I froze. I couldn't move once I settled my eyes onto him.

"He's here, Rico. Devon. He's here." I told Rico, tugging at his arm. "He shot Lorenzo."

He didn't answer. I looked up at him and realized that his shirt wasn't white anymore...no...it was almost red now. I gasped, tears filling my eyes.

"This can't be happening...no." I whimpered out as his body went limp, falling onto the floor. As soon as I spoke, everyone's looked towards us.

The three of them rushed towards us, aiding the gunshot wound on his abdomen by applying pressure. He laid on the floor, groaning in pain while I stood there, completely clueless on what I was supposed to be doing.

Getting myself back together, I knew that I couldn't because I had to find Nico first. And as much as I wanted to help Rico, I knew that the child needed much more than Rico did at the moment.

"I'll come with you. Ric's alright, just a minor wound." Callum said.

I nodded and walked around around the place, making sure not to stamp on any dead bodies around me. I peeked through every hallway, opened every door and checked every nook and cranny of the place until I reached the last door.

"Last one." He said, from behind me.

Taking a deep breath, I pushed the door open and was met with the most horrible sight that I'd ever seen. There Nico was, his hands and legs tied up to a wooden chair while tears flowed down his cheeks. Without wasting another second, I entered the room and ran towards him.

"Nico." I let out.

Almost immediately, he looked up at me in surprise. "Xia..."

I knelt down to the floor and started cutting off the ropes with the help of the pocket knife Rico had given me a few hours back. After I did, he didn't waste another second before pulling me into an embrace.

I hugged him back, kissing his head. "I missed you so much! Are you alright?"

"Yes, I'm okay. I just wanna go home." He replied, wiping the tears off of his face.

"Come. We'll go home." I said, carrying him into my arms.

"Where's Dadda?" He asked.

"He's...um, he's hurt." I replied with hesitation. "But don't worry, he'll be fine. Everything will be fine."

At this point, I wasn't sure if I was telling him or myself. I wanted everything to be back to the way it had been for the past few weeks.

"Okay." He mumbled, resting his face on my shoulder. Callum kissed Nico's forehead when we came out of the room to which Nico slightly giggled.

Although none of Lorenzo's men were alive in the fort, we still kept on high alert in case we thought wrong and a few had managed to escape.

Quickly walking back to where we had last seen everybody else, we followed the trail of blood that had been made by Rico's wound. Once we exited the fort, I spotted the car that we had drove in and started walking towards it.

I opened the passenger side of the door because I saw Antonio and Julian in the backseat along with Rico, still trying to stop the bleeding. As I sat, I covered Nico's eyes, not wanting him to see the blood all over the seat and the pain that his father was being put through.

"Sleep, alright? Wait, are you hungry?" I asked, worriedly.

"No." He answered.

"Alright, have some water then." I turned his body so that we would face towards the window and not behind him. He gulped half the bottle and smiled, kissing my cheek. I kissed his forehead and he rested his head in the crook of my neck. I held him in my arms until he fell asleep.

Callum turned the ignition on, making the car roar to life. I asked him if he was alright to which he replied with a 'yes'.

Turning behind me, I saw Antonio cleaning Rico's wound while their father, Julian, got the gauze ready to wrap. I looked at the floor of the car and noticed that there was a whole first aid kit back there but with a little more supplies.

It was only now that I had realized that Rico was shirtless. He had tattoos that consisted of wordings, birds, a cross covering his chest which went down all the way to his abdomen. Wait a minute...this man has an eight pack? What the hell?

And then there's me who has a family pack. I wouldn't call myself thin nor plump. I'm just about in the middle and it's probably due to the unhealthy amount of french fries that I eat.

In all of his tattoos, I spotted two initials with one being 'N.R' which clearly stood for his son's but I couldn't figure out the other one, Z.R. I thought of who it could be for a while but nobody whose name started with Z came to mind.

"You...like what...you see, Xia?" Rico asked, looking at me from the corner of his eye, his voice breaking as he slipped in and out of consciousness. This man.

Antonio let out a chuckle as he finished wrapping the gauze around his brother's wound while all Julian did was smile. The three of them had such a unique relationship with each other. Julian wasn't the 'respect me because I was the previous Don' type of person but more carefree and...relaxed with his sons.

"No, you butt-head, I don't." I retorted.

"Okay, let's go with that....for now." He paused before saying the last two words. What did he even mean by that?

Anyway, I'm too tired for this. I fell into a slumber once I closed my eyes. I couldn't be happier that everyone was safe now, especially Nico.

I woke up after what felt like an hour. My neck felt stiff and I was a little uncomfortable since Nico had been on me the entire time. Shifting myself on the seat, I let Nico lay fully on my body while I slid down just a bit.

"I love you." He mumbled.

I smiled at his sentence, hugging him tighter. "I love you too, Jellybean."

It was only now that I felt like I was...complete. Like I didn't have that weird void that I did, a little more than a month back.

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