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Rage pumped through my veins like nothing I’d ever felt before. It was like I was burning from the inside out.
But there wasn’t a goddamned thing I could do.
“One move,hombres,”Domínguez said, pressing the barrel of his gun harder against Greta’s temple, “and I kill the girl.”
None of us moved. We couldn’t.
“Muy bien,” he said, nodding in satisfaction. “Now place the guns on the floor—very slowly.”
We were evenly matched; we could take them. But not before Domínguez followed through on his threat.
So, one by one, we bent down and put down our guns. My skin writhed as I did, the sensation of wrongness like worms beneath my skin.
Domínguez smiled when the task was done.
“You’re clever; I’ll give you that,” he said, standing up, looking from me to Gabe to Deo and the others. “Clever fools, I’m afraid. You all still die today,” he said, but then the expression on his face changed. “Or maybe not,” he said with a new gleam in his dark eyes. He turned to Greta.
She cocked an eyebrow at him like she wasn’t concerned at all, but I could see her left hand shaking just a little. Now I could also see that she had her right hand clasped tight to her, wrapped in a cloth. Bloodied cloth. Domínguez had hurt her.
The beast rattled in my chest; I could feel its roar climbing up my throat.
“I take it you’ve found something else that amuses you, Domínguez?” she asked.
He looked back at her, then nodded and placed his gun on the table.
With the immediate threat to Greta gone, I took a step forward.
The gun to my back pressed harder, and out the corner of my eye, I saw Gabe shake his head discreetly.
Fuck.
“If you’re giving me that,” Greta said, nodding at the gun, “I’m going to shoot you with it.” She shrugged. “Just thought you should know.”
If I wasn’t so goddamned angry, I would have laughed.
Domínguez smirked. “I don’t think so,Señorita. Not if you’d like your… friends to walk out of here today.”
Her eyebrows reached for her hairline. “Because you plan to let us all go on our merry way? That doesn’t sound very ‘interesting’, does it?”
“You’re right; it doesn’t.”
Her shoulders sagged just a little, like she’d nursed just the tiniest thread of hope only to have it crushed. I’d kill him extra for that.
“But,” he said, leaning toward her, “letting you decide who walks out of here…”
A cold shiver ghosted down my spine. “That’s the feelingyou get when someone’s walking overyour grave,”my father used to say. It sure as hell felt that way at the moment.
“What are you talking about?” Greta asked, all snark in her voice gone.
“Choose one,” he said, sweeping an arm in a general motion around the room. “Choose one of your rescuers to die, and the rest of you are free to walk away.”
She stared at him, gauging him, but if she was smart—and she was—she wouldn’t believe his bullshit for one second.
But then she turned her head, and her eyes grazed over every one of us in the room.
“I love you,”I swear her eyes screamed as they paused for just a moment on mine before moving onto Gabe’s, then Deo’s, then Vito’s, one by one.
I recognizedthatlook in her eyes too. It grew and spread, clouding her hazel irises. Resigned. Hopeless.
