Page 177 of Barinov

“Yeah?” he fires back. “Well, it’s not just Cade’s neck that’ll blow if you lose.”

Heat floods my veins. “Bella?” I push, quieter now.

“Mine,” Zeke says flatly. “So how ‘bout you don’t die out there. Okay?”

I nod, fingers brushing the trigger.

“You only have one bullet and—”

“And the fucker apparently has a full mag,” I cut in. “Luca stacked the deck.”

“Did you expect anything else?” Zeke asks.

I scoff.

“Get ready, he’s stepping into the light,” Zeke says, his voice suddenly calm. “Three o’clock. Shoot. Now!”

I pivot. My left boot kicks up a spray of ancient dirt and rock as my weight shifts. The heavy pistol comes up, locked in a two-handed grip. The iron-sight instantly aligning with a dark shape emerging from the arches.

Zeke’s lead was perfect. He’s right there, caught in the sliver of ruthless moonlight.

My finger squeezes.

BOOM.

The report is deafening. A thunderclap ricochets off the stone. The recoil is familiar, an angry jolt in my wrists as the bullet hits the fucker center-mass. A dark, visceral burst of arterial red erupts from his chest, spraying the pillar behind him.

He hits the ground hard. His body spasms. Just once. Then goes flat.

I drop the pistol. It clatters against the stone, useless weight now. I close the yardage in a daze, my boots crunching on the grit. I reach him and kick the gun from his dying grip, but he isn’t fighting back.

I reach down, hook my fingers under the edge of the mask and tear it off in one violent motion.

The moonlight hits his face. And the world stops turning.

“No!” I roar, falling to my knees. “N-n-no this can’t—” I grab his shoulders, shaking him as if I can rattle the bullet out of his chest. “N-no, please.”

“I’m sorry, Lex,” Zeke whispers through the mask.

I rip the mask off my head and hurl it. It hits the pillar and skitters away, Zeke’s voice still murmuring from the discarded plastic on the ground. I yank my shirt over my head, wadding the fabric into a ball and slam it against the hole in his chest.

“L-Lex,” he wheezes. “I’m… I’m so—”

“Shh,” I hush, my hands already slick. “Shh, you’re gonna be fine. Just stay with me. You hear me? Look at me!”

“F-find him,” he mumbles, blood pooling in his mouth. He coughs. “G-get him back for this, brother.”

His eyes flutter before closing.

“No!” I scream, the sound echoing up toward the empty spectator tiers. “No, please!”

I wrap my arms around him, pulling his cooling weight into my bare chest. I sob into the crook of his neck as the rise and fall of his ribs simply… stops.

Chapter 45

CADE

The Colosseum - Rome, Italy