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Chapter 502 – Flame (5)

The punch was so hard that Filippo fell on his side. Gael only had a second to snap his head to where he saw Angela, only to see the empty space. Was it just his imagination? God, that better not be the case.

"Gael, look out!" Angela\'s voice rang somewhere from the side, but as much as he wanted to turn his head in the direction of her voice, his instincts pulled his attention back to Filippo—just in time to see the gun pointed at him.

Gael dove in and pushed the gun up, the shot fired towards the ceiling, causing debris to fall around them. He wouldn\'t put it past Filippo to kill him right now, despite his hunger for the money he insisted Gael owed him for. Filippo was a psycho with a real temper. You just couldn\'t reason with crazy.

With brute force, Gael slammed Filippo\'s hands to the hard floor once, twice, thrice until they released the gun, and it clattered away. It was a battlefield on the dance floor, everyone around him fighting for their lives.

Filippo drove his knee into Gael\'s rib, and the latter gasped as he pushed off, clutching his side—it was the same spot he had gotten shot last year, and it hurt like hell.

Taking advantage of Gael\'s momentary weakness, Filippo mounted on him, laying down fist after fist into his face. The difference between Filippo\'s fighting style to Gael\'s was that with Filippo…well, there was no style.

It was pretty damn obvious he didn\'t get any training, or if he did, it was probably from experience out in the streets from growing up in Chicago. The only thing that could possibly be an advantage over Gael was Filippo\'s stocky build. He probably lifted weights, but that was it. And because of his mass, Filippo\'s moves were slower.

Unfortunately for Filippo, Gael was skilled in close contact combat.

Just as Filippo was about to deliver another punch, Gael snapped out of it and grabbed the other\'s arm, locked it with his, thrust his hips against Filippo\'s backside—causing the latter to lose his balance—and flipped them over so that Gael was now on top. He held Filippo\'s throat down with an arm, sweat trickling down his forehead. Then he spat, "You\'re not getting a single cent from me, you pathetic scum!"

"Then I\'ll just have to kill you!" Filippo roared. 

The grappling and punching and kicking, trying to overpower the other, continued, most of them unaware of the flames licking the wall from the second floor.

"Aaahh!!!"

The sound of Angela\'s scream made Gael snap his head in its direction. Lauretta had both of her hands gripping Angela\'s hair while Angela tried to claw the other woman\'s face off. And then, as if remembering what Gael taught her, Angela grabbed Lauretta\'s arms and stepped back, causing Lauretta to go off-balance from the unexpected pull. And then Angela kicked the other\'s groin.

\'That\'s my future wife!\' Gael cheered in his head.

Gael was shocked back into motion at the shift below him and saw Filippo reaching for the gun above his head. Gael pulled back his arm and was about to slam his fist down the man\'s face when a large mass rammed against his side, throwing him off skittering against the floor.

"Shit." Giovanni hissed as he pushed himself up and extended a hand for Gael. The latter realized his uncle was fighting off one of the Ukrainian high-ranked members who teamed up with Filippo—who was now heading towards them in long strides. Amidst the chaos, Giovanni shouted, "We need to get out of here, or we\'re toast!"

With knitted brows, Gael glanced up, finally noticing the fire that was fast spreading from the second floor, and the fire sprinklers weren\'t working.

"How the fûck are you still alive?" Giovanni cursed under his breath as he lunged for the Ukrainian, narrowly avoiding the knife slashing across his stomach.

Gael jolted forward, intending to help his uncle, but some movement to his right caught his attention, and he saw Filippo trying to scramble up and get away. He couldn\'t let this man escape, or this would happen again in the future. It had to end now.

Sprinting, Gael jumped onto Filippo\'s back, sending the two of them crashing down the floor. Filippo twisted, causing Gael to fall back and put him under Filippo. But he was quick, locking his arms and legs around the other, trying to squeeze him to death from behind. 

Filippo pointed a gun at Gael\'s face, and Gael barely managed to duck away before the shot was fired.

Fuck. His face could\'ve blown up.

A body dropped behind them several feet away.

"The fuck!" Giovanni side-stepped, staring down at the Ukrainian he was just fighting off and was now bleeding out on the floor from the stray bullet of Filippo\'s gun. It could have been him.

Gael tried to pry the gun off Filippo in a futile attempt. The man was ridiculously relentless. But when he saw the tongues of fire stroking the curtains several feet away, his insides stirred and he knew he had to do this fast.

In a jolt, Gael swiped the gun off and without hesitating, he aimed it at Filippo\'s chest and pulled the trigger twice.

Filippo\'s body jerked before it went limp.

"Stay back!" Angela warned, causing Gael to snap his head towards her. She was on her back with her arms extended forward, pointing a gun at Lauretta who was standing a few feet away. Lauretta was gripping a knife above her head and ready to strike.

There was a crazed look on Lauretta\'s face like she had nothing to lose. Gael pushed Filippo off him and jerked forward just as she screamed like a deranged woman, dashing towards Angela and yelling, "Bitch! You don\'t have the guts—"

BANG!

Angela gasped.

Her hands trembled around the gun, tendrils of smoke coiling out of the muzzle from the shot she fired.

Gael and Giovanni stood frozen at the scene.

They watched as Lauretta looked down on herself, seeing a hole below her chest where blood gushed out. Her knees gave out and she fell face down on the floor.

"Oh, my god…" Still shaking, a tear rolled down Angela\'s cheek as she gaped in horror seeing Lauretta\'s corpse by her feet. She just killed two people tonight.

It wasn\'t until a warm, large hand covered her cold ones that she snapped out of her trance. She slid her gaze to her right, meeting Gael\'s concerned one. He took the gun from her, put the safety back on, and pulled her to him. She opened her mouth but no words came out. The frantic beating of her heart pulsed in her ear.

It didn\'t matter, though, because Gael\'s lips came crashing down on hers. With one hand cradling the back of her head, the other skimmed down her arms and body as if he was trying to feel any wounds on her flesh, wanting to make sure she was in one piece. Her hands curled around his shirt as she responded to his deep kisses, their tongues teasing and stroking like they hadn\'t seen each other for years.

"We need to leave. Now." Giovanni\'s urgent tone and coughing pulled them out of their little cove.

Foreheads pressed together, Gael placed one more chaste kiss. "I thought I lost you."

Angela didn\'t have the chance to answer when Gael scooped her up and carried her out of there. She didn\'t know how they got out, noticing all the smoke and fire quickly spreading around them. Everything was painful and her eyes became heavy, it was hard to keep them open. She could vaguely hear the sound of sirens not far away and the whoosh of the door just as the cool wind lapped at her skin. 

She grimaced at the pain in her head.. It barely registered that they were getting inside a vehicle until she felt and heard the door close, engine roar, and the shift of something underneath her before she finally succumbed to unconsciousness, the memory of flames dancing behind her lids.