Page 100 of Corrupted Empire

The bullet hits Felicity in the chest, and she collapses.

“Silvano!” I roar, catching the attention of my second, who is nearby holding a bloody knife. “Get Alexis to safety!”

The hardwood floor is wet and sticky against my hand, and I lift it groggily up to my face. It’s blood. I look down at the wound in my chest.My blood.

My strength saps away, and I sag to the floor.

35

Alexis

There is so much commotion in the ballroom that I can hardly tell who is who, which side is which. There are people grappling on the ground, someone strangling someone against the table, bodies strewn across the floor. Antonio’s wife Sheila roundhouse kicks a Cartel member in the face, and her dress rips all the way up her thigh. I decide if I make it out of here, I have to learn how to do that.

“Silvano! Get Alexis to safety!”

Gabriel.

I blink, and it’s like the world comes back into focus. My fingers are clenched so tightly around the gun in my hand that the knuckles have gone white. The gun. Felicity. I look down and see the woman who claimed to be my mother bleeding out on the floor. The ruby-red blood is striking against her pale skin and white dress, and flecks of it have spattered her blonde hair. It looks like I killed an angel.

An angel in disguise.

Someone grabs my arm, and I whirl on them, pointing the gun. Silvano puts his hands up, grimacing.

“Careful, I don’t have many lives left,” he says. “We need to get you to safety.”

“Do you have a phone?” I ask, lowering the gun.

He leads me past Dom and Antonio, who are hoisting Gabriel up between them. Both of them hiss in pain as the action elicits complaint from the wounds they endured the night Gabriel killed Kevin Lynch. “I called for backup already.”

“I need to make sure Harry and Clara are okay,” I insist.

“When we get to the safe room, you can call whoever you want.” Silvano pushes through the door and peeks around the corner before guiding me through. I look behind me to make sure Dom and Antonio are following with Gabriel, and my heart breaks. They’re having to drag him because he can barely move his feet. His head hangs down, long black hair falling over his face.

“Alexis, you can’t help him right now,” Silvano says, drawing my attention back to the task at hand. “We’re almost there. Do you still have bullets?”

I lift the gun up to eye level and frown. I have no idea how to check.

We make it into the bedroom with the hidden door, and Silvano lopes across the room to the closet, calling instructions back to me. “That’s a semiautomatic handgun, so click the button on the back to slide out the magazine.”

I check and see the magazine is about half full. I slide it back in. “Yeah, I’m good.”

The door is open, and Silvano ushers me inside. Dom and Antonio bring Gabriel through and lower him onto the sofa. I rush to his side.

“I don’t understand,” I say to Silvano as he and the others retreat from the room. “Felicity’s dead. Why hasn’t the fighting stopped?”

“Because the Cartel are sick, violent bastards,” Silvano replies. “Backup should be here any minute, and we should be able to hold them off until then, but do not open this door until you have confirmation that it’s safe.” He tosses me his phone, and I catch it. “The password is 3265. Don’t make me regret telling you that.”

With that, Silvano is gone. The lock on the door clicks closed, and I can barely hear a whisper through the reinforced wall. Now that it’s quiet, I can hear Gabriel’s rasping breaths, and I bolt over to the first aid kit and pull out gauze and disinfectant. I dial Clara’s number and put the phone on speaker as I start cutting Gabriel’s shirt away.

“Um, hello?” Clara answers.

Relief swells through me. At the very least, Clara is alive. “Clara! Are you okay?”

“Alexis, what the hell is happening? I’ve been trying to call you!”

I peel the bloody fabric back from Gabriel’s chest and wince. The knife wound is still weeping blood, and as I remove the fabric from his shoulder, I find a bullet wound in his arm as well.

“I left my phone in the middle of a battlefield,” I tell Clara. “Gabriel and I are safe for now, but I needed to know that you and Harry are okay.”

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