She had tried her best to act as naturally as possible when she finally left her apartment again an hour after leaving the car.

The driver appeared slightly annoyed at her tardiness but did not shout or even so much as mention it. He simply adjusted the mirror and started the engine.

"Got everything?" he asked her with a slight hint of sarcasm and she barely caught his words as she was so lost inside of her own mind. She swallowed dryly.

"Yes." She answered shortly.

"Alright." Then he pulled off.

Out the window she couldn't help but glue eyes on Damiáo who jogged out of the apartment block, over to his own vehicle and pulled off a short time after they did.

Her heart began to instantly hammer in her chest.

As they moved easily on the road she became increasingly conscious of the sound of motorbikes filling the air and when she looked out of the back window, she saw that Fabien and another young man with a helmet on had come to trail behind Damiáo too.

She knew then that Damiáo's plot had been better thought out than she first perceived. He had not come here alone, and he was no longer outnumbered.

Her stomach folded into itself with the realisation that to ask the driver to pull over now would likely be a death sentence for both of them. Even asking him to divert their car toward a police station would likely mean a shootout with the police in broad daylight with them trapped in the middle of it.

She couldn't open her throat enough to force out a deadly word of warning that they were being followed, knowing that she would be committing suicide on both of their behalf's if she did so. She simply stayed quiet, barely breathing or moving and by now completely immobilised by fear.

Lia felt weak to her knees. Her hands trembled violently to the point where she had to clasp them tightly in her lap to try to quell her own nervousness.

They turned off onto a street that led up the trail toward the villa once again and only then did the bikes hang back in the distance along the main road, trying not to arouse suspicion. The only one of them who followed now was Damiáo in his car. Lia could feel his eyes piercing into the back of her head as she sat in the car ahead of him, serving as nothing but bait to lead him to the only man in the world that she trusted and who probably expected that he could trust her too.

When they finally got to the villa she felt dreadful. The driver had stepped out of the drivers seat preparing to let her out of the car and she had felt tears escape out of her eyes moments before he was ambushed, beaten to a pulp and left unconscious.

Damiáo's friends soon reappeared, now in the clear.

They'd placed the unconscious driver into the trunk of the car and she was abruptly pulled out of the back seat and prodded in the direction of the large front doors. As she slowly walked, she felt the barrel of Fabien's gun jabbing her ribs as she went forth as their hostage and drew out their next victim.

They hid close by when she rung the doorbell and after some time, Samuel came to answer it.

"Hey." He'd swung the door open for her and she noticed his face drop when he saw her tear strewn face.

"Run-" her mouth was covered before she could warn him and she was quickly pulled out of the way allowing the boy's to charge in. There was plenty of shouting between them, followed by the sound of scuffling as the beating of Samuel commenced.

All three of them piled on him like a pack of vicious wolves and even once he was down they stamped on his body and eventually his head until blood seeped through his mouth and nose. When Sam was finally lifeless and limp, the gradually stopped.

Lia felt bile swim around her stomach moments before they hauled his motionless body out of the entryway.

"Sam? Is that you?" Her heart almost stopped when she heard Michael's gentle voice calling from upstairs and soon he walked unsuspectingly into the chaos that had already begun downstairs.

"Mãos ao ar!" Fabien screamed and a look of terror dawned on Michael's face as he stared down at the loaded barrel pointed up at him from below. Fabien pulled Lia close to him and yelled in her ear. "Tell him to put his hands up!" he shouted.

"Lia..." Michael had said from the top floor. She felt more tears cascading down her cheeks.

"Michael...please just do what they say." She said.

"Mãos ao ar!" Fabien yelled.

"He asked you to put your hands up." Her voice broke and Michael slowly did so. Fabien whispered another command to her. "Come down." She called up to Michael.

"Lia what is this?" Michael asked as he began to descend the steps.

"Where's the money?" Damiáo asked Lia and she sniffed.

"E-Everything is valuable..." she answered reluctantly and. She waited with Fabien clutching her hair while both Damiáo and the third man who she did not recognise, began taking everything they perceived as potentially valuable out to the car.

