Chapter Nine — The Breaking
Cherry
There's something about the smell of blood.
Once you've spilled enough of it, it starts to smell like metal and regret.
We were almost out.
One last deal. One last meeting. Then Rafael and I would vanish.
We'd picked a name for the dog we were going to adopt.
We joked about the fake names we'd use in our new life.
We believed in it—
Right up until the bullet hit me.
It happened fast.
Rafael had his back turned.
I was laughing—God, I was laughing at something stupid he said—when a sharp pain ripped through my stomach.
I stumbled, blinking down at the red spreading across my white dress.
I dropped.
"Cherry—!"
His scream wasn't human.
He caught me before I hit the floor, hands shaking, blood pouring between us.
"No. No. No. Baby, look at me. Look at me—"
My eyes fluttered. "Who—who shot me—"
And then I saw him.
Sergio.
Rafael's cousin. One of his own men.
Standing with the gun still smoking, face pale, lips trembling.
"I didn't mean to—she moved—Rafe, I swear to God—"
Rafael pulled his gun and shot Sergio in the head.
No hesitation.
Blood sprayed across the wall.
Then his arms were back around me, pressing down on the wound, cursing between gasps.
"Stay with me. Don't you dare fucking leave me, Cherry. Don't you dare—"
Rafael (At the hospital)
Her blood was on my clothes. On my hands. Under my nails.
The doctor said she might not make it through the night.
And for the first time since I was fifteen years old,
I fell to my knees in front of something bigger than me and prayed.
"Take me instead."
"Take me instead."
"Take me instead."
My fists cracked the marble floor of the hospital chapel.
I screamed so loud, the nurses had to drag me away.
Cherry (Unconscious)
I could hear him.
In the dark, floating between life and death—
I could feel his hands holding mine. His forehead pressed to my chest.
His voice cracked and raw.
"I never wanted this for you."
"I just wanted to love you."
"Please… please don't die."
24 hours later
She opened her eyes.
Barely.
And whispered my name.
"Rafe?"
I broke.
Right there in front of her.
"You stayed," I choked.
"I promised I would," she whispered, then winced.
"You lost your mind, didn't you?"
I kissed her forehead and whispered,
"No. I lost it the moment I met you. I just didn't notice until now."
But it wasn't over.
Cherry was alive…
…but barely.
And the doctors told me, quietly, that if she got hit again—
She wouldn't survive it.
Cherry (later that night)
He stayed with me all night.
Holding my hand.
Kissing my knuckles.
And when he fell asleep beside me, I whispered,
"You don't have to die if I do."
"But I know you will."