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“Who are you?” I ask again.
He shakes his head. “I have nothing left to lose. You, on the other hand, are about to lose someone. Any second now.”
His lips curve into a smirk. A moment later, the ground beneath my feet shakes. The rumble of an explosion thunders through the air.
I glance over my shoulder and see smoke rising, blending into the dark sky. Right around where I left the van.
Antonio!
My feet move before I can think. I run as fast as I can in the direction of the smoke, not caring that I’ve left someone still breathing behind, or that I’m losing more blood each time my heart slams against my ribs.
I don’t care.
I reach the burning van in seconds. Flaming scraps of metal and upholstery scattered all over the place. A piece of the door. A chunk of the front seat. A quarter of the steering wheel.
Blood drains from my face. A lump forms in my throat.
If metal didn’t survive this, then there’s no way…
“Antonio!” I shout even as my gut screams that he’s gone.
No answer.
I try to think as I walk through the debris. Is there a chance he could have survived? How long has it been since I sent him away? Who knows? Maybe he didn’t make it back to the van. Or maybe he decided not to go back in spite of me ordering him to.
Then I see the glowing metal tube on the ground, charred but intact. The same tube I shoved at Antonio. And the scorched baseball cap. The same one he was wearing.
And I smell the worst smell in the world, the stench of hell – burning flesh.
My knees drop to the ground. The mound in my throat quivers. My vision blurs.
The last thing my eyes focus on before everything turns black is the blood on Antonio’s cap.
~
I wake up to silence, sunlight and the smell of a hospital – blood and antiseptic. I realize I’m not in one, though, as I see the crystal chandelier and the maroon drapes.
And Andrea.
He grins. “Ah. The sleeping beast awakens. And here I was about to kiss you.”
“Thank God I woke up.” I sit up, grimacing from the pain in my arm but dismissing it as the least of my concerns. “How long have I been out?”
Andrea glances at his watch. “Almost twelve hours.”
Too long.
“Though I’m surprised you woke up at all,” he adds. “You lost a ton of blood.”
I swing my legs over the side of the bed. “Tell me something I don’t already know.”
He pulls up a chair and sits. “Well, what do you know? What do you remember?”
The mission. Damian’s corpse. The other assassin. The explosion.
My eyes grow wide. Antonio!
“Did they find him?” I ask Andrea. “Did they find Antonio?”
My heart sinks as he shakes his head. “I found you because the boss sent me after you after everything went to shit. I didn’t find anyone else.”
My eyebrows furrow. “What do you mean everything went to shit?”
“The Espositos knew we were coming,” Andrea answers.
“Fuck.” I touch my forehead.
So I wasn’t the only one who got pitched a curveball. But if the Espositos knew we were coming, that means someone told them. Who?
I remember the other assassin. He knew I was coming. He knew my name. He knew where the van was parked. Who knows what else he could have known? Damn it. I suddenly wish I’d had the time to torture some information out of him.
“I’m sorry,” Andrea tells me.
I say nothing. Sorry for what? Sorry he couldn’t save Antonio? That’s not his fault. It’s mine. I was the one who sent him to that ticking time bomb.
“This is all your fault!” Leo shouts as he bursts through the doors.
“He’s been waiting for you to wake up,” Andrea informs me.
“You were supposed to watch over Antonio.” Leo glares at me as he storms towards my bed.
Andrea grabs his arm. “Easy, kid.”
Leo turns his icy glare towards Andrea. “Don’t call me kid.”
“Let him go, Andrea,” I say.
Andrea releases Leo’s arm. Leo turns back to me, coming straight at me like a boulder on a collision course. He stands in front of me with his shoulders heaving. Pain and rage spill from his eyes. He keeps them on me as he draws his gun.
“Whoa!” Andrea says.
I put up a hand at him as a signal for him to stay out. This is between me and Leo.
“You were supposed to bring him back safely,” Leo tells me between gritted teeth as he points his gun at my chest. “So why isn’t he here? Why is Antonio gone when you’re alive?”
“You’re right,” I tell him. “Antonio should be alive and I should be dead.”
I get on my feet, grab the barrel of Leo’s gun, and press it against my chest, right over my heart.
“So shoot me.”
I don’t care. I’ve long been prepared to die. And I deserve to after failing to protect an innocent young man. A good man who didn’t want anything to do with the mafia, who was only trying to protect his reckless twin brother. A brilliant man who was going to make an amazing doctor someday. A man who I was supposed to look after.
