“I was sleeping with Bones, the Vice President of the Sons of Sin, Jacksonville Chapter—the President’s sister—when this asshole broke in!”I say.“I was blacking in and out as he dragged me out the front door.I saw her fucking body on the floor as we left ...there was so much blood.”I blanch, turning my face away as I suck in another deep and calming breath in the face of the impossible.“He shot her.I heard it.And then I saw her body.”
The mafioso who spoke to me first turns to Luka, his lip curled dangerously.A second later he flips out a switch blade and has it under my ex’s throat, pressing it to his skin.“Do we have anything to be worried about, Mr.Floretti?”he asks, his chin upturned as he backs Luka against the nearest wall.“The Don will not appreciate being implicated with the Sons.”
Luka laughs against the blade at this throat, even though the movement causes the edge to nick his skin.A bead of bright crimson trails down his throat to disappear beneath his white collar.“Gentlemen, Georgiou,” he says boldly as he tries to discredit me and assassinate my character.“I found her sleeping with some dark-haired whore.It was nothing.She was no one.Are you just going to believe this bitch?”
“The D’Angelo’s are Latino,” Georgiou snarls.“They don’t play.”
And then all hell breaks loose.Bullets fill the air, smashing through the window and into unexpecting and unprotected flesh.I watch as one after one, the mafia men fall.I squeeze my eyes shut tight and turn my face away, hoping with my whole soul that it’s Marcus coming to my rescue.Please, help me.I think I loved her...Even in the cacophony of gunfire and the sound of dying, mutilated mafiosos, my heart stills in my chest.I loved her.I did.I know it in my bones.Whether it was gods, Fate, the Cosmos, or Destiny ...I was meant to meet Maria D’Angelo.
The thought progresses further, the petals of my mind unfurling in the chaos to the next logical truth.And I killed her.By knowing me, I killed her.My heart tangibly aches and I cry out in pain and regret, sobbing into my pillows as silence finally rings clear.But I can’t stop crying.I know I should open my eyes, survey the situation, and see if I can escape and maybe find Killface, but the pain is suddenly too much.It’s raw and real and the blade of my remorse only presses deeper into my heart with each breath I draw.Does it even matter what happens to me now?She’s gone...
“Hey, sunshine,” I hear a familiar voice say, and immediately after I feel the comfort of her hand against my tear-streaked cheek.“Are you okay, baby?”she asks me, a slight wobble in her voice.“It’s okay.I’m here now.”
“This can’t be real,” I breathe, my mind racing with denial as possibility pokes at the fringes of my broken reality.“You’re dead,” I say.“I saw you on the floor.There was so much blood, and you weren’t moving.I called out to you...”
Bones gently strokes my hair, before pressing a light kiss to my nose.“It’s me, Daisy Girl.I’m here,” she soothes.“The asshole shot me, but it went clean through.I came as soon as I could.”She presses her forehead to mine, and her hot tears splash my cheeks to mingle with mine.“I’m so sorry, beautiful.I’msosorry.”
I finally open my eyes and see Maria’s face hovering over mine, her heart in her eyes as she gazes at me with a soul stricken by grief.“It’s really you,” I say, allowing an intrepid smile to my face.“You’re here.You’re alive.”
“It’s really me,” she confirms.“Now, let’s get you out of here.”
My heart sings and my soul soars, the switch from utter despair to complete bliss giving me mental and emotional whiplash.I camethisclose to losing everything, to seeing my world crumble and burn.But my dark queen came for me.She kept her promise.“You said you’d be my bodyguard,” I joke, coughing as my dry throat tickles uncomfortably.Bones pulls a pocketknife from her belt and leaning forward, she cuts my right hand free.I wiggle my fingers in relief, sighing as I flex my wrist just in time to see Luka rising up behind Bones, a gun leveled at the back of her head.“Maria!”I cry out, pointing instinctively, my eyes widening with terror.
Bones smiles at me and then pulls out her nine-millimeter handgun, raising her left arm like the Terminator, her aim centered squarely on his heart in an instant.
The sound of a gunshot echoes in my ears and I forget to breathe.Bones still has her head.I frantically search her face for an explanation, my gaze analyzing her expression for seven millionths of a second before I look down and then up again, expecting to see red blossoming from somewhere under her clothes at any second.“Maria?”I whisper, my heart hammering so hard in my chest that I’m breathless and full of fear all over again.“Maria ...please.Talk to me!”
Chapter Twenty
Bones
“It’s not me,” I saywith a smirk, gesturing backward with my eyes.
Sunny’s heart leaps into her throat as she tries to lift her head.One last time her gaze locks with Luka’s.I can see his reflection in her eyes.He stares at her in disbelief, an absent look of absolute denial marring his once handsome features.And then he drops to the floor, blossoming like a splayed flower or butterfly pinned to a canvas, in a red pool of his own blood.I hear him gurgle and then the house is silent, save for the rapid beating of my heart.
“You killed them all,” Sunny whispers, her tone tainted by awe and horror.“You saved me, Maria.”