Levi reached for his throat, but the sound hadn’t come from him.
Because Vianca wasn’t looking at Levi—she hadn’t been this whole time. Her gaze was focused on someone behind him.
Before Levi could turn around to see who that person was, a shot rang out from across the room.
Bang!
Scarlet blossomed across Vianca’s chest, and blood seeped between her fingers as she clutched at her heart. Her mouth hung open as she looked between the three people in the room still standing.
Harrison Augustine lowered his pistol. He didn’t sigh or smile or whimper. He didn’t make any expression at all.
Levi felt the omerta snap inside him, with a sound like a bone breaking. He took a deep breath, deeper than any breath he’d taken in four years, as Vianca Augustine’s body slumped to the floor.
The donna was dead.
As triumph coursed through him, his first thought was of Enne. He scanned the room for her, but she was nowhere. With the casino on lockdown, she had to still be in the building. He needed to find her. Whatever terrible plan Vianca had devised for the night had been foiled. At last, the two of them were finally free.
Behind him, someone let out a loud, strangled laugh. There was a coppery taste to the air, and black crept into the corner’s of Levi’s vision, an aura like smoke.
Didn’t she already tell you?Harvey had asked him.I thought you were her favorite.
In Levi’s shock at Vianca’s death, he’d forgotten that there’d been a third person left standing. That more than Levi and Enne had been freed. That there had always been a third.
The doors of the ballroom slammed closed.
Levi finally turned around.
Bryce Balfour clutched at his throat as he took the stage, and his eyes were the color red.
ENNE
Jac jolted back from being shot at such close range. Blood blossomed across his white shirt, and he fell, clutching his lower abdomen. His heavy breaths punctured the silence in the hallway.
Enne cried into her hand. The omerta continued to urge her forward, choking her like a clamp locking around her throat. Her finger trembled against the trigger as she resisted, and she didn’t even have enough breath to utter an apology or to call for help.
Again, the omerta urged.Again.
Jac looked up at her weakly, and Enne waited for him to curse her, to blame her the way she blamed herself.
Again, the omerta commanded as Enne let out a sob and dark spots bled over her vision. She could feel Vianca’s bony hand tightening around her chest, breaking her own heart along with Levi’s.Again.
Jac coughed up a mouthful of blood. When he spoke, he didn’t clutch at his stomach. He clutched at his Creed. “It’s all right,” he managed. “I’ve beaten worse.”
Bang!
Enne gasped for breath as Jac’s head slumped to the side, crimson pooling from his chest, and the omerta released her.
“No, no, no, no,” Enne moaned, and she scrambled toward Jac’s body. She felt for a pulse, but didn’t find it.
I killed him.A wave of nausea passed over her, and Enne hugged her arms to herself. She’d never felt more helpless—not during the Shadow Game, not during any time spent with Vianca. Jac was Levi’s best friend. He washerfriend. And no amount of tears or apologies would bring him back.
Enne had no idea if Harrison would succeed in his plot to kill his mother—tonight, or ever. But if he did, Enne hoped Vianca suffered. That it was slow. That every wicked thing she’d ever done was magnified on herself tenfold. And when the donna did die, Enne’s only regret would be that she hadn’t been able to do it herself.
Enne was still shaking when she realized she wasn’t alone.
Harvey Gabbiano took in the image of her and the revolver and Jac’s body, and for a moment, Enne came truly close to being sick. She slid the gun across the floor, away from her.
“I didn’t... I...” The words died in her throat because, of course, she had.
