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I didn’t want it to be this soon.
“I’m sorry, Angel. Not for taking you. Never for that.” My blink is slow. “For leaving you.”
She’s against me now. On my lap. Getting as close as she can. “You can’t leave me! You promised!”
“I know, Mama.” My eyes start to close. I don’t want them to. But I can’t hold them open anymore. “I know. I’m sorry.”
CHAPTER79
Val
“Dominic!”His hands let go of mine, dropping to his sides. “You can’t be sorry,” I cry. “You can’t go!” I sob. “You need to stay with me.” I press one hand to his bleeding chest and one hand to my stomach. “You need to stay with us!”
Dom’s head lolls to the side as more blood seeps from his chest, between my fingers.
And the loss rips through my mind.
He’s not gone.
He can’t be gone.
Not today.
He can’t die today, of all days.
A fresh round of gunfire blasts from up the road, where I last saw the cars.
I reach into my front pocket and pull out the black handkerchief with blue lettering and put it between my palm and his body. I don’t know why I grabbed this today. I just wanted to have it with me.
Another sob breaks free.
We’ve come so far.
I press the handkerchief harder against him.
And he’s not going to make it.
Without a miracle, he won’t make it.
None of us will.
My pocket vibrates.
I’m still practically in Dom’s lap, but I reach down and pull it out. King’s name on the screen.
He must’ve hung up and called back.
I answer the call, but I can’t stop crying.
“Nine minutes,” King tells me. “Val, my men will be there in nine minutes.”
The gunfire up the road slows, one side having overwhelmed the other.
And I know what that means.
I know it’s not my side that won.
“W-we won’t last nine minutes.” I admit the awful truth.
