Page 75 of Velvet Deception

“I’ll kill her. I’ll kill the boy just so you can’t have him either. And I’ll kill you,” Antonio said, seething. “Then the boss will finally see me as worthy. He’ll say I’m his chosen one. His favorite. Not you.”

I shook my head, smiling a wicked grin at him. “I wouldn’t count on it. He gave me one last order to follow before I retire. One last kill to make for him.”

In my peripheral vision, I saw Sofia grip the gun. Without hesitation, she tossed it to me. It landed with a thud near my knee, and I picked it up swiftly before Antonio could.

I didn’t give him a chance to throw me off. I brought the gun up and fired it right over where his heart beat.

“He told me to killyou,” I said with victory singing through my veins. The sick glee, the darkness of death. It consumed me and granted me the pleasure that came with knowing I’d removed another worthless asshole from this world.

I fired again as he stared at me. Dying and screwed with still not getting what he thought he deserved, he pressed his lips together and scowled.

Once more, just for insurance.

His eyes rolled back, and his body went limp.

It was done.

I’d killed the man who’d made me lose myself. I’d taken the life of the rapist who’d terrorized my woman.

“Sofia!” I got off Antonio, letting his body lie right where it was. Hurrying toward my angel, my sweet Christmas angel, I took over compressing her side. Blood puddled, and I tried not to let the panic show on my face. “Angel, we need to get you to help.”

“I’m worried, Diego.” She looked at me with fear in her eyes. Tucking the tip of her tongue against the corner of her mouth, she looked pensive. “I’m worried I’m losing too much blood.”

I nodded. I wouldn’t lie. It was a lot. “I’m no doctor,” I said as I gathered her in my arms.

She shot me a look.

“But that’s a lot of blood.” I turned to Ramon. “Open the door. To my car outside.”

“Diego,” she pleaded as I lifted her. Her face tightened with a grimace. “I’m scared I’ll lose the baby.”

I did a double-take as I carried her.Baby?“What?”

“The baby.”

“My—Our baby?”

She nodded, holding on to me with her arm around my neck as I carried her outside to the SUV.

“I think so. I mean, of course, it would be yours. Ours. But I think I’m pregnant. And I’m losing so much blood.”

“Which is why I’m taking you to the hospital. Right now.”

She shifted, opening her arms more with alarm. “No! Diego. The Cartel rules that hospital. That’s where that man tried to kill you. Where I was taken. You can’t seriously take me to the hospital. The Cartel?—”

“Iamthe Cartel,” I told her, glancing at her as I carried her faster. “I remember who I am now, my angel.”

No confusion lingered.

I was confident in the knowledge that I was the boss’s favorite.

“No one,” I promised her, “including anyone in the whole organization, will ever harm you or Ramon again.”

She stared at me as I set her on the seat in the back.

“Not on my watch, my angel.”

“Not ever again.”

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