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“Will you honor each other as husband and wife for the rest of your lives?”
Pavone has the gall to say “yes,” as if he hasn’t already gotten rid of three other wives. I suppose that was the end of their lives.
I open my mouth to give my own tepid “yes,” but my voice is drowned out by a loud pop.
Then a scream.
We all turn to the source of the scream, but there’s another loud sound.
It’s gunfire. Somebody is shooting in the church.
And despite everything that’s happened, I think:thank god.
29
SAINT
I’ve never been as impatient as Angelo, but it takes for-fucking-ever for the wedding to get going. My position on the second-floor balcony of the church makes it easy to keep track of where everybody is—including the security, who walk past me without a second glance.
That’s thanks to the uniform I’m wearing, identical to what all the tech crew has on.
If it were up to me, we wouldn’t be here. We would have gone through with the original plan, but Victor had shaken his head and pointed out it would be much easier to take everybody out in one fell swoop.
That means I have to torture myself by watching Lucia walk down the aisle. She’s gorgeous as ever, and the sight of her in the wedding dress makes me ache.
Even the words she’d flung at me couldn’t make me love her any less. They’d hurt, but not as much as the idea of her getting married to another man.
To Pavone, who would never treat her like she deserves to be treated.
I’d never touch another woman again, and I’d let Angel touch me all they want, if only she’d just take me back. Maybe she didn’t take us seriously before, but she has to take us seriously now. She has to be grateful to us… doesn’t she?
But Victor said not to get my hopes up.
I know she was hostile when we’d spoken last, but I forgive her for it. She had to feel alone and afraid, and Victor had made things harder for her. I still blame him for so much, so it’s hard to really take his advice when it comes to Lucia. He doesn’t know her like I do.
My heart races as the priest begins to drone on about marriage, and I fidget when the others take their turns reading from the bible. My lips twist in distaste when Lucia’s sister reads about a wife’sduties, and I want to throttle Pavone then and there for trying to beat Lucia down like this.
It isn’t until the priest finally turns to the vows that I go utterly still, waiting for the perfect moment. It can’t be too soon, but I can’t let this marriage go through either.
“...for the rest of your lives?” the priest asks.
Pavone’s smirking like the asshole he is as he says yes, because he knows that the end of Lucia’s life could be as soon as he wants her gone. Before she can say yes, I throw the signal.
And the gunfire begins.
Pavone’s expression morphs into anger, visible even from where I’m hiding. While some of the guests fall to the ground and hide between the pews, others—the men—are drawing weapons and waving them around.
I guess they’d neglected to give up their guns at the door. That’s to our advantage, though.
“Where the fuck are you?” Pavone shouts into the church. His voice carries thanks to the building’s design. “How fucking dare you ruin my fucking wedding, you shitstain. I’m going to murder you!”
I have to stifle my laugh, especially because the next shot hits one of the people standing near the front. Blood goes flying, and there’s more screaming. The entire wedding procession scatters—everybody except Lucia and Pavone, that is. Pavone’s got his hand around Lucia’s wrist, preventing her from running away.
“Vanessa and Eva headed toward the north exit,” I whisper into the small mic clipped to my shirt collar. “Pavone’s got Lucia though, so don’t shoot him.”
“I see that,” Angel answers tersely. “Where’s Rossi?”
The security staff are on the move, and I don’t think I’ll be safe here for much longer. I’ll miss this vantage point, where I can see everybody scrambling to make phone calls that won’t go through thanks to the jammers I set up. I’m proud that I was able to set it up in such a way that our own communications were still in the clear.
