Page 86 of Revenge & Ruin

How could I have been welcoming death only a few hours ago?

When here, right now, everything inside of me is begging for me to live. Tolive,damn it.

Because this man doesn’t get to kill me.

That honor goes to the only man I’ve ever truly loved.

And it's horribly cruel that this realization hits me right now. Because if I’d figured it out sooner, if I’d juststayedthere in the bunker, safe and sound, I could have prevented all of this.

I could have told him. I could have begged him to kill me instead of facing oblivion without him.

Because death would be sweet if his was the last face I saw.

But the thing about death is it’s never quite so predictable. You don’t get to choose or know when you might face it.

And the cartel, well.

They’re certainly not expecting it to visit today.

But the door to the bar opens anyway, and death walks in.

And all I can do is laugh at the bitter, gorgeous irony of it all.

“Oh, you’re all fucked now.”

23

TEO

The day I killed Giuliano Moretti had been the day I learned some absolute truths about myself.

The first was that the years of training halfheartedly next to Rocco hadn’t been entirely in vain. Attacking came more naturally than defending, but I excelled at both when my brain became quiet like this.

The second was the revelation that my mind has a tendency to shut down when the people I love are in danger. My entire purpose, my only goal, is to eliminate the threat at any cost.

It hadn’t mattered to me that Giuliano Moretti would die, brutally, at my hand. All that mattered was that Rocco and Cas were safe.

And, sure, perhaps walking into a bar filled with almost a dozen cartel men—who would like my head on a pike—wasn’t the most sensible thing in the world.

But none of that mattered, not when I saw who they had in their grasp.

Our gazes only meet for a second across the bar. Her eyes are deep chocolate, wide in fear and in anger, and I feel my mind go very, very calm.

The gun appears in my hand without much forethought, and three rounds go off. At least, I assume they do. Along with my mind, my hearing has gone very, very quiet.

Bang, bang, bang.The sounds vibrate through my hand on the recoil.

Three bodies drop to the floor.

Not his, though. No, I think I’ll save him for last.

The rest scramble to retaliate, shouting out in alarm, feet pounding across the ground toward me. Not that I hear any of it.

Only the slightly manic laughter of the woman I love seems to break through.

Which is a good thing, I think. Because at least I know she’s still alive. She just needs to stay alive a little longer until I can reach her.

But there are seven more bodies in my way. Their faces don’t register. Their voices are lost on deaf ears. They are nothing but an inconvenience, a threat that needs to be eliminated.

---