Chapter 35
Clara
Go in the back, he said. Everything will be fine, he said.
What he didn’t say was that the back of the warehouse was a fucking maze, full of shipping containers and crates packed with weapons and only God knew what else. There wasn’t a single person around at that time of night.
And there wasn’t a single light on in the entire damn place, either.
More than once, I’d slammed my shins into the corner of a box.
I’d stubbed my toes a dozen times and was cursing my decision to lose my heels at the back door rather than clip-clopping the entire way through the deserted space.
I could just make out the blood-red polish on my toenails through the moonlight shining through the too-few windows near the too-high ceiling, and I was torn between watching them so I wouldn’t hurt myself again, and not wanting to relive the bloodbath from earlier every time I caught sight of the red paint.
Stephano promised me there wouldn’t be anyone in those far-back rooms, but I wasn’t about to take a chance. I’d lost my heavy purse halfway between here and the door, taking with me the only thing I could possibly need: Stephano’s gun.
Though, my phone would have been nice. It had a flashlight.
It had a way to communicate with my brother, who’d left me in this godforsaken place so he could do whatever he thought he was going to accomplish on his own.
He wouldn’t listen to me when I suggested he contact Jet.
Said some bullshit line about how he could handle it.
Handle it, the way he handled Jayden.
And that thought just added more blood splatter to my thoughts.
“Ouch! Fuck, that hurt!” I grabbed my toe, grabbed the side of a crate, tried to bite my tongue to keep from screaming at the pain. A splinter broke off the wooden box when I moved, jamming deep under my fingernail. “Fuck!”
My phone would have been lovely right about then, and my purse stuffed full of bandages and other supplies I’d started keeping in there like it was a medical bag.
Both would have been helpful as I tried to find the splinter and pull it out in the dark.
But stupid Clara had to leave her stupid phone in her stupid purse as she stupidly made her way through the stupid dark.
I sucked in a deep breath.
Let it out until there was nothing left.
Then I lifted my chin, pulled up my big girl panties, and continued on.
Lights were on in the rooms up front, and I let them guide me forward, pausing briefly to peek around corners and ensure I was alone. Just as Stephano said, there was no one in the back. But through the open door to the front rooms, I could see the tops of peoples’ heads.
And I could hear voices as they floated my way.
“Make your choice, Stephano. Unless you’d rather go first.”
“Meh.” My brother tilted his head to one side, and his eyes flashed with recognition as he saw me before he moved them across the room.
He was so fucking nonchalant, so blasé about the fact that Cosimo had his gun pointed at Zee and Arik and our father, about the fact that one of Cosimo’s men had a gun trained on him, that I wanted to strangle him.
“As much as I’d love for you to get the chance to finish what you started, I’m going to have to go with Zee.
I mean, he is fucking my sister after all. ”
It wasn’t until Cosimo stepped toward Zee and raised his gun that I realized what Stephano meant.
He just told Cosimo to murder Zee.
I wasn’t having it.
I wouldn’t let him get away with it.
This man had brought enough heartache to our lives. I was not about to stand by and let him take away the one man I’d always loved.
My Zeno.
The only ray of sunlight in this horrible, dreadful life.
The man who was kneeling on the floor in front of his would-be killer, the same way he had when he was just a little boy.
Blood pulsed through my ears so hard, it was the only thing I could hear.
But I could see the smirk on Stephano’s face.
I could see the muscles of Cosimo’s back tighten under his thin shirt.
And I could feel a storm raging inside of me, the monster in my brain telling me this fucker’d had a long enough life.
My bloodied, banged-up toes didn’t object as I rushed silently through the door.
My shaky hands and sweaty palms didn’t complain as I raised the gun and pointed it at the old man’s back.
And my brain fucking cheered me on as I pulled the trigger, putting three bullets through the back of Cosimo’s head.
As his body canted to the side and fell, Raoul and the man holding a gun to Stephano’s head turned their shocked gazes my way.
The bastard Provenza had the audacity to raise his gun and point it at me, and I returned the favor, emptying my last few bullets into his chest before the man beside Stephano jerked backward, the back of his head splattering Raoul’s face before both men fell.
A moment later, the door behind Stephano burst open, and my gun clattered to the floor.
I wasn’t letting them take Zeno. He wasn’t going to die unless I went first. I threw myself on top of him, knocking him to the floor, only to have my body crushed as something crashed into me in two large thumps.
All the gunshots I was expecting never happened. There was screaming, but the voices had a different kind of urgency than I could have foreseen. All the pain I’d anticipated, the gunshots ripping through my flesh and the hot blood spilling from my body onto the floor, didn’t happen.
I opened my eyes. Twisted my head. Found two sets of dark brown eyes set in two familiar faces staring back at me.
My father and Arik.
“Fucking hell, brat.” Suddenly, Stephano was there, tugging Arik off my father’s back and helping him to his feet. “Where’d you learn to shoot like that?”
