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“You should have answered your summons, Burton. Threats need to be answered…and what kind of man would I be if I allowed your rudeness to go unpunished, hmm?”
“I’ll do whatever you want.” I stand firm, shielding Renzo with my taller body. “Let this man go. He’s done nothing wrong here.”
Fritz’s mouth tugs up on one side before there’s a sharppop,followed by a burning sensation in my chest. I fall to my knees as though in slow motion, my hand rising to press my palm to my wound.
My eyes drop down, barely registering the blood pooling between my fingers where they’re covering the hole made from the bullet I’ve just taken. When I look back at Fritz, he’s watching me with a dark smile that chills me to my marrow.
Renzo kneels beside me, his face filled with helplessness as he takes in the blood staining my white shirt. “You’ll be okay, V. I’m here. I’ve got you.”
My voice is jagged as I grip his arm with as much strength as I can gather. “Run. Go, now!”
“I’m not leaving—”
He grinds to a halt when he feels Fritz holding the barrel of a small handgun to his temple.
“Please…don’t, I’ll do anything…”
Fritz holds my pleading gaze with a cool, uncaring stare, and I know deep inside my heart that this is the final time my best friend and I will share the same air.
My eyes shoot to Renzo’s even as breathing becomes difficult.
“Brother.”
That final word catches on a sob that cleaves my chest in half.
Lorenzo’s eyes glisten with tears, his brow beading with sweat, even as his lips lift in a glorious smile, and he murmurs softly, “It’s been an honor—”
I slam my eyes closed as Fritz pulls the trigger, the warmth of my best friend’s life force hitting me sharply, and I pray to a god that couldn’t possibly exist to please take me instead of this man.
The man with so much to live for. So much to give. The man who knows the very best, and the very worst of me.
And it’s when Renzo’s body falls forward that my eyes fly open, and I spear Fritz with a fiery stare as I gather my friend close, all while vowing that if I make it out alive, this will never happen again.
Love is too painful. If this is how love tastes when it’s torn from you, then I want no part of it.
And that’s my last thought before I fall forward, desperately holding the body of the only person who’d ever meant shit to me.
* * *
WREN
I blink heavily, tears cresting my bottom lashes as I absorb the pain in Vaughn’s voice. As I relive the excruciating loss right alongside him.
As I finally hear the burning truth that I’ve been denied my whole entire life.
“I woke up in a hospital bed. YourNonnaJulia was asleep in the bedside chair. I took one look at her and fell to pieces. They sedated me for another couple of hours—”
His words break off before he lifts his hands, his palms covering his face for long moments, and I swallow down a sob of agony, wishing I could comfort him, but knowing I need time to process what I’ve just discovered.
When he removes his hands from his face, his glistening eyes unerringly find mine.
“Fritz had kept me within inches of death, shooting me here—” He rubs the scar I’ve noticed just beneath his collarbone. “But when Sara told me to stay away, it was the killing blow. I lost every single thing of meaning until you came into my life.”
He rises and walks around the desk, keeping his distance as I’d asked, only to lower himself to his knees and regard me with pleading eyes.
“I fought the pull between us witheverythingI had because I know I don’t deserve you. I don’t deserve your love, Wren. And selfishly, I’ve known that all along. Butplease—”
His voice cracks, and he swallows slowly, as though he’s holding himself together by a thread.
