Pretending to Be an Untouchable Crime Boss-Chapter 389: Run!

Everything had been on their bingo card… from Hector to Bella to James to literally everybody thought about whether there would be betrayal from inside or a sudden shift in loyalty from the government that could turn into open war overnight.

Like the government, the entire purpose of working with them was to wipe off every other mafia family and in the end the only thing remaining would be to wipe off the Bellini family so the government could easily become the one that controls the whole drug market even James knew that a possibility was there even if they had so many connections, and on the other hand there was the thought of betrayal, especially after Xavier.

But what they had not written on their bingo cards… was a fucking earthquake, and this was not a small shake that made lamps swing or caused people to pause for a moment before returning to their normal lives, and it was not the kind of light tremornah, this earthquake felt like they were being fucking carpet bombed.

Their only real piece of luck in that moment was the basement beneath the house, and even that luck existed only because Hector and his team reinforced the entire property from the gates to the windows to everything, making sure they could defend against any attacks.

Basically, the basement had been rebuilt with survival in mind, with bombproof doors, with reinforced concrete walls, and with structural supports designed to withstand explosions, because Hector feared that if the government came they would not do drive bys but would fucking blow up the whole place. What Hector basically bult was a fucking bomb shelter and that was the only reason they still had a chance to survive because even with all that reinforcement, the entire house shook so violently that dust poured from the ceiling in thick clouds, cracks spread across the walls and the noise was constant with crashes from the upper floors, and it truly felt as though the house was breaking apart piece by piece while the ground continued to roll beneath.

"Are you good, James?!" Hector shouted, as obviously the electricity went out too, and in the darkness nothing was visible.

"We good!" James shouted back as he saw nothing either, just the dark, though he knew Charlotte was there, and he kept her locked tight to himself as he fell down with the stairs onto the ground, though he panicked a bit, not about the earthquake but about the fact that Charlotte did not scream nor cry, not even one word came from her, the only thing he was hearing was her breathing and that was it. "Charlotte, are you good?!" He shouted again as he petted her head, but felt something wet on her.

"I-I'm good…" Her low voice came almost like a whisper, and when Bella and Hector finally found their phones and put on the flashlight, well what they saw was everything but good, at least for James.

Charlotte was truly good, without a scratch, nothing bloody on her as James's body shielded her, she was just in mild panic from the whole thing, though on the other hand James was in a bit of bad shape.

"Fuck!" Bella shouted as she pulled off her sweater and pressed it against James's head as it was bleeding, the blood pouring out of his head as he had hit it into the wall when he fell, but he did not feel it, not even for a moment, the adrenaline was pumping through him… though he noticed something else.

"Shit…" He said as he looked at his hand and up at Hector, and he kind of smiled because it was funny, like literally it was funny to him seeing his finger just fucking sideways.

"It's just dislocated, I'll put it back!" Hector said as he grabbed James's right hand and his pinky finger was bent to the side, and well Hector did not really care too much, popped it back right away without any thought. "Are you losing consciousness?"

"No, I am good." James said as he looked at Bella, who looked at him like he had just been shot or something. "Just lightheaded, nothing more, check Charlotte."

He looked down, and as Hector checked her, there was nothing, she was all good, just panicked as fuck, and of course she was.

It was not just the earthquake but the fact that James's blood had dropped right onto her face, reminding her of the same thing that happened when they got attacked, the same day he almost died.

"I'm going to wrap it around your head and then we can move!" Bella shouted as she wrapped her sweater around James's head tight, while Hector himself went to the far end of the basement where there was another door… the door that led outside to the garden, and they needed to be quick because the shake was getting even worse, forcing the cracks in the walls to grow bigger and more, the dust flailing down like the whole fucking place was collapsing.

"I'm here, Charlotte." James said as he got up, with Bella holding her head, and pulled her up again, hugging her tight and covering her head while, with Bella's help, he slowly ran toward the door where Hector was ready to open it.

"Once it's opened, just hang straight to the middle of the garden, there's nothing that can fall on us!" He shouted as he looked at them, then opened it.

Well, the first thing that hit them was the chaos. All the trees, the flowerbeds, even the outside furniture, were over on the ground like someone had bombed it. Right in front of them, in the middle of the garden, were a few people, mostly the guards, all there in a group.

So they made a run for it and thanks to the adrenaline he felt no pain in his legs as he ran through the debris, as the ground shook under his feet, he didn't even think about it. He just ran with Charlotte, and with Bella's help straight to the garden where the guards grabbed and after they were safe he looked back and realized that they truly had luck, as the house was in half collapse on the right side… but after a moment something else caught everybody's attention.

It was the emergency warning coming from the sirens.

"Tsunami…?"