I blinked up at my brother. Dragged my attention across the people crowding the room as my father struggled to get up and Stephano yanked him off me by the arm.
Jet was there with his crew, their guns raised as they searched the place. Over by Mario, one of them paused to look down at the lifeless bodies of Ida and Piero Provenza.
“What happened?”
“What happened?” my brother parroted as someone cut the tape wound around my father’s wrists. “You took away all my fun, that’s what happened. I was going to take out that asshole, Raoul, but you finally showed up and then you beat me to it. Stupid fucker deserved to die.”
“Clara?” Underneath me, Zeno shifted. I moved off him, rolled him over and helped him sit up. “Clara?”
“Zee!” I threw my arms around him, nearly knocking him back to the ground. I was just barely aware of Stephano bending down behind him before Zeno’s arms were wrapped tightly around me.
I’d never felt anything as good as that, as good as Zee’s body pressed against mine, his beating heart thudding in his chest, his hands gripping me like he couldn’t get enough.
“You’re here,” he murmured into my hair, but my asshole brother interrupted him from saying more.
“Of course, she’s here. And she fucking saved your asses.”
“Stephano!”
“What? It’s true.” He gripped my father’s shoulder, and his eyes darkened as his smile fell.
“Who do you think told me Cosimo was the real threat? Did you know he orchestrated the coup that killed your father? No? Well, Little Miss Smarty Pants over there figured it all out. If you’d give her a single chance, a single fucking chance, to explain, maybe this could have all been stopped. ”
Stephano dragged his gaze over to me, sneering like I was shit on his shoe. “If it weren’t for Clara, I wouldn’t be here right now.” He turned then, glancing around the room. “None of you would.”
With that, my brother walked away, calling over his shoulder as he pushed through the door, “I’ve got work to do.”
Zeno tugged me tighter against his chest, burying his head in the crook of my neck. “Please tell me you’re okay.”
Stringing my fingers through the sides of his hair, I edged back so I could see his face. He had a nasty gash and an even nastier bruise creeping across his temple and covering the side of his face. Blood caked his eye, and his eyelid was so swollen it’d be a miracle if he could actually see.
“I’m okay,” I whispered before touching my lips to his. “Are you?”
He rested his forehead gently against my own, his eyes closed. “I will be. As long as you’re here.”
“I’ll never leave you, Zee. I’ll never let you go.”
“I love you, Clara.”
“I love you too.”
All the love in the world couldn’t right what had happened tonight. From the gash across Zee’s face, to the matching one on Arik’s cheek, to the bruises and blood covering my father’s face and chest.
From Mario’s bullet wound to the dead bodies of his mother, his brothers, and the man who had raised him as his own.
As much as I wanted to stay there in Zeno’s arms, there was too much to do. Too many things that needed to be done.
With one last kiss, I rose from Zeno’s side and caught Jet by the arm. “I left my bag in the back. It has medical supplies, and I’m going to need them if I’m going to help Mario.”
Jet’s silver gaze zipped over me before his head dipped in a nod. “Lev, help Clara with whatever she needs. I’ve got a bag to go find.”
The man disappeared, and Lev and one of the other men rushed around, finding towels and water, finding a light and alcohol, and everything else Zee and I told them we needed.
Zee talked me through each step of the way, cleaning Mario’s wound, stitching up both the front and the back where the bullet went through, bandaging him and making a sling out of the torn-up pieces of one of Cosimo’s suits until we could find a better solution.
After, I cleaned Zeno’s wounds, stitching the gash across his temple before moving on to Arik and doing the same to his cheek. When I was done, when I turned to my father to assess his wounds, I found a teary-eyed gaze looking back at me.
“Clara.” My father took my hands in his, his bottom lip trembling and the tears flooding his eyes until they dripped down his cheeks. “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay—”
“It’s not okay.” He squeezed my hands. “I haven’t been a good father to you.
I haven’t been there for you the way I should have been.
I pushed you off on Zeno, and then got upset when you found in him what you’ve needed all along.
Nothing I can say will ever make up for that, I know.
But I pray, someday, you’ll be able to forgive me.
I pray you’ll let me try to be the father I should have been. ”
I clamped my bottom lip between my teeth to keep it from trembling. But my own tears fell when my father pulled me into his arms, his body flinching when my shoulder touched his bruised chest.
“I love you, Clara,” he murmured against my head. “I’m so proud of you. So, so proud.”
Swallowing hard, I pulled out of his grip, then gave him a shaky smile. “Thank you.” I looked down at my hands, at the roll of bandages I still held. “Can I check you over?”
He nodded, choking back a cry. “I’d be honored.”
He was right, of course. Nothing he could say would make up for the way he’d treated me in the past. But if he was willing to make an effort, if he could prove to me that he could actually try, then I was willing to try too.
Zeno would help me through it. With him by my side, I could do anything.