Page 84 of Merciless Oath

Once I slip out, I stop to hear the click of the lock and then hightail it down the stairs to the main cabin.

My mind is racing as fast as my heart, terrified of what I’m about to stumble into. I don’t know where Enzo ended up, but I hope it’s nowhere near Alexandra and that shriek.

He might not have been able to kill her, but I sure will if she lays another hand on someone I love.

I burst into the dining room. My skyrocketing panic levels, and the frigid winter air has me gasping for air before I even realize what I’m looking at.

I sink down onto the steps, dropping my head in my hands, and for the first time tonight, I allow myself to cry real tears.

They stream down my face, springing from my eyes in big, fat, salty drops. My entire body shakes with grief as I give in to a moment of weakness.

A commotion at the top of the stairs grabs my attention, and I whip around to see Enzo struggling with the door while trying to load a gun.

He spots me sobbing on the stairs, and the blood drains from his face. Slowly, he finishes loading the gun and closes the door behind him.

“The girls?”

“They’re still up at the helm,” I breathe, wiping my snotty nose on the back of my hand. “Thank god.”

“Lenny, come on,” he urges, pulling me up from the step. “You don’t need to see this.”

“I do, though,” I say firmly. “I’m the reason she did all of this.”

“You’re not,” he growls, pulling me to him roughly.

I bury my face in his chest hair, grateful to have something to block my view of Alexandra’s lifeless body bleeding out onto the floor.

“She had problems. She was very, very sick. I won’t have you blaming yourself for any of this, do you understand? It’s enough that she almost killed us—I won’t have her haunting you for the rest of your life.”

I nod softly against his skin, my tears making it feel slick and hot. He pulls away a bit, trying to see around me, but I can’t let him go.

“Lenny,” he whispers, “let me just confirm that she’s dead. Go back up to the girls.”

“No, I’m staying with you.”

“Fine.” He shakes his head, mumbling into my hair. “Always so damn fucking stubborn.”

“I’m a Taurus,” I retort, not knowing why that even matters at this moment.

“I figured.” He snorts and gently pushes me aside.

I climb to the top step and sink down, watching him approach Alexandra’s lifeless body. The scene is so gruesome that I struggle to look.

Good thing I haven’t eaten in forever, or I’d be throwing up.

Alexandra’s arms and legs are covered in shallow, bloody cuts at strange angles. Several smashed wine bottles around her share the same blood.

Pieces of glass litter her body, sparkling like jewels in the morning sun.

“She must have tried to stab herself but couldn’t,” Enzo explains, slowly approaching her body. “Her arms were bound.”

He kneels beside her, placing his fingers on her throat to check for a pulse, but it’s useless. She’s very much dead, her neck bent at an unnatural angle and her eyes wide open.

“She jumped, didn’t she?” I wonder, glancing around the room. “From the table?”

Enzo clears his throat and straightens up. I watch as he gathers the wine-soaked tablecloth, wincing at the broken glass under his feet, and drapes it over her body.

“I don’t know if death was her end goal,” he says, resigned and exhausted. “Maybe she just wanted to cause a scene, maybe she wanted to lure us back here, who knows.”

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