Page 152 of No Greater Oblivion

It’s the wrong word to use because all the color leaves her face. Windswept and shivering from the cold, I have never seen her as terrified or as resolute as she is right now. Tears gather in her eyes, silver colliding with hazel-gray, and she struggles to take a steadying breath.

“Is…is he…did I kill him?” she whispers. “I didn’t mean to. I swear. He had a gun. He was going to hurt you…”

I look over her shoulder at Damiano who bends down to check the man’s pulse. A deep frown mars the planes of his otherwise handsome face as he gives a quick shake of the head. Lyss must see it in my eyes because she lets out a small cry and covers her face.

“Oh my God,” she exclaims and tries to turn her head. “I did, didn’t I?”

“No, you didn’t. Don’t look!” Damiano orders and I cover her hands with my own, forcing her to keep her eyes on me. “I have to put him down. Cover your ears so you don’t hear anything.”

I wrap my arms around her and pull her against me, doing my best to shield her from whatever Damiano has planned to alleviate her conscience. She covers her eyes and I place my hands over her ears, hard enough to muffle the sound of Damiano breaking the man’s neck but not so much that Lyss can’t hear enough to know what’s happening. We have to make it real.

When that deafening crack happens, her entire body jolts and she bites down on her fist to muffle a scream.

“It’s okay, it’s over. It’s over, you can look now.”

“We have to go.” Damiano crouches down beside us. “Do you need help?”

Lyss manages to pull her face out of her hands and cast a glance over her shoulder. She winces at the sight of the man’s body and the unnatural angle of his neck. Somehow, it propels her into action and she’s able to stand on her own. “I’m ready. Let’s go.”

“Where’s Alejandro?” I ask. “I know Rian is here but⁠—”

My friend’s gaze narrows. “We can talk about that lunatic later. Right now he’s probably getting trigger happy with a bunch of Huang’s men. Who the fuck knows. I thought we had a solid plan in place until Rian went to confront Li alone.”

“Why? I don’t understand⁠—”

“We don’t have time for questions, Dee,” he sing-songs, voice laced with impatience as he pulls me to my feet. “We just have to get out of⁠—”

A gun shot echoes across the park.

My heart catches in my throat. “Rian.”

Alejandro

Ican’t tell where the latest gunshot came from but it couldn’t have been far.

The plan was to confront Li together but Rian insisted on doing so alone. In the meantime he would buy me and his security detail more time to take out however many men Li had in the area and hopefully find Dahlia. Apparently nothing is going as planned because Damiano and Lyss aren’t waiting where they’re supposed to be. Which tells me the rapid gunfire from a few minutes ago wasn’t from Corey and Owen; it must’ve been them.

Dahlia.

Did they find her? Did some of Li’s men open fire on them? Is Lyss okay? I gave her Dahlia’s revolver but I doubt she knows how to use it properly, if at all. Bringing her may have been a bad idea but I simply couldn’t risk Lyss sneaking out on her own and getting hurt. Figured that at least with us, we could protect her.

I’m an idiot for thinking a friend of Dahlia’s would take instruction any better than she does.

“Alex!”

I look to the trees behind me as a figure emerges. Lyss trudges through the snow and loses her balance toward the bottom of the hill, and I rush to her aid.

“Are you all right?” I do a quick sweep of her figure and examine for injury. “What happened?”

“I’m fine,” she manages through gasps for air. “We found Dahlia but…this guy…he came out of nowhere. Damiano fought him but I fell and Dahlia…she went…we got separated.”

“Where is she? Where was she going?”

“To find Rian,” she says. “We heard a gunshot. It came from the bridge.”

White-hot panic whips through me and my lungs tighten with every breath I force myself to take. All around me the world blurs together until snow and night sky are the only things I see. I recognize the feeling immediately only this time instead of fire, I’m surrounded by ice. As if remembering, my hands ache and burn with the memory of that night.

Focus. You need to focus.