“Let her go, Luciano,” Dex says after kneeling down and confirming the assassin he’d shot is dead.
“Get the hell out of my home. This isn’t how we do business. She wronged my family, and she needs to pay.”
It’s Z who answers the old man. “She did nothing but protect herself from your piece of shit son. He broke the rules of The Whitney, and he paid the price.”
“Fuck The Whitney. Now step back or I’ll blow her brains all across this room.”
Z taunts him back. “You can go ahead and kill her, but that isn’t going to stop me from ending you. I’m going to fucking kill you and then chop your body up into tiny pieces just like I did your pathetic son. You should have heard the sound of his bones cracking as I sawed him up and then dumped him in the trash like a dead rat.”
What the hell is Z doing? Vinny’s grip around me is so tight I can’t breathe, and I feel him shaking with rage just before he moves the gun from my temple and points it directly at Z instead.
I have no plan. All I know is I can’t let him shoot Z. I get one hand free just in time to fling it up to knock the mobster’s arm as the loud gunshot fills the room. I watch in horror as the bullet hits Z in the chest, bringing him to his knees. My scream replaces the reverberating sound of the shot and I use every ounce of my remaining strength to push away from Vinny. I’m certain he will put the next bullet into my back, but I guess that’s okay. I’ll at least die in Z’s arms.
Only when a flurry of gunshots pepper the air, I realize none of them have hit me. I glance up just enough to see all of the men who had arrived with Dex and Z are pointing smoking guns at the man who presumably died behind me. I don’t turn to confirm. All I care about is making it to Z.
He falls into my arms just as I reach him, but it isn’t a hug. His entire body weight falls against me, and I struggle to hold him up long enough to ease his body to the floor where he lies motionless.
All the tears I’d held back burst from me in a sob. We’d been so damn close to the nightmare ending. What have I done? Maybe if I hadn’t hit Luciano’s arm, he would have missed Z. I’ll never forgive myself if he doesn’t make it.
Chapter Nineteen
Z
I’ve never been shot before. And no amount of knowledge of what happens if you are could have prepared me for the actual act. Every last breath leaves my body as I fall to the ground in Rowan’s arms. I open my mouth to inhale, but nothing happens. It’s as if my lungs are paralyzed and my body follows suit. The ringing in my ears, the muffled voices and the searing lights behind my eyes at least tell me I’m still alive, but I’m not sure for how long.
I’m aware enough to see Rowan, terror in her eyes, as she kneels down and starts searching my body for the bullet wound. There’s the sound of gunfire in the distance as well as in the room, but I can do nothing more to help fight this battle. I watch Dex and others shoot holes in Luciano, ending this nightmare once and for all. It gives me peace to know that at least Rowan is safe now. We cut the head off the snake, and it’s just a matter of time until his empire disintegrates to nothing.
I gasp for life again, finally hearing the wheezing sound of air making its way into my lungs.
Rowan is ripping at my shirt, lifting the hem up and freezes. Her wide eyes look up at me. “You’re wearing a bulletproof vest?” Her voice comes out in a raspy squeak. “Oh, thank god.”
Fresh tears fall from her blue eyes and run down her cheeks. I wish I had the strength to lift my arm up to wipe them from her face, but my body still feels as if a million pounds is resting on me.
Dex squats beside me and runs his hand over the vest, inspecting it. He helps Rowan remove it from me and says, “The bullet didn’t make it through. It might have cracked a rib with the bruising I see and the fact that you look like you’re breathing through a damn straw.”
“I’m okay,” I’m finally able to say, but have to agree that it does feel as if a straw is my only vessel for air.
Rowan runs her fingertips softly over the area of impact. “I thought you were going to die, I thought—”