"Good girl." Fabien petted her. He pushed Lia down onto her knees facing him and then directed Michael to do the same once he was on the ground level.. He made them both kneel there as he pointed the gun on them.

"Ask him where the cash is." Fabien urged her. She took a deep shaking breath.

"He asked where they can find cash." She uttered fearfully. Michael ducked his eyes and did not look up at Fabien as he spoke only to the ground in Lia's direction.

"There some money in my dresser draw and in the wallet next to my bed." He said clearly trying to force himself to be calm. When she told Fabien he immediately raised his voice through the large open house.

"Procure no quarto!" he yelled as they frantically ransacked the place.

Her eyes slid miserably across to Michael but he simply stared at Samuel's limp form bleeding out on the ground and his breathing became much heavier than she had ever witnessed before. He was silently trying to soothe the intense anxiety that she knew he was experiencing.

"I'm sorry..." She said barely above a whisper, though the apology seemed to rest on deaf ears. Michael didn't bring his eyes away from Samuel. "I couldn't get away from Damiáo ...I am so sorry." She said but Michael could say nothing and when she'd tried to touch his hand he slid it inches away from hers.

"You couldn't get away, so you thought you'd bring your cousin and all these guys here to rob me? I tried to help you Lia...now there's a gun in my face." He'd uttered snappily, the realisation dawning on his face.

"It's not like that, Michael. He isn't my cousin, he isn't-"

"But you said he was." Michael finally turned to her, his eyes glazed with a clear film of water and his jaw finally clenched shut with an emotion she had only ever seen once when she had annoyed him and he'd stormed away from her at the beach.

It was a subtle aura of rage that frightened her and threatened the foundation of their friendship. Slowly she felt his trust in her slipping away. "Or were you lying about that too?" he asked, and it hurt her, but furthermore it hardened her.

She could say nothing, for it seemed what he had thought of her all along was finally coming to the surface.

He saw her as a liar and she was.

Soon Damiáo returned to them and flicked Lia's chin as she stared glumly out at the wall ahead. Eventually, she lifted her eyes slowly to his. Hating him more the longer she lay eyes on him.

"Eu amo você." He made a kissing noise toward her and she felt physically sick, then he pointed the gun on Michael.

"Pretty boy." He had addressed Michael moments before sliding his gun down his jaw then he placed the gun to Michael's temple.

"Damiáo..." Lia warned but he'd silenced her with a simple finger over his mouth. She felt a lump forming in her throat and her breathing became shallow as she eyed the gun intensely. "You have what you wanted now let's go." She said but still he stared at Michael with a hint of evil amusement in his eyes.

"Damiáo."

Thankfully the tension was broken when the third boy approached with a wad of cash in his hands. Damiáo paused in his slow torment of Michael to look through the notes then slapped the bundle back into the boys hands.

"This isn't enough." He said then looked between Lia and Michael. "Where's the rest of the money?!" He said.

"That's it!" Lia uttered bitterly moments before Damiáo reached out and grabbed her hair causing her to wince.

"Well it's not enough. Ask him again!" he said venomously and she finally spoke.

"They want more money." She said.

"More?" Michael asked. "W-I-I don't have any more." He said and it hurt her to hear him so terrified in this situation and she knew that it had been her fault why this had occurred...

"There is nothing else, you have everything now just go." She yelled at Damiáo and he pushed her head undesirably to the side, finally turning the gun on Michael again.

"If this is all he has with him then we'll just have to call his family." Lia felt the world spinning around her then as Damiáo pushed the situation further and further. "Tell it to him." Damiáo said and she felt herself trembling.

"No." she said firmly and Damiáo looked at her.

"Now Lia, or I swear to god I'll hurt him." Lia got up and stepped ahead of Michael, finally lowering her arms from their surrendered position.

"Then you will have to kill me first." She said and he raised his brows.

"That won't be so hard." He said and she felt her jaw tense.

"Then do it. So I know you mean it." She said and Damiáo frowned before he got into her face.

