Page 30 of Neverland

Chapter 7

NOW

“When you steal from my customers, you steal from me. Now, who the fuck’s gonna own up?” Dominic bellowed so loud my eardrums rattled. Blaze flinched with pain as he dug the gun muzzle against her temple.

“I haven’t seen this before,” I pleaded, hoping Blaze hadn’t done something stupid. The evidence was stacked against her, and I was collateral damage. She was leaving the club altogether and had asked to use my locker.

“I… don’t… I don’t know,” Blaze blubbered, and I believed her. She wasn’t the stealing type.

Throwing his head back, Dominic laughed. The obnoxious sound grated against my fragile nerves. He was maniacal and out of control, and his reaction had left a distressed Blaze, confused.

“Fucking damn good thing I know exactly who the thief is among us, otherwise I’d be losing two of my top girls tonight. And that would be a waste, wouldn’t it, Anton?”

“Depends on how you look at it,” he replied dryly, no love lost between him and the girls who worked here.

“I look at it the same way God viewed infidels,” Dominic continued, this time with a preacher’s voice. “Wipe the whole fucking filthy palette clean, leaving no one with a pulse. And here we are.” Standing behind Blaze, he pointed the Glock straight at me, eyes narrowed yet loaded with delight. Terror coursed through me causing a string of incomprehensible words to pour from my mouth, begging for mercy. “Now let this be a reminder of who you should be calling God.”

With a wink, he lowered his arm and everything fell into slow motion.

I lunged forward to stop it from happening, but it was too late. My cries mixed with the sound of the gunshot, Blaze’s pretty eyes losing life in an instant.

A spray of blood coated my skin and I felt a searing heat followed by excruciating pain as the bullet passed through Blaze’s skull and into my shoulder. She fell into my arms and we collapsed on the black plastic.

I wept for the best friend so brutally taken away from me. I cried for a beautiful woman who’d died at the hands of Dominic Salvatore. A monster who’d never had a heart. I rocked her in my arms, wishing I could relieve her of her last terrifying moments. But I couldn’t. Nothing could ever erase that.

I blinked through the tears, blood stinging my eyes. I barely saw him approach. But I could smell him over the coppery scene coating me.

“Now, tell me, Lucy. Who is your God?”

I shivered both cold and terrified. “You,” I muttered, teeth chattering.

“Say it.”

“You’re my God.”

He stroked the back of head like I was his favorite puppy. “Good girl. Now, don’t you forget it.”

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