For all three of us.
Their side pods slammed into each other in a jarring mangle of carbon fibre, which flung debris into my path. I heard my tyre blow a millisecond before my race car launched into the air. Flipped over in a kaleidoscope of whirling lights.
Maddelena.
Fuck.
The shoe had dropped.
Bonafacio had delivered on his threat.
If I survived this, I guess we were going to war after all.
Maddelena
There was a special kind of horror in watching your brother attempt to kill the man you loved on a racetrack. A terrifying moment when you were frozen on a cliff edge, torn straight down the middle as to who you loved more.
I was ferociously aware of alien sounds rippling from my throat.
Of Fist rushing into the room. Of him staring at the TV without reacting.
Then of him catching me around the waist as we watched Cesare’s race car flip over, once, twice, three times, as my legs gave way.
I didn’t need to whisper or bellow commands. Didn’t need to race to my phone or yell for help. The second Narciso stumbled away from the wreckage on his own two legs and,please God, please God, please God,Cesare was cut free from his upside down position by the marshals and rushed into the ambulance, Fist was manhandling me out the door.
Into the fleet of SUVs.
The only sounds in the dark interior as we sped towards Vegas were the keening from my throat and the unruffled conversation Fist was having on his phone.
We arrived in a screech of tyres and swarm of black-suited mafiosi storming the hospital.
Rafa was prowling the fifth-floor corridor when I stumbled in, every frantic atom praying to every saint I could conjure up.
‘Ishh… I… peeease…’ Every word tasted wrong.
‘He’s fine,’ he rasped. ‘They’re checking him out but he’s awake and talking.’
I sagged against the wall, the tremor coursing through me showing no signs of abating. ‘Arhhh… gggghhh…’
Rafa blinked and shot a glance at Fist.
‘Yeah, she’s been pretty much incoherent.’
I licked desert-dry lips, my heart still skewered on spikes. ‘C-cnnn s-he…’
‘I think she wants to see him,’ Fist monotoned.
‘Yeah, I got that, Fist,’ Rafa returned dryly.
He nodded, retreated a few steps, and planted himself in the middle of the hallway, a human roadblock.
‘Come on,’ Rafa murmured.
I slanted a grateful glance at him, but when I tried to walk, I stumbled. He caught my elbow, his eyes watchful as he led me towards the double doors.
‘You’re really gone for him, aren’t you?’
I should’ve loathed his amazed tone but seeing as he didn’t exactly sneer the revelation, I contented myself with a nod. ‘Y-yes. I… mm.’
