Parker pulls a Beretta from somewhere and hovers it over my face. “Time to die, huh?”
I don’t speak. Better men than Parker have held a gun to my head. I wouldn’t insult them by begging for my life. Death was always a possibility, and this is my fuck up. I deserve it. All I can hope is that the others find January. That Morelli marries her and lets Doc and Bobby fuck her whenever they want. And they have dinners like the one we had.
I look into the barrel of the gun. “Hurt January and the others will make you pay.”
Parker bares his teeth, and the world goes black.
***
Red light throughpaper cracks.
Slow, seeping heat.
A man screaming. That horrible insect whine.
Sirens.
“Mr. Mills?”
A woman in white is pressing something to my head, saying something I can’t hear. I blink. White walls with a leaf border. Mica flecked floor. I’m still in St. John’s hospital. I try to push myself up and collapse, blood streaming into my mouth like poison. I press my hand to the bullet wound and go again, staggering to my feet. The pain is there but a street or two away. Someone else’s problem. They must have given me drugs.
A girl behind me screams and the doctor says something else. I ignore them and stagger forward. Teresa Calderoli’s door is open, the cards and flowers and candy exactly where it was. The old woman is still in bed and for a second, I think it’s okay. Then I see her blank brown eyes.
She’s dead and January is gone.
Epilogue
January Whitehall
“You disgusting, degenerateslut.”
I sit across from Mr. Parker in a limousine. The windows are blacked out. If he hits me no one will see.
Zia Teresa is dead. A masked man put his hands around her throat and killed her. I saw him do it. I heard the awful sounds. Adriano is shot. I don’t know if he’s dead but when I was dragged past him, he wasn’t moving.
These are the facts. They can’t be argued with or cried at. They can’t be changed.
Mr. Parker leans forward, steepling his fingers. “Ten years. Ten years I’ve been paying your bitch of a mother for you to get snatched away at our wedding. Millions of dollars down the drain.”
Mr. Parker’s bodyguards have glazed looks on their faces. It seems like my ex-fiancé has been ranting about this a lot since my abduction.
I fix an understanding smile on my face. “I’m so sorry, Mr. Parker.”
“Don’t smirk at me, you little cunt. You know, your mother thinks I stole you. Why the fuck would I do that?” He looks at me expectantly.
“I’m not sure, Mr. Parker.”
“Of course, you’re not, you stupid bitch.” His expression is gleeful. I’m sure he’s been dying to talk to me like this. It was probably hard for him to buy me flowers and take me for walks when this is the relationship he really wanted to have.
He leans in close, tapping a finger to the ruby necklace. “Have you been fucking Eli Morelli?”
His breath is sweet and sour like rancid soda. My throat constricts. “No.”
Mr. Parker gives a high wobbling laugh. “So, you fucked Adiano?”
“I… who?”
He looks at me like I’m a worthless patch of dirt. “Adiano Rossi.”
