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It all happened so fast. Angela could barely see what was going on. One second they were standing at the porch about to go inside and the next, shots were fired and Gael was covering her with his body.

She screamed, thinking they shot him. 

Angela was so scared to move as Gael stilled on top of her while she lay on the ground.

Another round of shots was fired, from God knows where, as the hum of the motorcycle continued. She thought they were going to die that night.

Gael pushed himself off of her. "Are you hurt?" he asked, sounding terrified as he frantically searched her body.

She couldn\'t even speak as she shook her head, noting that she didn\'t get shot. She was too petrified to come up with words while she busily scanned him up and down. "A-Are you?" she managed to utter.

"I\'m fine. Stay down," he said after making sure she was unharmed, pressing the brick slightly above their heads, and then a drawer pushed out of the wall, containing a handgun. He took it out as he got into a crouching position, pointing it in the direction of the street just as the motorcycle sped away at the corner.

Rick and Trigger were behind the SUV while three more of Gael\'s men were across the street also taking cover with their guns out. The air became quiet except for the grunting man, wearing a helmet and a black outfit, in the middle of the street. He was the passenger of the rider earlier. 

"Trigger," Gael called, and in an instant, Trigger sprinted up the stairs and guarded Angela while Gael made a move to go down the sidewalk, ordering two of his men to follow the rider who left his friend to escape. His men swiftly got in their cars and sped off.

"Gael!" She called out, so worried for him.

"Stay there," he shouted over his shoulder.

Gael, Rick, and another guard inspected the man on the street, aware that the neighbors were probably calling the cops by now, so they didn\'t have much time. They paid the cops to deal with shit like this, but they shouldn\'t be anywhere near the scene either. But he had to know who the fuck tried to kill them just now.

"Cover me," said Gael as he walked over, their guns pointed at the grunting man. The latter\'s blood spilled out of his body on the asphalt while he pathetically placed a hand on his side in an attempt to stop the bleeding. Gael stepped over, avoiding the blood to touch his shoes, and knelt. Using the barrel of his gun to push up the helmet\'s window, he glared down at him. "Who sent you?"

The man gurgled in his own blood, sputtering red spit out of his mouth. He gasped and choked at the same time, his face going red, and his eyes bulged out of their sockets.

Gael kicked the man\'s leg. "Who the fuck sent you?"

More choking sounds came out of the man, and then his body jerked before he completely stopped moving. His hand limply fell on the street while his lifeless eyes continued to stare at Gael.

Sirens started blaring in Brooklyn. They had to leave now.

The three of them simultaneously turned around and headed towards Gael\'s SUV, Trigger already walking Angela over and making her get inside the backseat. She didn\'t protest, allowing them to do what they needed to do because she wouldn\'t know what to do herself.

"Roy," Gael called the other guard as they tucked their guns away. Without Gael having to say a word, Roy already nodded as if he acknowledged Gael\'s silent order before he disappeared inside the brownstone across the street. 

Gael got inside the backseat next to Angela while Trigger took the driver\'s. Rick remained outside, about to cross the street as well. "I\'ll take care of the spectators," said Rick before he turned around.

The car\'s engine revved up, and Trigger pulled away from the curb, making a U-turn and then speeding away from the neighborhood. Everything happened in less than three minutes.

Angela was as white as a ghost, the incident playing over and over in her head like a broken record.

Gael spoke on the phone to a Lieutenant Albert, the call lasting only less than a minute before he spoke to two other people: Alessandro and Giovanni.

Two police cars ran past them on the other side of the road, and their eyes instinctively followed them. Trigger was already driving at a normal speed as he headed towards Gael\'s apartment in Manhattan, crossing through Brooklyn Bridge.

Angela clenched her hands together, still looking through the window behind her, looking so stressed out.

"Baby…" He pulled her to him, his hands sliding up and down her body—her arms, sides, backs, legs—as if he was making sure she really wasn\'t hurt.

She winced when he pressed on the side of her arm, but it was nothing more than a bruise from slamming against the wall earlier.

Gael pressed his lips to hers and wrapped his arms around her. "Fuck. I\'m so sorry."

He just realized that her hands were also shaking as she tried to check on him as well. "I really thought you got shot," she muttered, sounding so wounded. It gutted him to hear her like that.

"I\'m okay. I won\'t die so easily," he joked as he pulled away, but she didn\'t find it funny. Her eyes watered, though she refused to cry.

"Come here." He hugged her again, holding her in his arms and making her feel safe. "We\'re going to stay in the apartment for now. I\'ll have someone pack your things and bring them over tomorrow. Okay?"

She wordlessly nodded, burying her face against his neck as her arms tightened around him.

"You think it\'s Volkov?" Trigger questioned, meeting Gael\'s eyes through the rear-view mirror.

"No." Gael shook his head. "He wouldn\'t be stupid enough to do something like this. He hadn\'t gotten the other part on the end of the deal yet and he had already released his shares to me. Besides, what good would it get him to kill me? That would be the dumbest move, declaring war on his own without his Pakhan\'s orders." He truly believed it wasn\'t Volkov. It just didn\'t make sense.

"Fucking hell. These assholes think they could rain bullets in our turf."

Gael didn\'t respond, but he also thought the same thing. It was one thing to threaten his life and Angela\'s, but to actually do a drive-by in his street? They must be idiots. They would know soon enough. Nothing happened in Williamsburg without him knowing—at least, secrets wouldn\'t be kept a secret completely.

"Perry…" Angela muttered under her breath. "He threatened to do something against you. This must be him."

Gael thought so too. Perry was the first dickhead who came to mind, actually. It was either him or Filippo.

Nearly an hour later, they reached Gael\'s apartment where some of his men had already swept the place before they arrived. He hadn\'t heard from his men yet—the ones who went after the motorcycle rider. 

***

A few hours later, Angela had already showered and changed into Gael\'s loungewear: a t-shirt and a pair of boxers. She lay in bed but couldn\'t sleep at all; her mind kept reminding her of what happened outside of Gael\'s house. Right now, Gael was making calls and talking to his men in the living room. His men hadn\'t caught the rider, the latter successfully escaping and losing them outside of Queens.

Angela had spoken to Gabriella not too long ago. Gabby and Mariano had already landed in Chicago and had heard about what happened in Brooklyn. She worried so much, she thought about coming back, but Angela told her it wasn\'t necessary. Gabriella already had a lot to worry about being with Mariano and all that. After reassuring her they were all fine, the two bid farewell, promising to update each other the next day.

Angela\'s phone beeped, and it was her best friend texting her. She wondered why Nina was still awake at three in the morning when she had work the next day, and she hadn\'t told her friend yet about the shoot-out earlier that night.

[ Antonina: Anj, William just sent me this. He doesn\'t have your number, but he thought you should know in case you haven\'t seen it yet. ]

Angela\'s brows furrowed, knowing that William did have her number. But that wasn\'t important now. She tapped on the link that Nina sent, and her body went rigid.

It was a local news article from one of the newspapers in Esmea where a photo of Evan Leos was on the front page with the headline: Marine Son of General Leos: Missing or Desertion?

The hair at the back of her spine stood on end even before she began reading the article. The journalist went on and on about Evan\'s past that the authorities just swept under the rug. Angela\'s name was even mentioned, having been involved with her ex-boyfriend in a scandal over six years ago that got him demoted, fined, and confined in Marine prison for a while before he was let out to serve the country again.

Angela\'s heart nearly burst out of her chest in fear of seeing her name again or Gael\'s…as possible suspects of Evan\'s disappearance.