Amalia shoved her arms through without another word, then cautiously approached Derek. “What happened down here? What did you see? Did anyone else— Is it just you?”
He swiped the blade across the front of his shirt in a futile attempt to wipe it clean.
“The same that probably happened up there—an ambush. We all scattered. I didn’t see anything else apart from that.”
I had barely settled a comforting hand on her shoulder when a blast shook the room and sent us tumbling forward, the heat of a fire at our backs.
There came a point where defeat was inevitable. I would rather live to fight tomorrow than die here a pointless death.
“Amalia, we have to go. I’m sorry.”
She nodded, mouth tight as the reflection of flames danced in her irises. Derek and I helped her to her feet, and she swatted us both and started for the exit.
“Reina.” The voice was hoarse and unfamiliar. I couldn’t turn around to see his face because the barrel of a gun was pressed against the base of my skull. Derek reached for his side piece.
“This is a 12 gauge, so unless you want to wear your friend’s brain as a new accessory, I suggest you keep your hands nice and high above your head. You too,reina.”
My brother’s nostrils flared, chest rising and falling with every harsh breath as he reluctantly complied.
“Reinita, I need you to look pretty for me on your knees.”
“I’ll kill you if you think about touching her.”
He knocked the sawed-off edge of the shotgun against my head.
“All talk. But how will you do that without that pretty face of yours?”
Amalia and I exchanged worried gazes, and she shook her head slowly.
“You will come with me or die with them.”
“Fuck you. Go ahead and kill me,” she spat at his feet.
He released a mocking laugh and shoved the barrel harder against me.
“As you wish.”
We made eye contact through the darkness, and her lip quivered.
“NO! I’ll go…just don’t do it. Please.”
Barking another laugh, he motioned for her to get up and remove her shirt, and I clenched my fists at my side, feeling so goddamn helpless.
“La reina, la mercinaria, begging me? Ain’t that a bitch.”
The pop of a bullet against flesh had us all hitting the floor, that bastard on top of me. Blood trickled down my temple and over my face, and my first thought was that I’d been hit. Until I realized the man draped over my back was no longer moving or speaking. It was his blood. Fuck. That was close. Too damn close. I exhaled harshly against the floor.
“Gio!”
I couldn’t understand the name flying from Amalia’s lips until I saw her look of horror.
With a gun in one hand and eyes and face scrunched with fear, Gio stood above us. His breaths were coming so quick and shallow that I feared he’d start hyperventilating.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” She charged and disarmed him.
“No time for a reunion. I hear them coming, and I’m trying to make it back to my wife while I’m still breathing.”
I shoved the dead weight from my back and sprang to my feet before moving toward a frozen Gio and grabbing him by the scruff of his shirt. We stumbled outside into a back lot, wheretwo SUVs were waiting. Amalia sighed a breath of relief when she was met with Holly in the driver’s seat.
