Page 58 of Traitor

I blinked a few times to keep my tears of fear at bay, but when my eyes steadied themselves against the televisions again, I saw something that rattled me to my core. My jaw dropped open as I slowly stood to my feet, moving closer to that television. I lifted my trembling fingertips and pressed them against that face. A face I knew I’d never forget so long as I lived.

“That’s why you were silent,” I whispered.

I searched for Teo, but he was nowhere to be found. I watched as Lorenzo started barking out orders and pointing his fingers, commanding those black-suited men with sunglasses to go before him like the coward he really was. He’d never be a leader with those tactics. So long as he was afraid of a damn bullet, nobody would ever be afraid of him.

And after watching this man burst his way into the apartment I used to occupy, I watched him sit down on a couch.

I know what I have to do.

I started pulling out drawers in Teo’s desk until I found a pistol sitting way back in the back of his bottom drawer. I kept searching around until I found ammunition for the damned thing, then I filled the rotating barrel with the six bullets I needed. I stuffed my pockets full with the rest of the rounds before I walked over to the panic room console and I smiled softly to myself.

I punched in my birthdate and the door hissed open, revealing a chorus of odors that made my nose wrinkle up.

“You’re mine,” I hissed.

With the pistol clutched tightly in my hand, I eased my way down the hallway. I made sure Teo’s office door closed itself tightly shut before I dipped into a room and I watched a couple of men jog by. They slipped into a room at the other end of the hallway and I darted out, making quick work of my feet as I raced up the stairs.

And when I finally stood in front of the door that separated myself from Lorenzo, I raised my gun in front of me.

Before I threw it open at my own behest.

“I know you’re up here,” I said.

Four men quickly trained their barrels on my body as Lorenzo stood to his feet and came around the corner. The door behind me slammed closed as I stared into the eyes of my torturer, my hand clutching the pistol tightly.

“Teo has always had a soft spot for the guns of olden days,” Lorenzo said.

I sucked air through my teeth. “What the hell are you doing?”

He grinned. “Coming to get what’s mine, of course.”

“I’ve never been yours. Not once, and not ever.”

He cracked his neck. “That’s not what I think.”

I cocked the gun. “Just because you think it or feel it doesn’t mean it’s true.”

His men cocked their guns and I knew I should’ve been scared, but I wasn’t. I was more concerned with taking Lorenzo down with me than I was making it out alive. I knew Teo would be irate with me. I knew he’d curse me at my own funeral. But, if my life was the sacrifice for taking this worthless piece of shit out, I’d happily pay the price.

“Any last words?” Lorenzo asked.

I grinned. “Only that these won’t be my last words.”

Then, I aimed my gun for his chest and promptly pulled the trigger.

24

Charlotte

I rolledover in bed and let my arm sprawl across Teo’s waist. But, I didn’t feel him shift.

“Up already?” I murmured.

He snickered. “Funny that you thought I could go to sleep.”

I rubbed his chest. “You didn’t get any sleep last night?”

“I can hear the wind whistling through the holes in my house. No, I didn’t get any sleep.”

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