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I dive, flinging my body as far as I can.
The tarmac scrapes my skin, the gun clatters from my hand, and I slide across the ground, twisting my body just in time for Alize to fall on top of me.
Her body hits mine. I wrap my arms around her, cradling her to me. It's a long second as I hold her, wondering if I'm too late.
Then her body shakes with a sob.
She's alive.
I pull her from my chest, holding her as gently as I can manage while the shootout ensues around us. The sound of the jet's door closing above us means that Michel has already barricaded himself inside.
"Alexander..." Alize’s voice is weak. My name is carried away by the wind as soon as it leaves her lips. Tears bead in the corner of her hazel eyes.
She's got bruises and swelling and dried blood all over her face. I bring my forehead closer to hers, tempted to hold her tight. She feels so fragile in my arms.
This is all my fault.
She shouldn't have been in this situation.
"Everything's going to be alright, sweetheart," I whisper. Her skin is too warm, and she looks pale. "I have you. Everything's going to be fine."
Alize blinks slowly, her eyes shining from the tears.
When the gunshots stop, I lift her into my arms and jog with her over to the waiting SUV. By that time, it's clear that she's too tired to keep herself awake. Ezra's warning about her condition flashes in my mind.
I need to get her to a hospital–now.
Before I can get into the SUV with Alize, one of the Beneventi soldiers approaches us. Wesley and George block him from coming too close to me, tension simmering in the air. I look him over.
He isn’tjusta soldier.
He's dressed too well—the custom-tailored suit, the coiffed hair, the tattoos peeking out from his collar and cuffs, the smug expression on his face. No, he's somewhere in the family hierarchy, though he looks only a few years older from me.
He was the one shouting orders from earlier.
Even though his family just helped mine, there’s nothing pleasant about this moment. We’re all on edge as we consider each other. The Beneventis have us outnumbered.
This could end very badly.
He slips something out of his pocket. It’s a black felt card—there’s nothing on one side, but the other is embossed with the Beneventi crest. “You will need this when you come to visit the boss,” the man says with a thick Italian accent. I didn’t expect them to let me leave without a way to collect on this favour. “You Dukes can be slippery. It is wise to come when the famiglia calls.”
I swallow the curse on the tip of my tongue. He casts a withering look at Alize that has me holding her tightly. “You have the girl.” He narrows his eyes at me, then tips his head toward the plane. “What do we do with him?
I look down at Alize again.
She’s too badly hurt for me to linger any more. I could send her with Wesley and Stuart to the hospital, and stay here to extricate Michel with the help of the Beneventis. I could put the bullet in his head myself, the perfect retribution for what he did to my mother.
I’ve dreamed of this moment for so long.
But Alize is slipping away, and I would be damned if I delegate her care to anyone else ever again. Michel Moreau destroyed my past, but my future is lying in my arms, withering by the minute. I’m not the scared little boy in the greenhouse anymore.
No, this time I can save my family.
“Do whatever you need to do to get him out of that plane and kill him,” I say, looking out at the grounded jet. Then I turn to the Beneventi. “But I want his body.”
I’ll need it to prove to Lev that the job has been done.
The Beneventi regards me for a few tense seconds. “It is done.”
