Page 107 of Where Dark Hearts Devour
My mind spins as I wait for the lights to switch.
Trilby.
The light turns green, my heart drops, and my chest caves. I ram my foot down and weave through the cars in front. Horns sound behind me, but if anyone dares pull me over, they’ll get a bullet between the eyes.
Please don’t touch that water.
The end of the street is in sight, but cars collect, slowing to a standstill at another set of lights. I mount the sidewalk and burn along it, the car half-on, half-off. Tables and chairs scatter; people scream. Tires squeal along hot asphalt and metal scrapes against metal as I slide the car past those waiting patiently for the lights to change. I spin past oncoming vehicles and race down the remaining part of the street.
Less than a minute later, I’m burning back into the parking lot outside my childhood home. Security guards stand back to watch as I pull out a gun and shoot open the main gates. I don’t have time to recall any codes right now, and the intercomwould be useless—I’m the last person Savero will want to see, especially if he hopes I’m already dead.
When the gates swing open, I sprint to the house. More security guards step into view, but they know better than to challenge a Di Santo who must look like he’s prepared to burn the fucking world down. The doors are still open, so I run through them, pulling up short in the kitchen.
Savero has gone.
Three glasses sit on the kitchen island. Two empty, one half-full.
With my heart in my throat, I step around the island, and my gaze falls to the floor.
Trilby.
In a beat I’m on my knees, my fingers pressed against the side of her throat. I can’t feel a pulse. I lift her wrist and run my thumb over the soft skin. Nothing. I press my ear to her chest. A weak thumping sound gives me hope, but I have to move fast. I scoop her up and get to my feet. Her head flops toward the ground, so I lift an arm, bringing her to my chest. The way her forehead smacks against my ribs sends shivers through my bones.
Minutes.
I might only have minutes.
I run with her back to my car and thank God I left the door open and the engine running. Just as I’m placing her along the back seat, Augusto’s car screeches to a halt.
“Call the hospital!” I yell at him. “She’s been poisoned. Her heart’s failing.”
A dark shadow of realization falls over his face, and he presses a phone to his ear. When I look in the rearview mirror, I see him speaking.
Then I focus on nothing but the road up ahead and my heart in the back.
Cristiano
A medical team is already gathered at the doors of the hospital as I crash through the barrier and swerve to a halt. The Di Santo family has been keeping this place in business for the past decade with all the patients we send its way. They’ll do whatever the hell they can to save the one in the back of my car—I’ll make sure of it.
They’ve opened the doors before I’ve even rounded the hood, and I press a knuckle to my mouth as they gently lift Trilby out and arrange her boneless limbs on a trolley. My heart is pounding through my rib cage. I can’t think of anything but keeping her alive.
The fact hits me again like a bullet between the eyes.
I love her.
And if she dies, it won’t just be Savero I annihilate; it will be anyone who crosses my path in the process.
Words are shouted between them, and a medic rushes over with what looks to be a portable defibrillator. Another places herself in front of me, gently pushing me backward.
“Stand back please, sir.”
I look over her head—I need to see what’s happening.
“You might want to look away too.”
Screw that.
I glare at the woman, and she steps to one side, just as a jolt of electricity surges through the two pads pressed against Trilby’s breastbone. Her body jumps into the air. One of the nurses counts, and the words blur into one in my distorted mind. The pads are taken to her lifeless body, a loud bang sounds, and she jumps again.
