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Nicholas headed for the house as Carmine went into the foyer and opened the door.
“Everything cool?” Nicholas asked, stopping a few feet away.
“It’s fine,” Carmine said. “You’re not needed here.”
“Carmine,” Haven scolded as she stepped past him. Her eyes darted around as she stepped off the porch and loosely wrapped her arms around Nicholas in a hug. “Thank you. Not many people would’ve done that for me.”
Nicholas stood frozen before halfheartedly patting her back. “Ah, no big deal,” he said, but it was a big deal. Carmine almost felt bad for hitting him, but the throbbing in his nose counteracted any guilt. “So, crisis averted and all that jazz?”
“It was Jen,” Carmine said. “My father must’ve kicked her to the curb. You know how scorned bitches are.”
“I don’t think—”
“She always was shady,” Nicholas said. “I never understood why he’d stoop that low. Even I wouldn’t touch her.”
“Bullshit,” Carmine said. “You slept with her.”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Yes, you did. We were at the hospital last year, and I dared you to do it.”
“Are you forgetting you tried to kill me that weekend? I never had a chance to try!”
“I didn’t try to kill you. If I wanted to kill you, I’d kill you. I only snapped because you stabbed me in the back.”
Nicholas glared at him. When he finally spoke, he said the last thing Carmine expected to hear. “You’re right.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Excuse me?”
“I said you’re right. I shouldn’t have said what I said, and I’m sorry about that, but you screwed up too, Carmine.”
It was the first time Nicholas had ever acknowledged he had wronged him, and it caught Carmine off guard. “Yeah, I probably shouldn’t have gotten with your sister. I’m so—uh, shit, whatever.”
Haven eyed the two of them in shock. “Wow, are you—?”
“Anyway.” Carmine cut her off before she could make a big deal out of it. “Everything’s fine. Haven could’ve handled it. She had the rolling pin ready to whoop some ass.”
The phone in the house rang, and Carmine ran to the foyer to grab it off the floor. He answered it as he stepped out onto the porch. “Hello?”
“Carmine?” Vincent’s voice cracked a bit. “Can you hear me?”
“Uh, yeah.”
“So, I have a joke for you,” Nicholas said, turning to Haven. Carmine rolled his eyes as his father said something about the airport, but the reception grew worse and Nicholas’s voice drowned him out. “What’s black, white, and red all over?”
“I don’t know,” Haven said. “What?”
A loud bang rang out in the distance. Carmine accidentally dropped the phone and cursed, reaching down to pick it up, when a piercing scream cut through the air. The hair on Carmine’s arms bristled as he spun around in time to see Nicholas drop to his knees, red seeping onto his white shirt. Clutching his chest, he opened his mouth to speak, but no sound came out. He dropped forward to the ground within a matter of seconds.
Haven screamed again, so loudly Carmine’s ears rang.
Everything felt like it happened in slow motion. He jumped off the porch and landed on top of Haven as another bang shattered the air. He knocked her to the ground behind the car, his body weight forcing the air from her lungs.
“Listen to me,” he said, pinning her trembling body there as she struggled to breathe. “I’m gonna count to three and start shooting back. I need you to get in the damn car. Got it?”
She was unresponsive as another shot rang out. Carmine winced as it collided with metal, the bullet striking the car. “Christ, Haven, you need to fucking listen to me. I need you to do this, so can you?”
Her voice shook as hard as her body. “I think so.”
