“Nicky, no!” Leo shouted as my eyes widened at the splinters flying in the air from the boat next to me. The bitch had shot at me, and the bullet landed in the boat body instead, missing me by a few inches.
I swirled, gasping. She was about ten feet behind me, and Leo was catching up. “You fucking missed!” I flew off the sand, fueled by rage and adrenaline.
“Next time, I won’t!” she yelled back, but I kept running. Who cared about living anymore? I never did.
Suddenly, I could no longer hear their footsteps or huffs and swears. The boats vanished behind me, and the dark surrounded me everywhere as I passed the moonlight range.
Despite the fear and the fatigue stiffening my muscles, I darted through the darkness, gasping and sniffling my tears, my mind spiraling like I was. What the fuck was I thinking, giving myself away to such a troubled man, allowing myself to fall for a person that belonged in a psych ward? I should have never indulged in my silly fantasies. I should have run the second I laid my eyes on him. Where the hell was my mind? Why did I do that to my—?
Something hit me in the temple. My skull banged, and before I regained balance, I was tumbled down on the sand in the dark.
I yelled, but the familiar sound of a gun click silenced me. “I should have let him kill you right from the start,” Nicole said. I could make out her voice and her knees that were pinning me down to the ground.
“What are you waiting for? Do it now. Because if you recapture me, there’s no way I’ll stop trying to escape anymore. And when I do, I will tell the Lanzas everything. The only way to protect your baby is by killing me, Nicole. So do it. Pull the fucking trigger.”End my misery for good.
The cold muzzle pierced my forehead. “Once a traitor always a traitor,” she murmured.
My breath shook against hers, eager for the finale of my pathetic life even if she wasn’t ready to take it; the tremors of her hand were hard to miss. “Once a killer, always a killer,” I provoked her for encouragement. “C’mon now. You offed your husband because he was a traitor. It won’t be so hard to do the same to me.”
“It was an accident. I never meant to kill him.” She took a deep breath and exhaled roughly. “But I will kill you and anyone who will jeopardize the lives of my family.” She steadied her grip. “I’m sorry, Doctor. I can’t let you tell Enzio about my baby.”
I closed my eyes, a million regrets flashing by, yet peace finally looming toward me. No more guilt or shame or jealousy. No more searching for redemption or love. I never deserved either. “You’ll be better for him than I ever will. I hope he finally finds peace with you like I’ll find mine now.”
“No! Nicky, no!” Leo’s voice echoed distantly like a daydream. It was my mind playing a trick on me, a defense mechanism to keep me calm, because there was no chance Leo would come to rescue me. I’d just betrayed him by trying to run. If he was here, he’d be pulling the gun from her hand to kill me himself.
“She has to die. She was going to the Lanzas,” Nicole hissed.
“I said no!” His growl came closer, and suddenly Nicole’s weight and the gun lifted off me.
My eyes snapped open to see shadows in a warrior dance, huffing and puffing. I scampered to my knees and rose with difficulty, those stupid cuffs hindering my movement. I didn’t take two steps until strong arms yanked me off the ground and held tight. “Stop running,” Leo commanded. “And you, put the fucking gun down.”
“Step away from the doctor, Leo, or I’ll shoot you, too,” Nicole threatened.
“No one is shooting no one. And if you pull that shit one more time, you’ll never hold that gun again,” he said, dragging me back in the cottage direction, unbothered by the possibility of her shooting us in the back.
I squirmed, trying to break his hold on me. “Let me go. I don’t want to stay with you anymore. Let her kill me. I don’t care.”
“I do.”
My heart thudded in my chest. Why would he say that? Why would he lie to me like that? How could two simple words evoke so much anger and pain and confusion and desperation in one person? “No, you don’t. You never will.”
He continued, saying nothing. A confirmation or simple nonchalance?
“Please, Leo. Just let me go. I can’t take this anymore.”
He didn’t utter a word until he hauled my ass back to the cottage, and Nicole never fired that gun.
He threw himself on the one couch that was there and brought me down with him. Then he cupped my jaw roughly, forcing me to look at him.
“Stop hurting me,” I protested. “I’m done.”
His fingers dug in my skin. “Oh, I haven’t even started, little bitch. You’re not done until I say you are. Which part of you’re mine do you not understand?”
“Yours? I thought if I let you punish me even for the sins I haven’t committed, if I let you take it all out on me, if you saw what I was willing to do for you,yourswould eventually mean something, eventually make you mine, too, even for the briefest of moments. But I don’t stand a chance, Leo, not any more. Why the fuck did you not kill me earlier? Why the fuck did you save me now? And don’t dare say you care about me or my life because you don’t.”
“Because I’m incapable?”
“Because I’m not good enough!” I snapped. “I’m everything you hate. I’m no innocent you can protect. Fuck, you took that last piece of innocence I had left to make sure of it. I’ve betrayed more people than I can remember, betrayal is running in my veins now like my own blood. You can never trust me. And let’s face it, I’m ugly. I’m not someone to compromise principles for, let alone break an obsession.”
