Page 134 of Coerced Queen

My name comes from that distant place yet closer now, but I’m trapped with Raphael in that defining moment between life and death where nothing else exists.

“Go ahead,” Raphael taunts.Splutters.“Shoot me.”

“How does it feel to know you’ll never see your son, that another man will raise him, and that he’ll call someone else his father?”

The pretense drops.The real man shows himself when he utters a raw cry of fury and tries to reach for me like a feral animal with bared teeth.He claws the air and grabs the barrel of the rifle.I easily pull it from his palms, which are slippery with blood, and push it between his eyes again.It feels right to do it now—when he’s stripped from all pretenses down to his true, naked, despicable self.

“No one lays a finger on my daughter, Morelli.”

Knowledge courses between us.This is the moment.The end.Despite this certain fact, surprise widens his eyes when I caress the trigger.The spring tightens behind my index finger.

Pop.

Surprise is frozen on his face.Denial is the sentiment he takes to his grave.

“Fuck, Anya!”

It’s only then that I allow myself to feel the pain.To experience everything.

Warm hands grab my shoulders and pull me against a hard chest.

“Give me the gun, treasure.”

Saverio’s spicy scent wraps around me.I tilt my head up, staring at his scarred features.He takes the rifle from me and hands it to someone.

His mouth is set in a hard line, the blue of his eyes like ice as he examines my bicep.“Get the car.She’s bleeding.Gunshot.”

I’m both numb and cold, grateful for the coat he hangs over my shoulders.The ground disappears from under my feet.He’s lifted me into his arms, holding me against his chest.

His leg.

He can’t carry me.

I want to tell him that, but he’s already walking with long, uneven strides toward twin lights burning in the dark.

Headlights.

Vehicles.

“You came,” I say, thinking out loud.

He jostles my body, adjusting my weight in his arms.“Always,tesoro.”

Dante stands next to an SUV.He opens the back door for Saverio.

When Saverio lowers me onto the seat, I grip Dante’s forearm.“You have to make sure they’re all dead.”

Saverio’s tone is clipped.“No one could’ve survived that blast.”

“Double check,” I say, tightening my fingers on Dante’s arm.

Dante’s lips lift in one corner.“Yes, boss, Lady Luck.”

While Saverio deposits me with the utmost gentleness on the seat, Dante calls a guard over and instructs him to do a body count.Saverio comes around the car and shifts in next to me.Dante takes the wheel.

“We can’t go to the hospital,” I say.“You know the drill.”

Saverio clenches his jaw.“Let me see your arm.”

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