With pinpoint aim, he blew out the back tire of the Mercedes. Combined with the speed and sharp trajectory the car flipped, spinning through the night sky and crashing on its side, the momentum causing it to roll a few times, shaking its contents like a baby’s rattle.
The windows shattered.
The body crumpled.
Eventually it came to a stop, its tyres facing the sky and resembling a turtle lying prone on its shell.
Alex brought her own car to a stop and took a few deep breaths, her heart trying its best to pound its way clean through her rib cage.
Sam slowly stepped out from the shadows, the gun held down by his side and his finger still caressing the trigger.
He had one bullet left.
As he marched towards the wreckage, Sam shot a glance to Alex, who held up a shaking hand.
She was fine. Shaken, but fit.
Sam marched on and as he did, he could hear the scraping crunching of glass under his foot. Before him, the wrecked car shook slightly, and he watched without pity as Matt tried to slide himself from the wreckage. Blood pumped from a gash across his head and his arm hung loose in its socket. Shards of glass had punctured his stomach, his entire torso stained with his own blood. With the last of his energy, Matt pulled his legs clear of the wreckage, his left leg completely shattered from the knee down, his jeans holding the fragments of his shin in place.
Sam walked on; his expression cold. He stopped a few feet from the dying man and looked upon the pain he’d caused.
Three others were dead.
A fourth would soon follow.
With a deep sigh, he thought back to the broken promise he’d made to his late son.
That he wouldn’t kill anymore.
It had been a promise built on the promise of a better future. A future that had been taken from him by the cruel, twisted hands of fate.
The same hands that had pushed him back into the war zone, only this time, the fight was on the streets.
Sam felt his grip tighten around the gun.
Matt, wheezing as the last of the air escaped through his punctured lungs, began to laugh.
‘Well… this didn’t go…how I thought.’ He spat blood to the side and blinked his way through the pain. ‘This isn’t the end, Sam. It never ends.’
Sam raised his hand slightly, raindrops sliding down his fingers as he aimed the barrel at Matt’s head. The dying mercenary closed his eyes, accepting his fate. Alex’s hand gently rested on top of Sam’s, lowering the weapon.
‘Don’t, Sam.’ Her words were tinged with sadness. ‘It’s not worth it.’
Alex shivered in the rain, the now freezing downpour masking the adrenaline that was still pumping through her veins. Somewhere in the distance, the wailing of sirens could be heard, screeching into the night like a demonic howl. Sam kept his eyes locked on Matt and after a final, blood-curdling gasp for life, his chest stopped moving.
Alex looked away in disgust. Despite Matt’s intentions, watching a human die in cold blood was hard to witness. Sam, unmoved, looked out towards the darkness that surrounded the buildings before them. After a few moments, Alex turned to leave, her hand gently pulling Sam in her direction.
‘We need to go,’ she said, her voice shaking.
‘He’s right.’ Sam turned to her, his face a picture of concern. ‘This will never be over.’
‘It is for now.’
‘There will be others.’ Sam shook his head. ‘He’ll never stop. Not until he has me.’
‘Sam?’ Alex’s brow furrowed, her voice cracking with anger as the realisation hit her.
‘I have to go back.’
‘No, you promised me you would come with me. That you would help me get my family back.’
‘And I will. I promise you I will, but I have to end this.’
The rain pelted both of them, disguising the tears that were beginning to run down Alex’s cheeks. Sam reached up to wipe one away but Alex slapped it away.
‘If you go back, you will die.’ She shook her head, trying to keep strong. Sam turned her to face him and he looked her in the eye.
‘If I don’t, then you might.’ The sirens grew in volume as the police hurried towards their location, following the breadcrumbs of their rampage through the city of Naples. Sam pulled Alex in and wrapped his arms around her, hugging her as tightly as he could. ‘I’ll come back for you, I promise.’
Alex pushed him away, shaking her head. She was right and Sam knew it. Returning to the UK was tantamount to him putting the gun to his head and pulling the trigger himself.
But he cared for Alex.
She’d saved his life, nursed him back to health and worked to get them to safety. All based on a promise he’d made. One he intended to keep.
Just not yet.
Alex took a few steps towards the car and then stopped, turning back to Sam one last time, who stood, rain soaked and full of remorse.
‘The war never ends,’ she said, almost to herself. ‘I don’t think you want it to.’
Before Sam could respond, Alex stomped back towards the car, dropped into the driver’s seat, and slammed the door. The engine roared to life, the headlights illuminated the falling rain, and then she sped towards the exit, determined to evade the police one more time and do her hardest to get home.
Sam watched the car race towards the exit, before taking the corner and disappearing into the darkness. As the sadness of their departure echoed through his body, he leant down and rifled through Matt’s jacket. With a slight remorse for robbing the dead, Sam pocketed the man’s wallet. Sliding it into his back pocket alongside his passport, Sam flicked the safety on his handgun and tucked it into the back of his jeans. The motorway behind him was awash with flashing blue lights, giving him his cue to leave. With his new mission taking a stranglehold of his mind, he raced towards the chain-link fence that
