Page 61 of Borrowed Bride

It opens easily.

It seems the threat of arson leaves Leo light on the locks.

Inside, the lights are low despite it being early morning, and low music rumbles through the building. I walk red-lined floors, passing glittering curtains and sparkling decor that depict a starry night sky—something that would be pretty if I wasn’t so focused on murder.

“Leonardo!” I bellow as I charge out of the entryway and into the club’s main floor. Four spotlights above drift listlessly back and forth as Leonardo Simone, my target, jolts up abruptly from the table he was leaning over. He has four guards with him, all of whom reach for their guns the moment they see me.

I’m one step ahead and firing off bullets as soon as I spot Leo. The first man to his left takes one between the eyes and collapses like a sack of bricks onto the neon floor. The second man on his right takes three in the chest and he crashes back over the pink leather couch, vanishing through a dark curtain.

As Leo’s men open fire, I continue to sprint forward, blinded by Leo. I don’t feel the bullet that grazes my ribs and tears open my shirt or the spray of glass raining around me when one poorly aimed bullet ricochets and kills one of the spotlights above me.

“You son of a bitch!” Leonardo yells and dives to safety behind the DJ booth, firing widely. I shoot his third guard in the knee, bringing him down, and then when I’m close enough, I kick him hard across the face. Blood and teeth spray through the air, and then the man collapses down next to his dead colleague. The last guy tries to tackle me and as we grapple, Leo rises over the DJ booth and fires directly at me.

I use his bodyguard as a shield and three bullets impact the back of the man I’m fighting.

He coughs and sprays blood in my face, then crumples forward onto me and I’m forced back a few steps under his weight. With a grunt, I’m able to shove him aside and dive behind one of the leather sofas to avoid the next few bullets coming my way.

“Burning down my shit!” Leonardo yells. “You crazy motherfucker! You should be dead, why the fuck aren’t you dead?!”

“You can’t kill me!” I yell back, seething with such fury that saliva sprays between my teeth. “I’m alive just to kill you, you fucking asshole!”

We take pot shots at each other, trying to find an opening to get closer or, in Leonardo’s case, escape out the back door.

“Do you have any idea how many people died in that blaze last night? You fucking psychopath!”

“They would have survived if you hadn’t been hiding like the little weasel you are!” I peek up my head and then immediately duck, narrowly avoiding two bullets. Lifting my hand, I fire a few toward the booth and pray to hear a noise of pain, but none of the bullets hit their target.

I don’t know how many I have left.

I need to get closer.

Panting, I slide across the floor to the edge of the booth and peer around. Leonardo is doing the same thing, and we momentarily lock eyes. Then all hell breaks loose as we each fire widely while diving back behind cover.

“Give it up!” I yell. “Your time is over, Leo. I’m here now and I’m not letting you out of my sight, you hear me? I’m going to kill you so fucking slowly, you have no idea and I’m going to enjoy everyfuckingsecond of it. Because you have made me suffer ever since you killed Gianna. So I’m going to peel the flesh from your face, I’m going to make you watch as I pump you full of drugs and keep you awake so you can see as I cut up your flesh inch by inch!”

“Me?!” Leonardo yells back. “Nah, I’ll be doing that to you, you twisted fucker because we both know you’re the one who killed Gianna!”

What? Is he so caught up in his rat ways that he can’t even remember killing her? Was she that unimportant to him? Just another notch on his belt?

“Oh, you don’t even remember, huh? Killed so many defenseless women that one more doesn’t even make it into your mind, is that it?” I spit on the ground as my blood boils hot with rage, and every fiber of my being screams out to get my hands around that bastard’s scrawny neck. “Her name was Gianna andyou killed her! I’ll etch her name into your fucking bones you cunt, so you’ll never forget!”

“Killed her?” Leonardo sounds like he’s choking on himself. “I tried to save her! From you! You and your fucking curse. She died in that explosion, the explosion that should have killed you, but by some fuckingjoke, you’re still here to terrorize all of us!”

“Bullshit!” I lurch upward and fire at the DJ booth. “You and your fucking assassin killed her!”

“My assassin?!” Leo leans around the booth and fires back, forcing me back into cover. “You can’t pull that shit with me, I see your assassin following me like a fucking shadow, like a threat. And I knew as soon as I poked my head up, they would tell you and lo and behold, here you fucking are!”

“Do you even hear yourself?! I’m here to kill you with my own bare hands, I don’t need a fucking assassin and I sure as hell don’t have one! Your assassin came for me, or did you think the coma would wipe my memory?! And after blowing me up, she blew up the convoy Gianna was in. I don’t know how you two even met but I know she works for you!”

There’s a sudden moment of silence when Leo doesn’t reply, and when I peek around the sofa, I see that he’s standing upright with a strange look on his face.

I take aim immediately and fire, but Leo doesn’t finch and my gun stalls.

I’m out of bullets.

“The assassin, clad in black?” Leonardo says, his voice calmer. “Tall? Lanky? Killer curves?”

“Like you need to describe that piece of shit to me,” I snarl. I don’t even want to know how Fawn and Leonardo ended up working together, but my thoughts about her have warped over the years. In that safe house with Gianna, I was willing to track her down and make amends with her. It was a promise I made. Then I woke up and Gianna was gone.

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