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“What’shedoing here?” I ask.
Viktor scratches the back of his head. “Oh, yeah. I sent him an invitation. I figured he’d show up.”
“But why Franco? He doesn’t care if you have me.”
“No, but he cares if I marry you since that will entitle me to some of that Moretti power.”
“Step away from the girl,” Franco calls out. Viktor makes a big show of drawing me close to his side.
“If you want to shoot me, you’ll have to shoot Gemma. And think about what her family will think if they find out you let her die.”
Franco frowns, glaring at Viktor with so much vitriol. “You are not marrying into this family, Viktor.”
“Last I checked,thisfamily isn’t your family, either. So, that puts us on an even playing field.”
The woman next to me has her phone to her ear, and by how she’s speaking, it’s clear she’s talking to the police. I don’t want more bloodshed, so I poke Viktor in the side and nod at the woman. “She’s calling the police.”
“That won’t do.” Viktor reaches over and plucks the phone from her hands and drops it to the ground, smashing it with his foot. She cries out but doesn’t fight it. “No one is calling the police,” he shouts to the entire church. “Not even you, Father.” He points at the priest, making the holy man freeze where he was crawling, halfway to the door. Viktor turns back to Franco. “Now, are we going to try and kill each other or what?”
Viktor whips his gun out and shoots one of Franco’s men in the head. As the men aim their weapons at Viktor, he ducks between one of the pews, dragging me down with him. A nearby woman cries, curling into a ball.
“You can’t escape,” Franco calls out. I can hear the thud of footsteps as Franco’s men spread out around the church, looking for Viktor. When one of the guy’s steps into Viktor’s line of sight, Viktor fires his gun at the man’s legs, knocking him over. Then he takes the opportunity to shoot him in the head.
I hear something behind me and turn around, gasping when I see another of Franco’s men at the end of the pew. Viktor grabs me and places me on top of him as he shoots the man in the head. I wriggle out of his grasp. “Did you just use me as a shield?”
“I did,” he replies, unapologetically. “They’re here to kill me. Not you.” He starts crawling down the pew, and I have no choice but to follow. I amnotturning to Franco to save me for anything. Three more of Franco’s men and Franco himself are still walking around the church. Viktor sneaks into another pew, pulling me along with him.
“What’s your plan?” I whisper.
He reloads his gun. “I never have a plan.” And with that, he jumps up and starts firing, managing to hit two guys back-to-back before ducking back down.
“You’re crazy.”
“Thanks.” He winks.
There’s no other sound in the church. Franco and Will are the only two left. The civilians are quiet, probably praying for their lives. The priest is hiding behind the alter.
“No time like the present,” Viktor says as he jumps up and swings his gun around. Will barrels into Viktor from the side, slamming him to the ground. I gasp and scoot away.
Will slams his fist into Viktor’s face, but Viktor manages to buck him off and point his gun at his head. Will’s eyes widen as Viktor pulls the trigger, killing him. His body slumps onto the ground. I can only stare in shock. I didn’t know Will very well, but he was always kind to me, which is a lot more than I can say of Franco. Or Viktor, for that matter.
Viktor stands up, dusting himself off as he scours the room for Franco. I peek over the edge of the pew, looking, too … except Franco is nowhere to be seen. Viktor laughs, clapping his hands together. “It looks like Franco didn’t want to stay around. He really thought he could kill me, huh? Well, he won’t bother us anytime soon. He’ll just return to your family with his tail tucked between his legs.” He extends his hand down to me. “Ready to get married now?”
I look longingly at the church doors, so close and yet so far. With a sigh, I slap my hand into Viktor’s and let him pull me up. We walk over to the priest.
“Want to marry us now?” Viktor asks him.
He nods jerkily as he stands, his entire body shaking. “Um, are you Catholic?”
“Does it matter?” Viktor doesn’t point his gun at the priest, but he makes a point of tapping his leg with it.
“All right.” He gulps, picking up his bible. “Do, do, d—” He clears his throat. “Do you want to start now?”
Viktor straightens his tie. “Please.”
We stand across from each other as the priest starts the vows. He goes on and on about in sickness and in health and everything else. I’m only half listening. This entire day has been certifiably insane, yet I don’t feel as scared as I should. I feel strangely exhilarated.
The priest’s voice drags me back to the present as he says, “And do you …”