"Ask him now Lia or I will have no choice!"

"You said you wouldn't do this." She said and he shook his head.

"You will believe anything." He said moments before he shoved her aside.

"Up." He waved his gun at Michael and he quickly stood up from the ground, his large hands still in the air.

"I bet you don't love her now..." He said in Portuguese and Michael simply blinked and trembled slightly as he stared at the ground.

Then without warning, Damiáo reached out and hit Michael across the face causing him to stumble back several paces. Without thinking, Lia caught everyone by surprise when she ran up and tried to take the gun from Damiáo. They struggled back and forth until the gun slipped out of their grasp and landed a few feet away on the ground.

Knowing that it was the difference between life and death, both she and Damiáo dived down for it but by a stroke of luck Lia reached it first. Feeling a rush of victory, she stood up and pointed the gun back at Damiáo.

"NO-!" Damaio screamed.

A gunshot went off in the room.

The sound perforated her eardrums and was followed by a swift wave of panic.

Her hands trembled around the gun as she stood watching Damiáo staring back at her, his mouth half open, as the both of them stood barely able to comprehend what had just happened.

"Lia..." came a choked whisper from between his lips.

As she watched him in the ensuing silence, she felt her legs get weak and she fell onto her knees. The gun clattered to the ground.

Her head fell slowly to see the bloodied hole in her abdomen, then her eyes slowly rose again to see the smoking barrel of Fabien's gun that was still aimed at her.

The third boy fled out of the door first with his bag full of stolen goods.

"Lets go Damiáo! I'll take the car; you can take the bike." Fabien rushed over and slapped his gun into Damiáo's hand. "You can thank me later. Don't leave any witnesses." He growled before he took Damiáo's sack of stolen goods and took off out of the door too.

"Oh god...L-Lia..." Michael called out in a panic and attempted to shuffle closer to her as she spluttered, and her breathing grew more frantic. Michael quickly paused in his movement when he suddenly heard the gun cock once more.

"Move away." Damiáo pointed it at him, his hands now trembling terribly as his anger overcame him in the form of a clenched jaw and tears. "Move away!!!" he yelled and Michael scooted far away from Lia who had since fallen onto her side then rolled onto her back and was now laying on the ground.

Just when Lia had expected Michael to pay the price for his intervention, Damiáo lowered the gun from him again and calmly approached her body alone. He knelt down beside her, and to her surprise, he began to cry as he bent low to kiss her head. He took her hand in his and squeezed it in tightly.

"I'm so sorry...Lia..." he shuddered. "Eu amo você..." he wept as he placed her limp hand to his lips and kissed the back of it softly. Lia's eyes fluttered barely open as she watched him. "I know that this is because of me..." He said then heaved a great exhale then gazed at his gun. "but...I have to finish this now..." He said and her blurry eyes now rested on Michael as he shook his head desperately.

"Please...please don't." Michael began to beg as Damiáo firmly grasped the gun and lifted it toward Michael.

Then in the silent few seconds before Damiáo could pull the trigger, the sickening sound of metal striking bone rung out in the air and Damiáo was cast far over to Lia's left. His gun slid across the room along with him and when he fell he did not get back up.

Lia stayed conscious long enough to see the body of a long, metal, blood-stained bat clattered to the ground a short way away from her, followed quickly by the large, badly impaled body of Michael's security guard Samuel. He had arisen and he had hit Damiáo with every ounce of energy he had left.

Now having fulfilled his job of protecting Michael to the best of his ability, he rested on his back as she did, likely beckoning relief in the form of death.

Her eyes slid back up to the high white ceiling above her.

In her final moments she did not feel pain or anger.

She only felt bliss at the imminent sensation of escape from the world. The last thing she delighted in was the fact that the final thing she would ever see on this earth, was Michael's teary and distressed face hanging over hers, urging her to stay with him as he tried frantically and in vain to keep her from letting go.

NOTE

We are now at the next final chapter, I know this story has been pretty sad up to this point, but I promise it'll all be worth it in the end <3