Chapter 42 Katya
Funny how the barrel pressing into my flesh isn’t what scares me but instead the tears falling from his eyes.
He grits his teeth and lets out a guttural scream as he presses it further.
The pain in my skull and shoulder pale in comparison to the pain pouring out of this man with his brutal scream of betrayal.
A scream that echoes the one I heard all those years ago when he discovered I had taken his mother from him.
One of my hands wraps around his wrist as the other reaches up to cup his cheek. “It’s okay, Enzo Baby.” A tear falls down my temple as I say goodbye. “I’d rather you do it than Alexey. Please. It’s okay.”
His forehead meets mine.
“You lied to me.”
“I had to.”
“You killed my mother.”
“I didn’t want to.”
“I thought you loved me.”
“I always will.”
More tears stream down both our faces as he leans into my touch, his brows crease as if he were in physical pain. I don’t know where Rafael is, somewhere close, I assume, but this moment belongs to Enzo and me. It’s by his hand I’ll die, and I’m okay with that.
“Enzo? Enzo!” Nova screams from down the hall and fear hits me. No, no, no. She can’t be here.
She rushes Enzo, slamming into his side, knocking him off me. Her body lands on the opposite side of him and I scramble to my feet as she struggles to get up, the hit she gave him knocking the wind out of her.
“What’s going on out here?” Dante says, coming out of the same room Nova left. Her face and throat are covered in an array of fresh bruises and my jaw tenses. Realization dawns on me, I can’t go home now, so fuck Alexey’s dumbass rule about leaving Dante alive.
I search the floor for my blade and take count of who’s around me and their state.
Enzo helps Nova to her feet behind me, Rafael stands a few feet behind them, and Dante glares at me from the opposite end of the hallway.
My knife lays useless on the hardwood floor behind Nova and Enzo.
Making a break for it, I somehow make it past them and scoop my knife up.
But Rafael’s arms wrap around my throat from behind, fuck!
His bicep tightens over my neck, and I can’t break his hold as he lifts me, my feet coming off the ground. I have to…take Dante with me.
“Hold her, son. Don’t let her escape,” his father commands and I snarl my lip, swinging and kicking my legs as hard as I can but black spots dance in my vision and I’m losing stamina.
Push through, Katya.
“Rafael.” My voice breaks and his body shudders behind me. “Please,” I beg.
Dante studies me, both of us reading the other’s intention as he raises his gun. I don’t care if I die. Not anymore. But I will not go down without dragging Dante fucking Alessi with me.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper before jamming my knife downward into Rafael’s thigh, he lets out a pained roar, collapsing against the wall beside us and I drop to the floor.
Dante’s stare blazes with fury before he fires off a shot.
Searing pain ricochets through my shoulder as I launch the knife past Enzo and Nova.
He manages to pull the trigger once more at the same time Nova throws herself in front of me. “Lucy!”
The shot echoes off the walls as her arms wrap around my neck and a nauseating warmth seep into my T-shirt.
“Nova?”
I lower us to the ground, a deep red blossoming across the floor beneath us. “Nova? Oh god! Nova?!”
Her blood coats my fingers as I search for the exit wound, but I don’t find one. “Lucy?” Her voice is barely audible through the rushing waves of dread inside me.
“I’m here,” I reassure her, brushing her hair from her face.
“Run, Lucy,” she whispers as her cold fingers grip my wrist. “Remember our promise.” The strength in her dwindles as her once shimmering emerald irises dull.
“Nova!” Enzo cries, pushing me to the side and scooping her up, laying her in his lap. Her arms fall limp as Enzo rocks back and forth. “Nova Baby, please. Please wake up.”
My chest tightens when I find Dante, my blade embedded into his gut, but it’s not a fatal wound. Fuck! As I scramble to my feet, my shoulder sings with pain, my heart shrivels up, succumbing to its wounds, but I’m not finished.
I will take the sick bastard with me.
My body screams with pain as I stumble down the hall but before I can reach him, a hand grasps my bicep, spinning me so fast my world swirls. Fuck. How much blood have I lost?
Rafael’s red-rimmed gaze pins me to the wall, he presses into me and my gut twists, feeling the warmth of blood from his leg wound slick against my bare skin.
He pushes my back into the wall, slamming his lips to mine.
Our combined tears bleed between our lips, salt and despair that taste like goodbye.
The nozzle of his gun presses into my temple; I can feel it trembling. His hold is unsteady, his faltering fire leaving me sobbing into his mouth. When his forehead meets mine, both of us panting with heavy, pain-filled breaths, he whispers one word.
“Run.”