CHAPTER 26

IT WAS THE worst moment of my life. It was a moment I never wanted to remember ever. Worst than Vittorio's guard hitting me in the neck 6 years ago to make me pass out. Worse than the feeling I had felt when I realized I was flunking economics in college. Even worse than how I had felt when my father died from some blood clotting in his brain. I was 18 at the time.

This was the sickest feeling I had ever felt in my entire 26 years of existence.

I had just felt some relief at seeing Jake unharmed, as I had clutched him, enjoying his small warm body and the smell of his unwashed hair.

"Let's see who this is," Marcus had said. Through the torrents of joyful tears, I had seen him bend down awkwardly because of his bad arm, to remove the mask of the man.

Then I felt a small jolt in Jake's body, and my fingers behind his back went wet and sticky. Blood. At that same moment, Marcus looked over at me, his face went pale in horror.

"Out, out out!" He yelled. "Now!"

"Oh shit!" I heard the