“Not your knight in shining armor anymore, is he?” Lazzaro drones on. He’s like a fly buzzing around this shit show with unbridled joy. “I told you I was saving you.”
“You killed him,” she whispers.
Her words fall upon me like their own kind of death sentence. It takes everything within me to stop my legs from buckling in shame.
The only thing I can manage to gasp is, “I’m sorry.”
“Too little, too late, amigo,” Lazzaro observes. Vaguely, I’m aware that more people have entered the room. “Shall I kill him for you, Cas?”
She just continues to stare at me, those perfect lips agape in despair.
For one terrible moment, I think she might nod to offer her affirmation to Lazzaro’s question—the final nail in the coffin of whatever relationship we once had.
I wouldn’t be able to blame her, either. I couldn’t resent her for it. It was my fault her father was dead, and she was well within her rights to demand my death in payment.
Instead, something perhaps more terrifying happens.
An eerie calmness seems to wash over her. Her tears stop flowing, her mouth becomes a hard, unreadable line, and her eyes…there’s nothing behind them anymore.
When she looks at me, there’s nothing of the person I once knew when she speaks again. Her voice is like pure ice being injected into my veins.
“He’s dead to me.”
Lazzaro starts laughing again, and when I turn back to him, I realize why.
Five men have arrived, dressed head to toe in Cartel black. None of them seem particularly inclined to let us leave without a fight.
I can take them. I know I can, but…I will have to unleash a side of me intended only for my enemies. It’s the kind of violence necessary for our survival, for Cas’ survival, but it will only reinforce the fact that I’m a monster.
A glance back at her unfeeling face is my only hesitation.
I was supposed to be her protector.
But I can’t run from the truth forever. The job has to come first; when all is said and done, I’m no better than Lazzaro.
I hear Lazzaro’s frustration before I see it. His clumsy feet pelt against the ground as he runs toward me, tired of waiting to enact his revenge.
But I savor my final look at Cas, taking in her perfect face, those soft features I had peppered with kisses only a few short hours ago. She’s the woman I had begun to imagine my life with, the woman I’d only just realized I loved.
My hand snaps up to grab Lazzaro’s neck, a mere arm’s length away.
But still, I hold Cas’ gaze.
“I’m sorry.”
For your father.
For who I am.
For what you’re about to see.
My other hand reaches for Teo’s pistol, and I turn away.
I regret leaving him behind to search for leads on Cas’ location. He’d intercepted a police report on a busted-out taillight and suspected kidnapping, and I hadn’t thought twice.
At least I had the wherewithal to take his gun, so I wasn’t completely unarmed.
Lazzaro claws at my arm as I walk us forward, using his body to shield me from the Cartel, who are now drawing their own guns.
