Embers: The Light in Your Shadow

Eleven

I found myself waking up to water all around me. This put some fear in me, considering I couldn't swim all that well. The rope around my ankles and hands prevented me from escaping. The boat rocked back and forth making me sea sick. My eyes landed on Armando as he held a knife to my throat.

A raindrop fell upon my face, and I prayed it was just saliva from this guy being all up in my face. "Armadillo, it is? Yeah, if you don't mind not spitting on me, I would appreciate that."

"Armando, you know what to do." Isabella said from behind him. "Savannah, I told you that I'd kill you for helping the De Luca brothers, but now I'm more determined than ever to end your life, because you've stolen Cesare's heart from me."

"Cesare and I are nothing! You have it all wrong. He freakin hates my guts, because of you!" I glared at her. "He could never love another, because you ruined him beyond repair."

She approached me with a wicked smile. As her fingers caressed my cheek I bit her. "Ouch! That hurt." She took the knife from her brother and stabbed me in the stomach. "If you're right about Cesare being unable to love again, then you'll die. But if you're wrong, you'll die anyway, and I will have succeeded in ripping his heart out once again."

Armando released the inflatable liferaft and tossed it into the water. Seconds later, he cut me loose, picked me up and threw me into the water. I swam to the top and gasped for air. "You're crazy!" I watched as my blood mixed with water in a beautiful display. Pain... I was in so much pain. I used what strength I had left to climb into the raft.

We were so far from land. I couldn't make out anything but water for miles. Armando tossed a cell phone into my raft. "Why would you give that to her?" Isabella yelled in protest.

"She's going to die anyway. If her wound doesn't kill her first then the storm and the sharks will. There will be nothing to find." Armando seemed so proud of himself. I held my hand around my wound and added pressure to stop the bleeding. My eyes widened at the mention of sharks.

"Sharks?" I panicked. "No! Please don't leave me out here!"

The wretched siblings laughed and started up their boat. They actually left me alone in the middle of nowhere. I screamed for them to come back, but they just kept riding away. Thunder resounded in the distance, and I looked behind me to see ugly dark clouds.

Rain came quicker then, and the waters became unsettled. A sea sickness was rising up my throat, but I pushed it down. "Please God! I don't want to die here! Save me!"

Something pushed against my raft, and I feared the worst. Peeking over the side, I started to cry when I had seen a shark fin. I ripped a piece of my dress and tied it around my stab wound. I didn't have the willpower to take the knife out so, I let it remain in my flesh.

One wrong move and I was fish food. Suddenly all the arguments with Cesare seemed so petty...

Officer Fernandez POV:

I made my way to Rome the day Savannah called me and told me about the attempted kidnapping. The Flores siblings were getting desperate and running out of time. They were a flight risk. Their faces were plastered all over the world, and their roads of escape have all been blocked. This was their final stand.

I was there in the loft when Laura went off on Savannah. She always cries whenever someone accuses her of being the cause of people's death. I've known her since we were little kids. She has a pure heart- a heart after God. I was against her going back to Rome, but she didn't want Laura to fear for her life.