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“You’re a dog, Moreno,” he said. “Always have been, always will be. I’m doing Verona a favor by taking you out.”
“All words and very little action make Tyler a dull boy,” I spat back. “Do your worst. We both know you fall far too short for any real impact.”
He ran for me and I braced for some kind of force when I felt myself being shoved out of the way. I landed hard on the sand and looked up, the water falling from the sky almost blinding me as I saw Gunnar in Tyler’s arms, his hands on his abdomen. He fell back, stumbling onto the sand, his hands over his waist as Tyler stood there, motionless, blood slipping from his blade.
“Gunnar,” he said, unsure of what just happened himself. “Why? This wasn’t your fight.”
“No,” he said, his voice croaky. “It wasn’t but it was not a fight to be had here. Ah shit, Ty, you’ve done me good.”
I crawled over to him, taking him into my arms as I lifted his hands from his wound. A deep gash over his hip, so deep, I could see how his skin puckered and blood poured freely from the wound.
“You’ll be fine,” I said. “We’ll get you to Enzo.”
“I won’t make it, Romy. Your goddamn feud just killed an innocent, like I always said it would. Isn’t this what you wanted to stop?”
I felt my eyes burn with unshed tears as I saw the color drain from his face.
“Why didn’t you do what you had always planned, Romy? Now, you’ll have to do it alone.”
“No, no, you’re fine, Gunnar. Get up.”
Gunnar looked over at Tyler who still stood there, looking down at what he’d done.
“I hope both your families end with this war,” he said angrily. “Both of your houses will die out, I swear it on my last dying wish, both your houses will fall.”
I looked up at Tyler who was being pulled back by his men, toward their cars. Bennett was standing at the edge of the sand, unsure of what was happening. He began to move as Tyler passed him and he ran to where we were.
Gunnar’s body was lifeless, his arms falling to his sides as his open eyes looked up at me, lifeless.
He was gone.
I let out a primal scream as I hugged him close to me. Why hadn’t he gone when I told him to?
“Why’d you come between us?” I yelled at his dead body as Bennett approached us. Bennett pulled me up, and away from Gunnar. Sirens were sounding off in the distance as he hauled me away from my friend, the rain beating down hard on him in the sand. I couldn’t look away as the tears, washing away in the rain, continued to fall down my face. My best friend was gone.
I’d gotten him killed.
I ran for the car, hoping to catch up to Tyler and make him pay for what he’d done. Bennett got in behind the wheel first and took off before the cops got to the beach.
“Go after him,” I ordered.
“Not a chance. We need to see Enzo.”
“Fuck that, he fucking killed Gunnar.”
“And you think the sheriff is going to let him go unpunished for that? Better he be gone and we can launch our attack on this city, once and for all.”
“Without Gunnar, I don’t want to live here anymore.”
“Maybe then, you can burn the city down and start anew.”
I looked over at him, considering his words. He was joking of course but he didn’t have such a bad idea. Verona had taken a turn in recent years, a turn I didn’t see changing anytime soon. Without Gunnar, we had no chance in hell of getting Amir to see that it would be best to remove my father and Edward’s hold over the city.
Gunnar had always played with the idea of starting anew when the heads had died and I would be able to take over the entire city, washing away the city line. An idea that didn’t sound so crazy now.
I slammed my fist into the headboard of the car and grunted. The pain radiated up my arm but it was nothing compared to the pain I felt in my chest. A pain I didn’t know how to heal.
Gunnar was dead and my woman was behind enemy lines. There was no way I would escape death now.
