Dead.
“Fuck!”
The room erupts in motion.
Rafe begins to swear, but all I hear is the echo of one sentence repeating in my skull like a curse.
If I can’t have her, no one can.
Rafe grips my shoulder. “Lorenzo.”
I turn slowly.
“If that’s true,” I say, voice hollow and lethal, “then she’ll never be safe.”
Rafe swallows. “Not unless—”
“I kill them all,” I finish.
No hesitation.
No dramatics.
Just fact.
Rafe nods once. “Then that’s what we do.”
“We start tonight.”
I don’t remember the drive home.
I don’t remember walking inside.
My brain is fuzzy until I see her. But seeing her jump-starts my heart.
She takes one look at my face and freezes. “Lorenzo.”
I cross the room in three strides and cup her face, grounding myself in the fact that she’s breathing. Still alive. Still warm.
She’s safe.
For now.
I pull her into my chest anyway.
“What happened?”
I don’t know what to tell her, but when she places her hands on my jaw and looks me in the eyes, I know there is only one thing I can do. Tell her the truth.
So I do.
I tell her everything, and when I’m done, I think she will break down. But not my beautiful, strong girl.
Instead, she steels her spine. “What are we going to do?”
I exhale slowly, forehead pressing to hers. “I don’t know.”
The honesty costs me something.
