"Are you sure?" she asked on the speakerphone. "Are you okay?"
"Everything's fine," I lied. "Why don't you go ahead and take your lunch now?" I lifted my finger off the button and lowered my hand.
"Can you fix me or not?" he asked.
I paused, a lie on the tip of my tongue. But even with a gun pointed at me, somehow, I didn't think I'd be able to get away with lying to this man. "I'm sorry, but other than prescribing you something akin to a tranquilizer, there isn't anything I can do to keep you from caring about someone. It just...happens sometimes. Whether we want it to or not."
A muscle in his jaw twitched.
"Look," I told him, discreetly wiping the sweat from my palms as I tried to de-escalate the situation. "How about you lower that weapon and we can talk about this some more. I can help you work through these feelings you're having so they don't seem so overwhelming."
"I don't think you understand." The gun remained pointed at my face. "If you can't fix me, I'll lose everything."
I spread my hands wide. "What you're asking just isn't possible. I can't just medicate your feelings away, but if you'll just let me..."
"No," he told me. "We're done here." Reaching into his jacket pocket, he pulled out a silencer. Calmly and meticulously, like he'd done it a thousand times, he attached it to the end of the barrel. When his cold, dead eyes returned to my face, they stared through me like I was already nothing more than a memory.
The realization that these were the last minutes of my life punched me in the gut, and the sour smell of my urine burned my nose as warm piss soaked my underwear and trickled down my leg.
I couldn't keep the panic from my voice. "You don't have to do this. I can help you."
"No, you can't."
"I can," I insisted.
"Nothing personal, Doc. But this was a mistake. Thank you for patronizing me, but this appointment is over."
My last emotion wasn't fear. It was a feeling of surprise. I always imagined silencers to be...well...silent. But they weren't. Not completely...
CHAPTER 1
Tristan
Two Months Earlier
I'm not a man.
Not really.
Not like other men.
What I am is a human bullet shield for my boss, Luca. And occasionally for Enzo, Luca's other personal soldier, if the need arises. A job I was groomed for by Luca's father ever since I was a young child. A job I'm more than happy to show up for every day.
Maybe happy isn't the right word. Indifferent might be more accurate. Not about Luca himself. He and Enzo are probably the closest thing to friends I'd ever have. But it's not like I give a shit about what happens to me. Only what happens to them. However, I don't know if it's because I genuinely care, or because I've been trained to do so.
And that bothers me a little sometimes.
However, today...today, as I watched Enzo and Serafina exchange vows, it was the first time I could remember feeling…something. Anything. And it had nothing at all to do with my friend and his new wife, but rather, one of their guests.
As I watched the dark-haired beauty walk into Luca's home on Gino's arm in a red dress that flirted with her curves and only teased at what was underneath, thatthingstirred deep within my chest. That same thing I'd noticed when I first saw her sitting there in the setting sun during the wedding ceremony. It was primitive and possessive and utterly unfamiliar to me, and it made me want to sink my knife into Gino's fat gut and gift her with a necklace of his intestines.
I almost didn't recognize what it was at first. Emotions of any kind weren't something I was used to experiencing. And the tightening in my chest surprised me so much that I stopped and took a deep breath, taking stock of my body, wondering if an old injury was acting up.
But no. It wasn't anything physical.
How strange.
"Who is that woman?" I asked Luca when he and Veda stopped alongside me. "The one with Gino."
