“Lexi. Baby, what are you doing? I told you to stay down. Oh God!! Is that blood?” I can hear his voice now. Talking to me, telling me everything is going to be ok. How come I can hear him, but I don’t hear anything else? “BRENDA!!” He shouts. “Shit, baby I told you to stay down no matter what. Why were you up?”
I’m not sure where he is. Maybe we are both dead. That makes sense, because I could never live without him. Now that I know what love like ours feels like, I couldn’t live without it. But only from him. “I couldn’t find you,” is the last thing I remember whispering before everything dies.25SaxsonShit!! As soon as I heard the first pop, I knew what it was. When I grabbed her and threw her to the ground, I silently vowed to end every single last one of them. How dare they come to my fucking house, with my wife, family, and friends here and open fire. They want to fuck with me? I hope they are ready for the repercussions. After extracting the promise from her that she isn’t going to move, I go closer to my brothers and father and open fire back. My eyes never too far from Lexi.
Everyone is yelling and screaming, not sure where to go, what’s safe. Ramone moves behind the tree for cover, still firing as my father tries to take cover as well. Managing to look around for a second, I can see the glint coming from the side of the gate. Ah ha. Gotcha!!! Ducking down, I run over to Julio. “Cover me. I think I see where the shooter is.” He nods his head and pulls out his second weapon and begins firing from both. I have a moment of doubt about what I am about to do because Lexi will no longer be in my eyesight. But, if I want this to stop, I have no choice. Shaking it off, I duck behind my pool house and make my way to the gate. When I get halfway on it, I note that the shooter I saw is not alone. About 100 meters to his left, is another and I can see one more moving closer to the house. Pulling off my jacket because it is white, I duck behind one of the trees and try to camouflage myself. When I feel like I am as hidden as I can be, aiming at the one closest to the house, I hit him directly in his neck. He falls to the ground.
“Scorpio is down, Lairn. I repeat Scorpio is down.” I hear the one to the left say into his communication device.
“Shit. I have been hit in the leg Hawk. Retreat. Retreat.”
“10-4 Lairn.” Oh. They think it is going to be that easy, do they? Before he makes it a foot, I come up behind him, wrap my arm around his throat and put him to sleep. As much as I want to kill him, I need him alive for information.
“Lairn. Lairn, do you copy?” The one called Hawk calls into the walkie talkie.
“Lairn can’t come to the phone right now. But when he wakes up, I’ll be sure he hears you scream.” He looks down at the device in his hand and turns to run out of the gate. Grabbing my knife from my sock, I throw it, keeping my anger in check so my aim is dead center and hits him in the back of his leg. Killing them would have been too easy. Me, I like torture. See, Ramone is the most hardcore. He does all of the dirty work if you will. The muscle as they say. But people often confuse that to mean I am civilized and one note. Like I just shoot to kill and that's it. That’s where people are wrong.
I am about to call my brothers when I look back toward the house and notice Lexi is standing, stumbling, screaming my name. Running toward her, I hear her calling me over and over, asking where I am, crying for me and it almost undoes me. The first thing I notice when I make it her is that she is she seems out of it. “Lexi. Baby, what are you doing? I told you to stay down. Oh God!! Is that blood?” I yell, noticing her shirt is soaked in it. “BRENDA!!” I yell, calling for my cousin. “Shit, baby I told you to stay down no matter what. Why were you up?” Her eyes are glassy, as she mumbles over and over, ‘not like this. Oh God, not like this.’ I try whispering in her ear that I am here, but I don't think she is lucid right now. “Fuck baby. Damn it. Why didn’t you stay down?” I whisper again kissing her head.