Ruthless Monarch

The car starts to slow down, and I’m impatient to get up from where I’m crouched.

Surely, no one is following us now.

Not after the way we were driving. I move to my knees, and then I lift until I’m on the back bench of the car. I don’t see anything. It’s empty.

It’s like it’s an abandoned parking lot.

Is someone coming?

Is it Matteo?

Then I see the car pull up, as our car slows almost to a stop.

It’s him.

As soon as it stops moving. I throw open the car door before he even hits the brakes. When I’m outside, standing directly in front of the hood of the other car, I hear two doors open.

One comes from behind me. From my car, the other in front.

Matteo steps out. He’s standing close but not close enough. His eyes meet mine, but I feel as though I’ve been sucker punched. The look he gives me is the same look from the last time I saw him.

Still hatred.

Still pain.

Still his desire to see me dead.

And then I know the truth.

He is not here to save me. He’s here to kill me.

I turn around swiftly, looking toward dark eyes that are narrowed. Pleading for him to save me. To take me back.

“Thank you, Eddie, for helping me get her back.” Matteo laughs from behind me.

Dark and menacing. I should be scared. I should turn around and plead for my life, but I can’t. Then something else hits me, and I’m frozen in place at the name he said.

Eddie . . .

I look at the dark eyes, dark like before, still menacing. For the first time, the eyes smile at me.

Fear, an unnatural fear, pours through my blood. My stomach feels as though it’s being dropped to the floor. Now I know what this is. This isn’t my trap.

It’s Matteo's.

This man is not named Eddie . . .

This man is Jonathan.

My father’s inside man.

Julia’s brother . . .

And he’s the traitor.

“No!” I scream, springing into action, turning to face Matteo. “It’s a trap!” Everything happens so fast, and before I can stop myself or think better of it, I’m running, more like jumping, in front of Matteo.

That’s when the world stops, and like a movie where the director switches to slow motion, everything halts . . .

Everything moves slowly.

Jonathan reaches behind him.

My heart beats in my chest as he pulls out his gun.

Thump.

He points.

Thump.

His finger pulls back.

That’s when time catches up.

There’s a click.

A shot rings through the air. A sharp bite of pain. And then . . .

Silence.

38

Matteo

* * *

Everything happens fast. First, I see my wife running toward me.

Something changes in her. The change was striking.

A look of understanding dropped over her features, and then she was diving in front of me.

The sound of the trigger, of a gun firing and a bullet traveling through the air echoes in my ears.

I brace for the impact.

But it never comes.

That’s when I feel her. I can do nothing but watch. She’s standing there, directly in front of me, and then she’s not.

In the distance, I can see my men running toward Eddie. His gun is still in his hand, trained on me.

Lorenzo fires a shot, and he goes down.

I’m not sure if he is alive. I can’t be bothered with any of it when I see Viviana fall to the ground.

Dropping to my knees, I move beside her. Turning her carefully onto her back.

My world stops when I see her usually blushed skin, now pale, pasty, and lacking life.

Her eyes are closed. I search her body, and that’s when I see it. The red spreading across her stomach.

It soaks through her shirt, pooling on the white material. Her blood coats my hands as I try to stop the flow. It pours through my fingers. I press down, but no matter how hard I do, the current refuses to stop.

Her eyes refuse to open.

The puddle beneath her continues to spread. My heart pounds as I watch the scarlet pool that forms beneath her.

She isn’t moving.

Why isn’t she fucking moving, goddammit?

In the background, I hear shouts, fists connecting to flesh, but I can’t see that now.

Not when she jumped in front of a bullet.

She saved me.

The sound of footsteps can be heard, and then Lorenzo is beside me.

“Is she dead?” he asks.

“I-I don’t know,” I answer, my voice low, my tone cracked.

Everything inside me cracks as I see the woman I love on the ground.

Lorenzo moves over her, leaning in.

I can’t find the strength to check.

Normally strong, she has robbed me of my strength.

When she moved in front of me, everything changed.

“She’s alive.”

Like a button pressed on my heart, his words kick me back to life.

“We need to get out of here. We need to get her help.”

“I’ll call the doctor.”

He doesn’t need to clarify. We have a state-of-the-art facility in the compound. She’ll be safer and more comfortable in the hospital I have. My doctor and the team he will bring with him will make sure she’s okay.