope it's not my fault.

Rafe took a step forward and Sam told him to stop.

"Not another step!" Sam shouted.

"You mean, like this?" And Rafe took another step forward.

"Sam, put the gun down!" Nathan said.

"I warned you." Sam says and pulls the trigger but Nathan grabs the gun before the bullet hit Nadines head.

Nadine knocks him away and Nathan gives the gun over to Rafe and Rafe passes it on to me.

Rafe laughs and walks over to Sam.

"Samuel. You okay? I guess you knew this moment was coming." He said and slams his gun against Sams face.

"Hey! Come on, man. You already got us, take it easy." Nathan says to defend Sam and himself. Rafe points his gun to Nathan. "Come on now, we're businessman. Let's work out a deal."

"Oh, a deal? Oh, yeah. I'd love to hear what you have in mind." He knocks Sam out with his feet.

I want to do something but I can't. I just stand beside Nadine while Rafe hurts my brothers.

"Oh you can go ahead, I'm listening." Rafe continues.

"You wanna find Avery's treasure? We'll help you find it." Nathan said.

"And in exchange, I'll let you live?"

"Yeah, that and a small cut."

Rafe laughs and looks back at us.
"The Gauchos on this guy."

"Just enough to get him his freedom, okay?"

"His freedom?"

"Yeah, he did hard time. Our time. And the guy who broke him out, Hector Alcazar. He owes him a lot of money."

"Whoa. What the hell are you talking about, Nate? Hector Alcazar died in a shootout in Argentina like six months ago." Rafe laughs. "I'm the one that got Samuel out."

I froze. He lied to us? All along?

"Ooh. Wow. What did he tell you? Sam, what kind of story did you cook up? Alcazar? Really? You lied? You lied to your baby brother?" Rafe pointed out.

"We're wasting time!" Nadine shouted.

"Just a second." Rafe shouted back.

I couldn't stay quiet anymore. I was just so mad.

"Sam? What the actual fuck?" I shouted and walked towards them. Rafe looked shocked at me.

"Melanie?" He said, grabbing my arm.

"Rafe, I... I can explain, just.. shut up." I said back and shook off his hand.

"It's true. I'm sorry I lied." Sam said.

"Aw, Sam. Jesus no, no." Nathan said, taking some steps back.

"Listen, Avery's treasure was ours, it was always ours."

"I left my life for you!"

"Hey, look, look, Nate, if it's any consolation, he duped me too. He pulled a Houdini on me. He brought you and the other people back into the mix. And I cannot lie, Sam, that really pissed me off. But you know, all behind us now." He seemed like he forgot I shouted at Sam.

"You don't deserve it." Sam said quietly.

"You do?" Rafe asked. "Last I checked we're all a bunch of thieves, digging around where we shouldn't."

"Rafe." I said, walking up to him.

"What?" He looked back on me.

"One way or another end it, or I'll make sure someone else does."

"Well, you heard the lady." Rafe says, pointing his gun back at Sam.

"Melanie won't be with you if you shoot us." Nathan says, once again trying to defend himself and Sam.

"What?" Rafe lowers his gun.

"No, Nathan, don't." I said.

"Really? He doesn't know?" Sam asked.

"Here we go." I mumbled.

"Melanie?" Rafe looks back at me. "What are they talking about?"

"I'm sorry I lied, Rafe. I knew you would probably kill me if you knew the truth." I bit my lip and looked straight at Rafe, trying to remind myself that he will probably kill me or ask Nadine to do it. "I'm their little sister. Half sister, to be correct."

I dropped my gun to the ground and walked over to Sam, giving him a small piece of paper to remove the blood from his nose.

He was speechless. He said nothing.

"I'm so sorry, Rafe. But that's the only thing I've lied about. I swear, I was honest about everything else. I --"

He raised his gun against me and I stopped talking. I could see tears in his eyes.
I looked over at Nadine but she wasn't looking at us.

"Rafe, listen. You need us to find the treasure." Nathan finally said. Me and Rafe was still looking at each other.

"Please, lower the gun." I said softly. I slowly walked up to him. I put my hand on his gun and lowered it since he didn't hear me. Then, I laid my hands around his neck. He kept his eyes on my, probably trying to get it into his head what I just told him. He was in shock.

"I love you, Rafe. I swear to god." I whispered to him. A tear fell down his eye and I wiped it away. "But if you don't love me, then shoot me."

I backed away and raised his gun against me again. No one said anything. It was dead quiet.

"Get out of my way, Melanie." He said, trying to turn off his emotions. I sighed and grabbed my gun again.

"Thank you for acting like you don't care. Now, let me take care of my brothers." I said turning around to face Nathan.

"Melanie? Don't do this, okay? You know better." He said trying to calm me down.

"Shut the fuck up, Nathan! I don't care about you anyway because you always saw me as the mistake I am." I shouted back at him.

I reloaded the gun.

"Mel?" Sam said, slowly walking to face my gun. And bang, I pulled the trigger.

The bullet hit Sams shoulder which made him back off a little, accidentally knocking Nathan off the cliff.

I didn't feel anything. I was empty.
I turned around and threw my gun to Nadine before walking away from them. I couldn't look at Rafe anymore.

I thought he cared but I was, as always, very wrong.

_____

This was so bad and my grammar is also very very bad but oh well

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