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“Don’t you look at me like that?” He snarls. “The answer is no. I am doing too much as it is.” Cupping his head in his hands, he leans his elbows on the desk. “Goddammit, Luca!”
“I will take her to the old warehouse out by the junkyard. Joe will accompany me. All you need to do is make a phone call and distract him.”
“Oh yeah, and then what, genius?”
“She will need somewhere to stay until the documents are ready. I can organize that if you would take her there.”
“You can’t be fucking serious, Luca.” He slams his hands on the desk. “You may as well just aim your gun at my head now.”
“It’s the best plan I’ve got. Do you have a better one?”
He scowls at me. “Yeah, I do. Follow your brother’s orders and kill her.”
My knee starts to jiggle with frustration and anxiousness. I have not felt this out of control since I was a teenager. My thoughts are irrational. They are completely delusional. Desperation seeps into me, uncontrollable and so furious.
“I can’t do it.”
“You mean you won’t do it.” Elijah’s unrelenting stare and candid words do nothing to my resolve.
“Save your lectures. I have made my decision. Will you help me or not?” I can’t control the resentment that spills into my words.
Elijah nods. “I will help you on one condition.”
“What condition is that?” I sit forward on my chair.
“That when this is done, you will walk away and forget Scarlet Reed ever existed.”
“Done.”
Thirty-Nine
Scarlet
Present
With my eyes still firmly closed, percussion rings painfully in my ears—the sound of the gunshot sending shockwaves through my body. I don't want to open my eyes; I am afraid to even breathe.
My temples throb as my trembling knees no longer hold me up. I ready myself to hit the concrete, but my landing falls soft. Warmth envelopes me and a distant voice calls to me. I can't make out the words or voice. The ringing in my ears scatters the sound.
This can't be death. I would have imagined it to be more peaceful. Although I feel disorientated, I still feel. I didn’t think that you would feel pain once you've passed. Aren't you supposed to feel euphoric and calm? Right now, I feel confusion and panic, and the God-awful pinging in my ears is almost too unbearable. This can't be death.
I'm moving, floating. Cool air bites my face, and icy water wets it. I will myself to open my eyes, and the first thing I see is Luca's face. He is speaking to me, but the words don't register. I am alive. I am alive.
Quickly but gently, Luca places me down into the seat of a car just past some bushes at the back of the warehouse. This is not his car. Not the one we came in. I look around my surroundings, confused. There is a man in the front seat. His eyes pitched nervously as he looks at me, a phone pressed to his ear.
Luca takes my face in one of his hands, drawing me to his attention and presses a finger to my lips, warning me to remain quiet. His eyes are wild. Tension crinkles them at the sides. What the fuck is going on?
"Take off your sweater," he mouths, tugging at the hem and pulling it over my head. I am still too dazed to register what is happening and allow him to remove it without argument.
"You have to leave now," the man in the front seat says firmly. I notice he is now off the phone. Even though his voice is blurred with the ringing in my ears, I can make out his words.
"Listen to me." Luca pulls my face back to him. "I trust this man with my life. Listen to him without question. He will take you somewhere safe. You have to disappear and never return. Do you understand me?" I can hear the distress in his tone, the sheer desperation for me to accept what he is telling me.
"Luca, what have you done?" I ask him, tears spilling from my eyes as I shiver, not from the cold but my trepidation. Nicolai will kill him for this. He has just broken a sacred law in his family. Betrayed his brother and put his life in front of mine.
"The right thing," he answers. "For the first time in my life, I am doing the right thing."
"Luca, you need to go," the man barks again.
