Page 100 of Salvatore

I know what I’m about to see. That doesn’t mean I’m ready to see it.

Blood seeps from what looks like a flesh wound on Vin’s shoulder, staining his dress shirt. His pants are down to his ankles and his body shakes as he cowers on the floor.

I wonder briefly how many sucks Donnie got in before she snagged Vin’s gun. It couldn’t have been too many. But it was enough to shoot him before she turned the gun on herself.

Lucca steps in behind me. Unlike me, his piece remains drawn. “Jesus,” he says.

Donnie, the girl from the neighborhood, the one I grew up with, the one all the girls wanted to be, lays sprawled across the floor, her blood-soaked hair covering her once beautiful face.

In a thousand years, I’ll never erase that moment from my mind. I don’t deserve a reprieve or mercy. Donnie did.

“Crazy bitch fucking shot me,” Vin says, like it’s not obvious. He’s shaking hard, from pain, fear, and God only knows what else. “If I hadn’t moved, she would have nailed me in the chest. I need a cleanup crew now—and the doc. Have them dump the body upstate—”

“Go fuck yourself,” I tell him. I feel wobbly as I rise, but when I face him, my features harden along with my stance.

“What did you say to me?” Vin asks, scorn halting the quiver to his voice.

I don’t feel myself move. From one second to the next, I’m hauling Vin up against the wall by his throat. Lucca’s hand goes up, his piece aimed at my head, but my focus is all on Vin and his reddening face. Vin slaps at my wrists, trying to talk. I don’t let him.

“I’m out,” I tell him.

Drool spills from his mouth. He tries to argue. I give another squeeze. Donnie was a friend. My friend. Lying there like she is, she could have been Aedry, or my brothers. When it comes down to it, Vin has never given a shit about anyone but himself, not even a woman who would have killed for him.

My eyes sting briefly for who Donnie was?that girl from the block who didn’t want to be poor, who wanted to be something better, who just wanted Vin to fucking love her.

I can’t mourn for who Donnie was or what she became. Not now. Just like I can’t stay in this world any longer.

“I’m not asking you,” I say. “I’m telling you. I’m out. And if you come after me, or anyone that’s mine, you’ll fucking wish the bosses finished you off.”

I drop him like the trash he is and storm away, his mangled chokes the only sound I hear until I reach the front door and Lucca calls out.

“Sal . . . I can’t let you leave.”

Maybe he saw me reach for my Sig as I stalked out or maybe he didn’t. I don’t have to turn around to know his gun is out and ready to fire.

I grit my teeth. “I’m done, Lucca. I’ll fight Vin and I’ll fight anyone he sends after me, but I don’t want to fight you.”

I don’t hear him so much as feel him approach. I whip around, my gun out.

Something in his stare keeps me from firing. Slowly, he lowers his gun. “You want out, go,” he says. “It’s not too late for you.”

I watch him, unsure if he’s lying. “What was your woman’s name?Aedry? It’s not too late for you and Aedry.”

Maybe it’s hearing Aedry’s name or the way that he says it that makes me believe him. “It’s not too late for you, either,” I tell him, remembering the way he looked at Autumn. “Walk away. Give yourself a life away from this shit.”

“You little bitch!” Vin calls out. “Kill him, Lucca. Kill him now, God damn it.”

Lucca shakes his head, slow and purposeful. “I’m not done. Not with Vin or the rest of the bosses,” he says.

I freeze in place, taking in what he tells me. “Go,” Lucca says, his tone more of a growl.

In the brief flash of Lucca’s eyes, I see everything he’s about to do. I rush to the door, careful not to make noise.

Lucca’s fast. The shots fired through his silencer are seconds apart. “That was for my sister, motherfucker.”

I shut the door behind me. I don’t have to be in the room to know he’s talking to Vin’s corpse. Yeah, there was more to Lucca than any of us could have known. A lot more.

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