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I lean up, stretching across Skylar’s broad chest, not really in that much of a hurry, but before I can lazily move off of him, Skylar dumps me on the bed unceremoniously. I flop around for a minute, realizing I’m naked before quickly covering myself up. Not that Casey is even looking at me, he looks almost frantic, his fingers pulling the curtains on the window back and peering outside.
“Saw some cars in the distance. We need to fucking move.”
Skylar starts cursing, grabbing his pants and tugging them on along with his shirt. His moves are clipped and precise and for the first time since working with him, he seems like a bodyguard.
“Get dressed, Diablo.Now.”
The urgency in his voice makes me scramble to pull my clothes on as Skylar runs to grab his gun.
“Get your shit and get in the car,” Casey says as I stumble around, looking for my shoes. I can’t fucking find them. Fuck, where did I put them? Do I need them? Maybe? Maybe not. My mind is obsessing about the damn things until my eyes latch on to my saws.
Oh hell. I need those. Can’t leave my babies. It took years to collect the ones I love.
I grab the duffle, shoving the machines inside when Skylar curses loudly.
“Fuck, no time,” he mutters and then grabs on to my shoulder, leading me to a coat closet on the far side of the room.
“They’re here. Get inside…”
“Wait! What about you?” I ask, almost frantic, my heart beating in my ears so loudly I can barely hear his response.
“Don’t worry about me. You’re all that matters.”
But that’s not true. It’s not!
He tries to move away, but I grab on to him tightly, clawing at his skin. “Don’t you fucking die. I need you.”
“I don’t plan on dying,” he says before shutting the door in my face and silencing me completely.
I stand there, my chest heaving as I try to make sense of what’s happening. How the fuck did Elio find us? Is it even Elio? Are Casey and Skylar overreacting? Isn’t this a safe house only my father knows about? Was Casey tracked? Is Casey a bad guy?
No, no fucking way. I’d be hard-pressed to believe it. But then again, nice people do bad things all the time. I would know.
My breathing grows louder as I press my ear to the door, desperate to hear something, anything. The darkness is almost suffocating, bleeding through me and making me start to feel something I haven’t felt in a long-ass time.
Fear.
Suddenly, I hear a bang, a loud thud that rattles the walls and that’s when the gunshots ring out. My body flies to the other side of the closet, huddling in the corner, my heart pounding for what feels like eons, until the booms finally quiet down. It’s only when I hear a muttered curse from Skylar and a crash that I decide to stop hiding and see what’s going on.
Probably fucking dumb to put myself out in the open, but who said I was smart?
I push the closet door open and the scene before me isn’t what I was expecting, and yet, it doesn’t seem foreign to me at all. The room sits in tatters, the door broken off its hinges, the walls littered with bullet holes and blood.
So much fucking blood. Whose is it? It can’t be anyone’s but Elio’s men, right? Right?
My senses go numb, my reactions dulled. No, no freaking out. This is what I know.
This was my life. I was born into this. It’s in my nature.
My eyes glom on to Casey first. He’s moving across the room quickly, gun aimed toward a kneeling man. He barks at me to get back in the closet, but I ignore him, my eyes frantically searching for Skylar. There are two more bodies on the floor.
Fuck.
Skylar.
Where is he?
And then I see him, his big body almost impossible to miss. He’s propped up against the rear living room wall, blood coating his abdomen. A pained look permeates his face, and I feel something ugly bubble up within me. Something raw and unbidden. Something real.
