Page 39 of Borrowed Bride

If I die, then at least we die together.

I can’t do this alone.

I reach Marco just as the attackers flee. Those that aren’t dead are driven off by Marco’s men.

I collapse down onto the ground next to him with small stones digging into my knees. Dropping the gun, I slide my hand over the pooling blood on his shirt.

“Marco! Marco don’t you dare! Don’t you dare leave me!”

Hot, sticky blood spills over my fingers and soaks into my skin, staining me as Marco remains silent on the ground, dead to the world. Men run around me, people yell and scream. There’s a few more gunshots and then suddenly, arms grab at me, pulling me away.

“No!” I scream as my heart races so fast it becomes a blur. “No!” I try to claw my way back to Marco but the guard holds me back, allowing members of the hospital to sweep in and do their job.

“Marco!”

He doesn’t answer me. I’m released as Marco is hauled onto a gurney and raced into the hospital, along with those around me who also took a bullet or two.

I can’t breathe.

I can’t think.

This cannot be happening.

Marco’s blood stains my hands, and Tara’s stains my soul.

How is this happening? How is my life suddenly crumbling apart as fast as it came together? How are the peopleIlove taking the brunt of this?

“Fuck,” I whisper, wiping my tears with the back of my wrist. Around me is a sea of carnage; dead bodies, injured men, restless guards, and bullet-riddled vehicles.

My head spins and I turn on my heel as acid rushes up my throat, only it has nowhere to go as I come face-to-face with a woman I haven’t seen in years.

A woman with bright green eyes and deep red hair that looks almost black from the rain soaking into the strands. She regardsme with a stony look, then delicately wipes the corner of her red lips.

“Cherry?” I gasp, gurgling the word as my body seeks to eject the bile in my gut while shock keeps it at bay.

“You don’t have a lot of time,” Cherry says, placing one hand in the pocket of her tan coat. “I remember you were always a little slow, so I’ll keep this simple.”

“What—what are you doing here?Howare you here?”

“You have one choice, if you can even call it that. Walk away, Gianna.”

“What?” I blink furiously as the rain grows heavier, blurring the world around me. This feels like a dream—a terrible, terrible dream.

“Walk. Away.” Cherry sighs wistfully. “Do you need me to spell it out for you?” She walks closer, her heels clacking on the ground like the gavel sealing my fate. “If you enter that hospital, I will kill Tara. And Marco will be next.”

“What?” Confusion explodes out of me and I spit the words. “What the fuck is wrong with you? What did they ever do to you?”

Cherry smirks like a cat. “Them? No, Gianna. This is on you. All of it.”

My stomach falls out of my ass and tension pulls across my forehead. “Wh-what?”

“You know, when I got out of prison on the dime of someone oh so kind, I was excited to get back on my feet. So imagine my disgust when the man I spent ayearmarking, ends up withyouon his arm. The fucking rat that sent me to prison. I spend a year working contacts to get close to him, and you snatch him up in one fucking afternoon.”

“That’swhat this is about?” I gasp. “He was your mark?”

“Don’t act so surprised,” Cherry snorts delicately. “I know your game, Gianna. I know you were doing the exact same thing.”

While true in the beginning, her words cut deeply because they are not true anymore.

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