Page 107 of Forging Caine

I stood still, barely breathing, while Fiori and Bodyguard One left. We had to find a way out.

Jason frowned. “I’ll call the cleaners.”

“I’ve got the kid.” Bodyguard Three nodded to Baptiste, who’d turned green. “C’mon Bap, time to go.”

“Is that what he called me here for?” murmured Baptiste.

The bodyguard steered Fiori’s son out of the room. “I don’t think that was his plan.”

I spun to wrap Samantha in my arms, but she was gone before I could, at Zane’s side to feel for a pulse.

Cam-ron had collapsed, tears streaming down his face.

Jason helped him up. “I’ll take him to his room. You two should go to yours until the signore calms down. Don’t leave your room until I come and get you.”

I knelt by Samantha, who sat next to the body, a pool of blood slowly creeping across the floor.

“This is my fault,” she whispered.

“No.” I cupped her chin and forced her to look at me instead of the body. “It’s no different than with Jimmy. He paid for his poor choices, and so did Zane.”

She clamped her eyes shut, as though unable to look at me. “I swear, Antonio, I wasn’t going to send it. I typed it and realized it was the wrong choice right away.”

Even if that were true, it existed long enough for Fiori’s men to see it. Did that mean it reached her intended recipient? Had the message got to Kelsey Bernard, and that’s why she was there, probing for answers?

“Bella, you need to come with me.” I gripped her upper arm and eased her to standing.

“It’s all over a few pieces of fucking art. All these deaths.” She buried her face against my neck and held tight. No tears this time, though. She was all cried out. “Why?”

“You can keep asking yourself that for the rest of your life, and you’ll never understand.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Let’s go.” I pulled back, running a gentle hand over her cheek.

She’d made a huge mistake and we got lucky Zane was here and had failed Fiori more than once. His death was the price for our survival and that of the people we loved.

But there were no more Zanes here.

The next mistake would fall to us.

Chapter 37

Samantha

I’dtriedtodeleteit. It was my fault. One more mistake to throw on the pile of shit that was my life.

Antonio settled on the love seat next to me, arm draped over the back, brushing his fingers across my shoulders. “I need my Samantha back. Snap out of it.”

“But Zane. He—”

“No Zane. No Jimmy. No David and Olivia. None of them. We need to focus.”

Death surrounded me. I was responsible for it. People who got involved with me died. Antonio couldn’t—

“I saw Kelsey Bernard.”

The veil lifted a little. “You what?”

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