Page 200 of Bishop

But as soon as I get Bishop onto his side, gravity takes over and he tumbles onto his back. Lifeless.

I squeeze my eyes tighter.

I can’t open them.

I don’t want to.

“Abri?” Remy asks. “Are they dead?”

I suck in breath after breath, my eyes burning beneath shut lids, my heart on fire. “Give me a sec.”

Come on. Where is your strength?

It’s lying on the floor with the man who made me weak.

I force myself to look, to stare down at the little girl who peers back at me, eyes wide, Bishop’s hand cradled under the back of her head like he used his final moments to make sure she hit the floor as softly as possible.

I stiffen. Hold my breath.

She’s looking directly at me but…she’s not moving. I can’t hear her inhales. I can’t hear anything through the pounding in my ears.

She blinks, and all the air rushes from my lungs.

“Tilly?” I gasp, reaching for her.

She keeps blinking. Stunned. Motionless.

“It’s okay, sweetheart.” I place a frantic palm to her chest, feeling the rampant rise and fall of her lungs. “Are you hurt? Can you move?”

“She’s alive?” Salvo calls out.

“Yes,” I wheeze. “You’re safe now, beautiful girl. You’re going to be all right. I promise.” I gently guide her to sit, my hands skimming her limbs for injuries while I try to ignore how Bishop doesn’t move. How his arm remains limp on the floor. “You’re so brave.”

I paste on a calming smile even though my heart breaks and soars and melts all at once.

I’ve never touched her before. Never felt her skin. Now here she is, traumatized, robbed of speech, and covered in blood, but warm and soft beneath my fingertips.

“My name is Abri.” I guide her onto her feet, slowly dragging her toward me. “I’m going to help you. Is that all right?”

Her eyes are fathomless pools of fear, her gaze darting from me, to Adena, then back again. “Momma,” she cries.

For a second I’m caught up in a fairytale where my sweet little girl recognizes me as her mother. That her heart knows me on instinct. Then reality hits like a bus and I realize she’s calling for the woman inside the quiet house. The one who hasn’t come to save her.

“Momma,” she sobs.

“It’s okay.” I pull her into my arms, nestling her against my chest, holding her with so much love. But rage enters the mix, nipping at the edges of my tenderness, swirling with the sorrow.

I shuffle on my knees, turning to face my mother. “What did you do to her parents?”

She gives me a haughty look. “Their services were no longer needed.”

I slowly rock back and forth, unsure if the comfort is for me or Tilly. Unsure how I’m going to climb to my feet and walk this innocent girl away from her dead parents.

“You fucking killed them?” Remy leans down to snarl in her face. “Who the fuck are you?”

“She’s the product of loveless parenting,” Lorenzo’s voice calls from the darkness, the light thud, thud, thud of his walking stick approaching. “Aren’t you, Adena?”

My mother spits on the ground before her, releasing a slew of Italian I can’t understand.

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