Page 179 of Hidden Empire

I had a twin.

I had a twin brother, and Karina killed him.

Dmitri prepared me for the idea that my mother may be dead, but a twin? I could never have prepped for the possibility of that being stolen from me.

I look at the demented woman in front of me, and I can’t understand how we share the same DNA.

“In hindsight, it’s a good thing the little thing died,” she muses, suddenly even more satisfied at our speechlessness. “Taking a woman from Dante Moretti is nothing compared to taking a son from him. I can live with the fact that you love Jade; I hadn’t expected it, that’s true. But you’re not just living everyday without her mother, you’re going to have to live everyday without her other half.”

Nononono.

“Stop talking,” Dad barks, the order slipping through his collected facade.

Karina doesn’t listen, relishing every reaction she can pull out of him.

“You’ve got two sets of twins, don’t you? How’s it feel knowing you made three but will only ever know five of the six?”

“Dmitri!” a voice calls out from deeper within the house. It’s like a cry for help or a worried yell, I can’t decide which, but it causes my ears to whoosh with blood.

Fear licks up my spine, and I grab Ivan’s arm. “You have to go check?—”

“No fucking way,” he replies, voice shaking.

“I’ve got her,” Cassio tells him quickly. When Ivan doesn’t budge, he adds, “You’ll lay down your life for her, but so will I. Go check on him.”

He looks like he’s going to refuse, but I cup his face, kissing the corners of his mouth. “Please, I can’t live without him. Ivan, please?—”

“Take her to the safe room,” he demands, kissing my face in return. “Go now,” Ivan instructs. Pulling a gun from the back of his belt, he starts to rush off. But just as he flees the room, vanishing from our sight, Cassio can’t get me out soon enough.

Unpredicted chaos breaks out as gunfire peppers through the air, and a scream crawls up my throat. The shots aren’t coming from any of us, they’re coming at us.

My hands cover the front of my stomach, and I curl in on myself, feeling hot zips of bullets far too close to me. I watch in horror as Cassio dives through the line of fire to push me. Before I can blink, he’s tackling me to the floor, using his body to shield mine. But he’s not the only one.

Uncle Cesar is on us in a second flat, crowded us with his body.

I can’t see anything, but I can hear laughing. Horrible haunting laughter coming from Karina. Worse than that, I feel blood. Not my own, and not Cassio’s.

When the ringing of bullets ends, my brother pulls our uncle off of us, hands trembling as he puts him on his back to check him over.

“Jade, tell me you’re okay,” he demands harshly.

I’m not okay.

“I’m not hit,” I rush out. And more importantly, no one landed on my stomach.

I scramble to my knees, stupidly disregarding the room around us to help my brother tend to Uncle Cesar. I think my heart stops beating entirely when I see how bad it is. His previously white shirt is scarlet red, the bulk of the color stemming from his chest. He got hit, multiple times from the look of it, and he’s not wearing kevlar.

“You stupid fuck,” Cassio whispers, clutching him close. “Why would you do that? I could have—” He chokes on the words, struggling to speak. “I could have seen them again.”

Cassio wasn’t just willing to die to save me, he was willing to die to see Isobel and his son. An awful wave of emotion hits my gut, but Uncle Cesar smiles. Blood stains his grin, and he reaches to pat my distraught brother’s hand.

“I’ll say h-hello for you, nipote.”

“Say hi all on your own,” Karina suggests, aiming a gun right at Cassio’s heart from above. I don’t know how she got out of the chair or where my father is, but I can’t think as I start screaming helplessly with fear for Cassio.

My horrified shrieking doesn’t deter her, only hardens her features as she holds the pistol out straight, hands steady. “Two Moretti sons now,” Karina boasts, licking her lips. “I’m so glad you’re here to see this, Jade.”

Before her finger can move for the trigger, the weapon is shot out of her hand, a bullet ripping right through her wrist.

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