She was gone.
I turned to find her, and it was like the world slowed for a second. A second that lasted for an eternity.
She’d gotten herself up and moved around behind me, coming at me from the opposite side and taking me by surprise. I brought an arm up to defend myself, but it wasn’t necessary.
I wasn’t her target.
With a cry built of pain and blood and hate so deep—Irecognized it as the twin to the feeling inside my own heart—she lunged forward.
I thought for a second she was going for Vargas. She was going to pull my rope system down and I’d have to start all over again.
I was wrong.
She lunged for the stool, throwing her entire body weight at it. It skittered across the floor, and Vargas fell. The drop wasn’t long enough to snap the neck, and that had been by design. Few suicides got the distance right. Also, it was too quick. Only friends deserved a merciful death, and Vargas was no friend.
He swung, his face blooming red, a gargle coming from spit-flecked lips. He tried to push his fingers beneath the rope. But it was no good. I was a master of my trade, and I dealt in death. There was no escape once the contract was out.
Katarina stared in fascination, never taking her attention off the man who technically she had given the final push. I couldn’t look away from her. She watched him, and I watched her. In the dark, decadently decorated room, she seemed to shine. Her pale blonde hair and fair skin and white, stained clothes.
A light in the dark. A light who had just killed someone. An avenging angel.
I’d thought I was attracted to her before. It couldn’t even compare to now.
She observed him losing the little air he had left in his lungs, hyperventilating with panic and running out even more quickly. She unconsciously bit her lip.
She stepped closer when he jerked, and his eyes fluttered to her.
“For Mira,” she murmured, and held the dying man’s gaze until the final throes of death had passed over him and he was gone.
Then, she pressed her arms around her rib cage as if merelystanding were killing her, but the sight of Vargas dying had been worth it. She turned to me and raised her chin like a queen. No, an empress, peering upon her loyal subjects.
“Now,” she said heavily, pushing her hair off her bloodied forehead, “you’remywitness.”
Fuck.
I think I just fell in love.
10
KATARINA
“We need to leave in case someone comes. It won’t look like a suicide if we’re hanging out with the body.” Massimo’s deep voice reached me through the haze in my head.
I simply nodded. My gaze kept returning to Vargas’s bloated, purplish face. It was fascinating. In the end, it hadn’t been hard at all... with the right accomplice.
“Micetta. Time to go.” Father Lucciano’s hand closed around my upper arm, an unbreakable grip. His expression was unreadable. His forceful hold on me was a reminder of how easily he could kill me, too, if he wanted. And he had seemed ready to do that not five minutes before. At least he seemed to have changed his mind about getting rid of me immediately. That was something.
I nodded and let him guide me across the room. My ribs screamed.Fuck,they hurt.
He sighed as if reading my thoughts. Stopping by the door, he tucked his gun into the holster on his hip and pulled the cassock over it, then reached for me.
He swung me up into his arms before I realized his intention. I let out a short scream. My nerves were shot; I couldn’t help it.
“Nowyou’re scared?” he muttered incredulously. “You just stared down a gun to the temple and murdered someone, but sure, now you’re scared.”
He carried me out into the dark hallway, checking this way and that. His focus was as precise as a laser. He scanned the empty doorways and listened carefully for any telltale sounds that someone was coming. This was a man in his element. I’d be impressed by his professionalism if it weren’t so terrifying.
“In my defense, you’re pretty scary,” I said.