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I groan inwardly but keep my mouth shut. It’s Marco’s car I saw pulling up through the gates, and I should have known that he would get wind of this. Francesca is in trouble now, and I need to try and keep her out of it, as much as I can.
We stand in the closet for what seems like forever, and finally I put my hand on the doorknob.
Francesca grabs my arm and pulls me back toward her. “Don’t go out there,” she hisses.
“I just want to talk to them,” I say calmly. “Maybe I can keep Marco from beating him up too bad.”
Francesca nods, her perfectly manicured brows drawn together. “You’re right,” she breathes. “You’re calm and you can talk to them. I can’t go out there, though.”
I nod. “I don’t want you to,” I reassure her and hug her tightly before opening the door.
I shut it behind me quickly and hurry toward Bruno’s office. He’s sitting in his chair, facing Marco, whose shoulders are stiff.
“So, you’re fucking my girl,” Marco says slowly, and a grin spreads across Bruno’s face as I watch from the doorway.
I swallow hard, about to say something, when Marco pulls out his gun and shoots Bruno directly in the face. There is hardly any sound, with the party still going. That’s when I notice the gun has a silencer.
Bruno jerks once, and his head is tilting up, as if he is staring at the ceiling, but the thin red trail coming down his forehead tells me the bullet was true to its mark.
I make a squeaking sound in the back of my throat and that’s when Marco turns around, locking eyes with me.
A scream builds in the back of my throat and I look around desperately but it’s just the two of us. Everyone else is either downstairs or on the balcony.
Marco advances toward me and I do the only thing that I can think of – I run, sprinting past Francesca who’s come out of the closet.
“Aurora,” she yelps as I push past her, but I ignore her. She didn’t see anything, so she isn’t in danger right now. I am.
I’ve got to get the hell out of here before Marco turns that gun on me.
4
NICO
I’m still outside smoking, not paying much attention to the rest of the party, when a blood-curdling scream cuts through the night. It takes me only a second to realize that it’s Francesca, and my heart begins to pound as I run down the hallway. I have to push people out of my way, most of the party had started to move upstairs and everyone was in the way. Now that Francesca had screamed, people were all going that way and I all but elbowed everyone out of my way as I approached Bruno’s office.
Francesca is standing in the doorway, shivering all over and I put my hands on her shoulders, turn her away from Bruno’s dead body.
“Shit,” I curse.
Francesca clutches on to me, making me look at her. “It was Marco,” she whispers. “You have to get to Aurora. She saw everything.”
Fuck.
Apparently, there’s a witness to this murder, and it’s my little sister’s best friend. I’m going to have a long night ahead of me, clearly. I take Francesca’s shoulders in my hands and look at her fiercely.
“Find Dante,” I say. “Stay with him and Mia until him or me tell you otherwise. Donotgo back to the house.”
She nods quickly, tears streaming down her face. “You’ll find Aurora? Keep her safe?”
“I’ll find her,” I promise.
I make my way outside easily because everyone is going upstairs to see what the commotion is. I don’t see Marco, thank god, but I see that there’s a piece of white dress in the woods, hanging on to a branch.Aurora.
I grab the piece off the branch and head into the woods, ignoring the cuts and scrapes from the branches and thorns. I catch sight of her in the middle of the forest, doubled over and panting, and I come right up behind her and grab her with one arm around her waist and the other clamped over my mouth.
She goes stiff all over in my arms and I whisper in her ear, “It’s me, Nico.” She slowly relaxes into my arms. I add, “I’m going to get you somewhere safe.”
My head is spinning. I know that Marco is a loose cannon, but at the same time, I didn’t think he’d kill Bruno in such a public manner. It seems like Aurora is the only real witness to the murder, so Marco will be after her.
