The thought of Gabriela in danger overshadowed the ache in my right arm as I drove, so much so that I could pretend for a moment that I hadn’t been injured three days ago.
Panic rose in me like a tidal wave when a familiar black SUV came into view, parked on the side of the lonely road, with two doors open…
And two bodies on the ground.
No, no, no.
I threw my hazard lights on and stumbled out of the car, making sure to grab my gun from the glove compartment. My heart drummed fast and my breaths thinned as I walked with heavy feet, a figurative chain manacled around my ankles, slowing me down from viewing the train wreck.
My first and only encounter with death had been my dad.
I remembered seeing his corpse tucked in a casket, his expression peaceful. He’d still appeared full of life, like minutes from waking up after a long nap.
But nothing could have prepared me for witnessingtheselifeless corpses.
There was nothing peaceful in their expressions. Their eyes were open in shock and their mouths parted, lying in a pool of their own blood.
So. Much. Blood.
I recoiled back at seeing a dead Oscar and Craig, bile rising in my throat.
“Gabriela!” I screamed for her, tossing a glance at my surroundings. The empty road and the forest lining either side of it. Frantically, I rounded the car to peer into the backseat as well.
But Gabriela was nowhere to be found.
Her purse lay open in the backseat, its contents—including her phone—scattered across the surface.
As if she’d left in a hurry.
No.
As if she’d beentaken.
I felt like the walls around me were closing in.
No, no, no. She couldn’t be gone, she couldn’t be hurt, she couldn’t be…
I couldn’t finish the thought.
The very thought that Gabriela was no longer on this Earth was unfathomable to me. I refused to believe it.
Something inside of me cracked. I threw my head back on another mournful scream that boomed in the cold morning air like a desperate plea, “Gabriela!”
I needed to hear her voice. I needed to see her. I needed her in my arms. She had to be okay. There was no other possibility. Otherwise, I would hold a grudge with every god out there, every star, every inch of the universe’s tapestry for stealing her away from me.
In the midst of the chaos that was my mind, I heard a faint meow right as I was about to pull out my phone to dial Enzo.
Luna.
My head snapped to my left, watching with tormented eyes as Luna ran towards me, her gait a little slower than usual. Almost like she was limping. She came from the opposite side of the road, closer to my home and furthest from where the car was parked.
Her small cries cut me to the quick.
It struck me that she was probably headed towards my home to the best of her ability, in an attempt to alert us. And if any of the guards—or myself—had seen Luna arriving at the property, we’d have known something cataclysmically wrong had occurred.
“Luna.” I knelt just as she reached me, her distressing sounds growing in decibels as she pawed at me. “It’s okay. I’m here. I’m—”
My sentence died when I realized Luna’s pawprints had blood on them. They left a red mark on my white dress shirt like a bad omen.
