His Empire,Her Rules

18

Lorenzo's POV

Sophia passed out next to me. Blood trickled down the side of her face while her eyes remained closed. I panicked at the sight. The truck was still behind us and wasn't letting up on the pursuit.

"Get us out of here, cobra." I pleaded.

My lead security guy was trying his best but it didn't seem like it was enough. The car swerved and we fell into a ditch.

Cobra hurried out of the front seat even though he was visibly hurt. He opened the back door and began dragging me out. My limbs felt like jelly from the impact of the assault on the car.

"No. Sophia. Help her out first." I commanded him.

He nodded and ran to the other side of the car. I crawled my way out of the car just at the same time Cobra pulled Sophia out.

"We have to get out of here. Whoever was in that truck will be here soon to confirm if we're alive or dead. We have to move." He said in a bit of a hurry.

My head felt heavy and drowsy but I followed him anyway. I was concerned about Sophia and worried about what they would do to her if they ever caught up with us.

As for me, I was used to assault. I was a mafia lord so a lot of people wanted me dead. Cobra headed deeper into the woods still holding Sophia and I just followed. Just like he had predicted, I heard the truck arrive at the crash site behind us and the sounds of men who were heavily armed carried through the woods as they roamed around the crash site looking for us.

I pulled my gun out from beneath my jacket and c****d it. We walked deeper into the words until we couldn't hear the men behind us anymore.

Cobra laid Sophia down against a tree and squatted next to her to check on her.

"We need to get her to a hospital." I suggested.

Her breath had deepened and the blood on her forehead had dried over the nasty gash she had sustained. She looked so lifeless and I felt a surge of fear slam through me.

"I'm going to make a call and see if anyone can pick us up." Cobra said and began pulling out his phone to make the call.

Sophia started to stir and I grabbed her shoulders and shook her gently.

"Sophie." I called.

She opened her eyes groggily and looked around. Confusion masked her expression.

"What's going on? Where are we?" She asked.

"Don't talk. Save your strength. I’m going to get

you help." I assured her.

Cobra returned and gave me a nod.

"The extraction team is on their way." He announced.

"How long will it take them to get here? It won't be long before the people after us figure out that we've fled and they're going to come looking for us." The panic in my voice was visible.

"I don't know how long it would take them to get here but they've assured me that they're coming here on the double as fast as they can."

His answer wasn't good enough but there was nothing else I could do right now.

The woods had fallen into an eerie silence. The kind that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

Then I heard it. Sharp and sudden.

A twig snapped somewhere in the distance. My head jerked up immediately and turned to the direction of the sound checking to see if there was anyone in sight.

Cobra noticed the change in my posture and stilled, his hand slowly drifting toward the gun strapped to his side.

"Did you hear that?" I whispered.

Before he could answer, several footsteps followed. Low voices carried faintly through the trees.

"How do they keep finding us?" Cobra whispered.

Sophia gripped my hand tightly. The answer to Cobra's question finally dawned on me. I looked at Sophia with horror.

"Where's your phone?" I asked patting her down for the device. I found it tucked in the pocket of her jeans.

"The woman at the boutique, did she touch your phone?" I asked going through the phone settings looking for anything unusual.

Sophia groaned groggily.

"I didn't remember." She answered quietly.

"Think, tesoro. Did she tamper with your phone?" I asked again.

She just blinked.

My patience wore thin and I smashed the phone against the rock. It broke with a c***k and a chip fell out of it.

"What are you doing?" Sophia whispered in despair.

I picked up the chip and showed it to Cobra.

"How did that get in there? That's how they've been tracking us. That's how they found the resident and how they knew we were on the move!"

"s**t!" Cobra cursed. "We have to move. They're getting closer."

I tried to help Sophia up. She shifted weakly against the tree, letting out a small groan. The sound was barely audible, but in the silence of the forest it felt deafening.

One of the voices in the distance suddenly shouted.

"Over here! I think I heard something!"

Cobra cursed under his breath.

"They've found us. We have to move now!"

They surrounded us before we could even make a move. Five of them were all heavily armed. I stepped in front of Sophia instinctively and raised my gun.

Gunfire exploded through the woods. Bullets ripped through the bark of the trees as I shoved Sophia lower against the ground.

"Get down!" I barked.

I fired back immediately, my gun bucking in my hand as one of the attackers dropped to the ground with a grunt.

Cobra crouched beside a fallen log and returned fire with brutal precision.

"We can't hold them off forever!" he shouted over the gunfire.

Another bullet slammed into the tree inches from my head, spraying splinters across my face.

Sophia grabbed weakly at my sleeve.

"Lorenzo…" she whispered.

I glanced down at her pale face and something inside of me snapped. She was scared, but I wasn't going to let anything happen to her. I tightened my grip on the gun and leaned out from behind the tree, firing again.

If they wanted us, they were going to have to walk through hell to get us.

Two of the men dropped to the ground making it three dead. The other two were hiding using the trees as cover. I glanced at Cobra and gave him a signal.

I breathed in deeply and stepped out from where I was hiding. The movement caused the other two assailants to jump out too. They raised their guns to fire but Cobra and I were faster. We fired immediately and got them. They dropped to the ground.

I brought down my gun in relief.

"I'm going to check them to see if I can ID them."

Cobra said and started searching the men.

Just then I heard the sound of a chopper above us.

"The extraction team is here." Cobra announced.

"They can't go below the trees so they're going to let down a rope and pull us up."

I nodded and helped Sophia up.

"You first." I said.

She grabbed onto the rope weakly and began ascending into the sky.