Page 88 of Gilded Princess

I make my own fate.

And I’m not dying today, neither is Matteo.

With a battle cry Xena would be proud of, I grab the gun with both hands and fire at them.

“Fuck! That fucking bitch shot me,” one of them growls as the other one advances on me. “What’re you doing, man? He said just to get the guy. He didn’t say shit about a girl.”

I fire the gun again, and he ducks, narrowly avoiding a lucky headshot.

“Yeah, well, I’m not fucking leaving a witness. Do you want to do twenty-five to life?”

He advances on me, grabbing the gun in his big hand and wrenching it to the side, away from his body. I tighten my grip and focus on bringing the gun closer to this guy so I can take another shot. I know I only have a few seconds before he either wrestles it away from me or just fucking shoots me. I’m not sure why he hasn’t yet, but I’m thanking fate for small favors.

I shut out Matteo’s heavy breathing, shove down the overwhelming panic threatening to loosen my muscles. But the intruder is too strong for me.

“Fuck this.” He huffs, the noise angry. He raises his palm high in the air before he backhands me with enough force to send me to my knees.

My hair flies into my face and my vision swims. I taste the familiar copper of blood in my mouth. I push up onto my feet, swaying and raising the gun again. Squinting to see straight, I try to fire, but the guy closest to me shoves the gun upward, forcing the shot to go wild.

“Do you have a fucking death wish, you crazy bitch. I’m trying to save your life,” the guy hisses in my face as he squeezes my wrist hard.

I cry out in pain and despair when my muscles involuntarily flex and I lose the grip on the gun.

“Just bring her with us, we’ll drop her at the messenger’s house when we pick up payment. But hurry the fuck up, we’ve been here too long already.”

The guy holding my wrist growls something unintelligible underneath his breath and tries to pick me up with an arm around my middle.

It’s like something inside of me snaps, and I’m not in Matteo’s secret apartment anymore. I’m on the street outside the Blue Lotus Café, and I fight like my life depends on it. Kicking and screaming and scratching. I dig my nails into any available soft surface, never stopping no matter how many times he fends off my hands or maneuvers me.

In my darkest moments, when I was all alone, I replayed the events of that day over and over again, agonizing over what I could’ve done differently, wishing I would’ve fought back harder.

It’s like this secret part of me has been unlocked, and I’m no longer myself. I’m the very basest version of myself.

Survival of the fittest.

And I will not be dying today.

I was lucky last time, but fate is not granting me a boon today. My cousin is in another city and my savior is bleeding out in the entryway.

“Enough,” the other guy yells.

But I don’t stop. I’ll never stop. It’ll be a fight to the death, gladiator-style, because I know if they take me, I’ll be as good as dead.

I catch it out of the corner of my eye, but not with enough time to move out of the way, and the other guy slams a gun into my head.

As fate would have it, I’m still no match for a gun.

Consciousness leaves me, and everything goes black.

Chapter Thirty-Four

ARIES

I force a chuckle, a smile pasted on my face, as some hanger-on tries way too hard to earn approval from the upper echelon of society. She’s pretty in that girl next door kind of way, but she’ll never survive a summer season with this nest of vipers.

I’m in the ballroom of some charity function where drinks flow and the food is far and few between. The more people drink, the easier it is to get them to donate for whatever charity they’re sponsoring tonight.

I resist the urge to loosen my tie as I pretend to listen to the conversation around me. I’m preoccupied, scanning the room for a certain redhead, my raven. I haven’t seen her at the last two functions, and I know it’s unreasonable, but I’m getting annoyed.

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