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By the time the doctor arrived, Jonathan and Rinaldo had moved Matthew and Victor’s bodies to one side of the room and Micah, Rurik, and three of their cohorts’ bodies to the other side. Johnson—or whatever his name was—and Davies were still right where they fell.
Jonathan had cleared an area in the center of the room for Luisa to relax and for Rinaldo to pace. Nick was sitting up, but like me, he had also been shot in the leg. The wound was deeper, and the bullet was still inside, but Franklyn didn’t think he would lose his leg or anything. He bandaged it, but said he wanted to take him to his office to get the bullet removed and his leg properly patched up.
Luisa’s scalp needed a couple of stitches, and her arm was put into a sling until Franklyn could get everything he needed to reset the break and apply a cast. The doctor checked over Rinaldo, but other than a few scrapes and bruises, he was fine as was Jonathan. Franklyn bandaged up my leg after agreeing that it wasn’t anything too serious and then handed me a bottle of antibiotics, which I pocketed after taking one of them. He was more concerned about the obvious concussion I had suffered, but I told him to get off my ass and deal with the others.
Rinaldo looked over to me as the doctor wrapped my leg.
“It’s on,” he said as he looked around to everyone in the room. “No one comes to my house like that and lives. We’re taking out all of Greco’s organization and the Russians. None saved.”
“Retribution,” Luisa hissed. “Those fuckers are going to pay—all of them.”
Milena held on to Nick, but he just looked between his father and sister before he nodded his head in agreement.
I turned my attention back to Lia.
She was still white as a sheet, and I had the doctor come over and check her out.
“She’s in a bit of shock,” he said. “Keep her warm and yell if she gets worse. She’s going to have a nasty bruise there on her leg, but she’s otherwise unharmed.”
The phrase made me cringe. I knew by the look in her eyes that she was anything but—it was a look I’d seen many times before, often in the mirror. I took her face in my hands and tried to get her to focus on me. As soon as she did, she broke down and started to cry.
I wrapped my arms around her and held her as tightly as I could. She’d saved my life, no doubt, but right now, she couldn’t see it for what it was.
“He would have killed me, baby,” I whispered into her hair. “If you hadn’t pulled the trigger, he would have killed me just like he did Odin.”
Lia clung to me, sobbing against my bare chest as her fingers gripped my shoulders.
“It’s over now, baby,” I told her. “It’s over.”
“Take me away from here,” she whispered. “I can’t do this anymore, Evan—I can’t!”
“You don’t have to,” I said. “I love you, and we’re going to leave.”
Nothing would stop me from taking her far away from all of this.
Chapter 21—Final Goodbyes
Lia wasn’t happy about it, but I insisted she stay at Rinaldo’s southern house while I bought replacement items for the things that were destroyed when Davies wrecked the apartment. I also had a few other things I wanted to get done before we left, and I couldn’t do all of those things with her in tow.
I also needed a little time to myself.
I kicked at the curb as I loitered and wished I had put on a warmer jacket. It was only late October, but the wind from the lake was chilling. After a few minutes of waiting, I looked up to see Mark Duncan as he was coming out of his office. With a shout and a wave, I flagged him down before he could get to his Land Rover.
“Hey, Mark!”
“Evan?” He stepped away from the vehicle and walked over to me on the sidewalk near the office building. “What can I do for you?”
“I just wanted to tell you I was leaving town,” I said. I shoved my hands into my pockets to provide a little warmth.
Mark snorted out a sharp laugh through his nose.
“Now you decide to tell me something?” His shoulders rose and fell with his breath, which froze into vapor as it came out of his mouth. “Where are you going?”
I reached up and scratched at the back of my head. I needed another haircut.
“Not sure exactly,” I said. I really did have a place in mind, but I hadn’t even told Lia where it was yet. I wasn’t sure how thrilled she was going to be with the location, but we could always move somewhere else later.
“So what made you stop here?”
