3. Sacrifice

“You bastard! I told you—” The young master was about to shout at the bodyguard, but the two of them suddenly froze when they heard something.

A slow, deliberate click came from the other side of the locked door. Then the door opened, and a security guard wearing a white uniform suddenly popped out.

“Ohh! Shit!!” The security guard looked in shock at the two men staring at him. But before he could speak again, Theo shoved him back inside and entered together with the man in blue. Theo immediately slammed the door shut when he saw Kuznetsov’s men approaching.

“Who are you? What—” The guard noticed the gun in the hand of the man in blue, instantly putting him on alert. He quickly drew his own gun and aimed it at the two men.

“Hands up.” The two froze when they saw the gun pointed at them. “I said put your hands up!” the guard ordered again, this time with the authoritative tone of law enforcement.

' Why is this fucking day so motherfucking unlucky? ' the man in blue thought. They slowly raised their hands.

“You! The one holding the gun. Throw it in my direction!” The guard aimed his weapon at the man in blue.

' Can I fucking kill this man?' The man in blue was eager to kill the security guard in front of him. Theo watched every movement the guard made, searching for a way for them to escape.

“Throw it now! Don’t even think about pulling that trigger because my finger is faster than yours!” the security guard threatened.

Even though the man in blue was already furious, he chose to calm himself and slowly tossed the gun toward the guard’s feet. But the moment the guard lost sight of Theo, a powerful kick struck the side of the security guard’s head, sending him crashing into the discarded tables nearby.

The guard dropped his gun, which the man in blue immediately picked up. “I will make you swallow your own bullet, you sucker!” He approached the guard and shoved the gun into the security guard’s mouth. The guard nearly begged him to stop, but the man in blue only responded with a grin.

“You’re brave, aren’t you? Oh, let’s see how brave you really are!” The man in blue smiled as he slowly pressed the trigger.

“AHHHHH!”

*BANG* *BANG*

Successive gunshots echoed throughout the entire room.

“Shit…”

But those shots didn’t come from the man in blue’s gun. It was Kuznetsov’s men firing as they forced the door open, riddling it with bullets.

“Young master, let’s go!” Theo immediately rushed to his young master and dragged him out of the room.

They ran away from that room, and just as they exited, the door burst open and Kuznetsov’s men stormed inside.

They saw the security guard lying on the floor and immediately dragged him toward a man with a higher rank among them. The man pointed his gun at the guard’s head.

“P-Please don’t, I’m begging you, don’t kill me,” the security guard pleaded, almost kneeling before them.

“Answer my question. Where is Guerrero?”

“W-Who is Guerrero? I-I don’t—” The armed man pressed the gun harder against his head.

“WHERE IS HE?”

Out of sheer terror, the security guard pointed toward the door Theo had escaped through, thinking they were the ones the armed men were looking for. The man immediately signaled his companions to chase them.

The security guard let out a deep breath, thinking he was safe but without mercy, the man shot him and left his body on the floor before going after Theo.

The building was filled with screams and gunfire. Both sides exchanged shots, and many employees were caught in the crossfire, but they didn’t care.

They reached the main office, where people were running away in panic. Some begged not to be killed, but Kuznetsov’s men slaughtered innocent people without hesitation.

The two hid under an office desk and watched as the armed men entered the main office, carrying both small and large firearms.

“GUERRERO, COME OUT NOW!” The armed man sprayed bullets across the entire office, sending papers flying off the desks. Vases, mugs, and glass shattered loudly.

“WHAT, IS YOUR TAIL TUCKED BETWEEN YOUR LEGS NOW? WEREN’T YOU BRAVE? DON’T HIDE BEHIND YOUR DOG’S TAIL!” They continued firing while laughing.

'You… you really want to die that badly, don’t you?' The man in blue cocked his gun, ready to shoot the armed men, but Theo suddenly stopped him.

“Don’t! There are too many of them. It’s just the two of us. We’ll have a hard time fighting if we even run out of bullets,” Theo said seriously as he tightly held his young master’s hand.

The man in blue had no choice but to suppress his anger. Theo scanned the area again and spotted a glass window. In the entire office, that glass window was the only one wide open.

'If we break that glass, we can use it as an exit, but it will be difficult if we both run toward it at the same time.' Theo let out several deep sighs.

He knew someone had to stay behind as a decoy so the other could escape and that someone would be him. He had to pull his young master away from the brink of death. If his young master died here, it would be better for him to die as well, because that would be his punishment anyway once he returned to the Guerrero mansion. His life now depended on himself and his young master.

“Young master, listen to me. I’ll draw their attention, and you need to shoot that glass and jump out the window,” Theo said seriously, causing the man in blue to frown.

He stared at Theo for a few minutes before slowly nodding. “You can survive, can’t you?”

Theo gave a small smile and nodded. But deep inside, he was terrified, one wrong move and death would be inevitable. He took a deep breath and peeked out from under the desk where they were hiding. He grabbed a pencil case and a pair of scissors.

He looked at the armed men and saw that they had started searching each desk and were getting close to Theo’s position.

' You can do this, Theo ' he encouraged himself. He crawled to another desk without being seen and signaled the man in blue to get ready.

He threw the pencil case hard toward the wall and shouted, “NOW!”

As the armed men fired repeatedly at where the pencil landed and at the desk Theo had been hiding under, the man in blue shot the glass window. He ran out through the window, and to prevent the armed men from following him, Theo secretly lunged backward at an armed man nearby and slit his throat. He used the dead man’s body as a shield as bullets rained down on him. He grabbed the gun from the corpse and used it against the armed men.

“AHHHHH!”

Theo fired wildly, bullets tearing through desks and shattering monitors as the armed men screamed and scattered.

But just as he took another step forward, he felt something cold press against the back of his head.

“Gotcha...!” a terrifying voice whispered behind him.

Theo froze, his breath hitching in his throat.

And then he heard the unmistakable click of a safety being turned off.