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“You fucking better, or this won’t be the last time you’re staring down the barrel of my gun, Antonio Santoro.” The conviction behind my words shocks me.
He nods once before shouting for me to get the fuck out of here and running toward the building.
Hands grab my upper arms and I’m dragged back and damn near thrown into the back of the SUV by my two best friends.
“GO,” Emmie shouts.
“No,” I scream, scrambling around so I’m looking out the back window. “NOOOOOO.”
Arms wrap around me and I’m dragged down onto Stella’s lap as they all hold me, stopping me from completely shattering into a million pieces all over the floor.
“They’ll be okay. This is just a normal day’s work for them,” Stella whispers in my ear before pressing her brow to mine. “They’re better than the Italians.”
The image of Ant standing there, still making me promises after everything we’ve been through fills my mind, and I cry harder.
I could be about to lose everyone.
On one hand, the drive back to the house seems to pass me by in a flash, but the second I’m dragged out and held up by Stella, it feels like a million years since I watched that building implode on Daemon.
Another sob rips from my throat as the front door is thrown open and Jocelyn runs toward us.
“Calli,” she cries, gathering me up in her arms and helping Stella get me inside.
She directs us to the kitchen where we find Mum, Selene, Iris, Clio, Isla, and… Gianna.
Finding some strength from somewhere deep inside me, I shake off my supports and surge forward.
“This is all your fault,” I scream in Mum’s pale face. “If you didn’t feel the need to show off, this never would have happened.” My voice doesn’t even sound like my own as I continue to rail on her. “We could lose all of them, and it’s all your fault.”
“Can you three take her somewhere?” Jocelyn demands, leaving little room for argument.
“Gianna, can you look at Jerome, please,” Jodie asks, as she and Emmie lower a passed-out Jerome to the sofa.
She rushes over as I’m once again manhandled out of the room.
“I can’t lose them. I can’t. I can’t lose them,” I wail before I’m forced onto the sofa in the den.
Images of my dad, Nico, Daemon, Alex, Theo… fuck. I glance at Jodie as she joins us, and the devastation on her face guts me all over again.
She’s been through too much to lose Toby.
My sobs get louder once more before the sofa dips on both sides of me.
“Drink this,” Emmie demands, shoving a glass of some amber liquid in front of me.
“I can’t,” I whisper.
“You can. Swallow it in one go. It’ll help.”
“I can’t. I might—”
“Fuck your hangover, Calli. Jodie will just have to cope if you puke over her,” Stella says, forcing me to look up and finding Jodie sitting on the coffee table before me, her hands on my knees in support.
I cave, taking the glass from Emmie and throwing it back.
Guilt floods me the second I do, but as the liquid burns down my throat and then begins to warm my belly, I can’t deny that it did help.
“What the fuck are we going to do?” I ask after the longest silence as we all lose ourselves in our fears.
