Page 104 of His Property

I look down at Cora whose eyes are still wide, but now empty. She no longer moves or struggles to breathe. I flip her over and find the bullet hole in her lower back.

My eyes snap back to Lorenzo. I open my mouth and speak the only word I can manage. “How?”

Lorenzo pulls a knife from his pocket and tosses it at me. It rattles on the floor and skids to a stop beside me.

“Cut Mae loose.”

I grab the knife and crawl to Mae.

“Your sister called the casino,” Lorenzo explains. “Apparently, neither of you have been answering your phones, and she was worried. She wanted to make sure whatever you were speeding toward was work related. Apparently, she was watching your location on an app.”

I fucking love you, Gabi.

I cut Mae loose, and she removes herself from TJ to curl into my arms and sob.

Blade walks into the room, a rifle with a scope thrown over his shoulder, and Emily follows behind him.

“You owe Emily a ‘thank you,’ by the way,” Lorenzo says. “Both Blade and I wanted to rush the building. She suggested we do surveillance first in case you were in danger. We heard your voices from outside, and Blade was able to get sights on your mother through the window.”

“Thank you,” I say to her, tears stinging my eyes. I hug Mae tightly and rest my chin on her head.

Emily bites her lip and nods. She looks like she might break out into tears herself, but she looks at Lorenzo. “We should give them a minute.”

Lorenzo moves his gaze to the two bodies on the floor, then to Mae, and he nods. They walk from the room, Blade and Emily each giving us a sad look before turning their backs.

“I’m so sorry,” I whisper, pulling back.

Mae sobs and presses herself into me again. I peel away enough to shift and press two fingers against TJ’s Carotid. I feel a faint pulse. If we got him to a hospitalnow, he might live.

But… he’s a witness. How will I explain that to Lorenzo?

“Well?” she asks, her voice cracking as she watches for my reaction.

I hesitate to answer, but when I see the anguish in her eyes, my chest constricts, and nothing in the world matters except taking away her pain.

I flick my eyes to the door, then pull out my phone.

“Victor.”

“He’s alive.” I dial 911 as Mae’s hope fills, and I put the phone to my ear. My heart beats rapidly, as rapidly as the day I took my shirt off for my eighth grade English teacher to show her my scars. And I feel the same as I did back then. Terrified.

“911, what is your emergency?”

“I heard gunshots at a warehouse in Naked City. You need to send an ambulance. I think someone’s been hurt.” I tell the operator the address, then hang up the phone when she asks for my name.

“Come on,” I say to Mae, pulling her up with me.

“I can’t.” She jerks away from me to resist, but I pick her up while she struggles and screams.

I meet the others in the hall, and they must’ve heard because they all give me the ‘What the fuck did you just do?’ look. I walk past them without saying anything, and Blade runs around me.

“I’ll get the car!” he calls, not looking back. We hurry out of the building and climb into the SUV when Blade pulls around, screeching the tires as he stops. We peel out of the parking lot, sirens blaring behind us.

Mae finally stops struggling when she hears the sirens, and she looks over my shoulder through the back window.

“He’s gonna be okay,” I assure her, squeezing her shoulders.

Fesh tears pool in her eyes when she looks back at me. She leans in to kiss me, and I close my eyes and drink in her pain. I feel it mix with my own, and I kiss her with an intensity that I hope conveys how I feel. I never would’ve walked out of that warehouse without her. If she had died, I wouldn’t have wanted to live.

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