"You'll be safe in Chicago," Luca promises as he guides me to a seat on the plane. "I'll make sure of it."
I nod numbly, beyond words.
Alessandro steps forward one last time. "Valentina. You’ll find happiness again. I know it.”
Fuck you, I think but am too tired to say.
I sink into a leather seat, curling into myself. I can't bring myself to look out the window as we take off, leaving behind the city where I lost everything except the tiny life growing inside me.
Luca sits across from me, watching with concern in his eyes. I press my hands over my stomach, wondering how I'll ever explain to my child why their father isn't with us.
"You should rest," Luca says after the plane levels off. "There's a bedroom in the back. You look like you're about to collapse."
I don't argue. Exhaustion fills every cell. Without a word, I push myself up and make my way to the back of the plane.
The door to the bedroom is slightly ajar. I push it open, thinking only of collapsing into oblivion for a few hours.
My heart stops.
Lying on the bed, blood still staining his shirt, is Cristian.
I freeze, convinced I'm hallucinating. My mind finally fractured from grief.
35
CRISTIAN
I jolt upright, a gasp tearing from my lungs as if I've been submerged underwater. The Kevlar vest beneath my shirt presses painfully against the bruise forming on my chest where Alessandro's bullet struck.
Valentina's scream pierces the air as she stumbles backward, hand clutched to her mouth.
"It's me," I rasp, reaching for her. "It's okay, I'm alive."
Her eyes are wild, tears streaming down her face as she takes a hesitant step forward. "But I… I saw you die. Alessandro shot you!"
"Blanks and blood packs." I wince, rubbing the tender spot over my heart as I stand, needing her in my arms. "Still hurts like a bitch."
Valentina launches herself at me, her body colliding with mine in a desperate embrace. Her fingers trace my face, my neck, my shoulders as if confirming I'm real. I pull her against me, inhaling the scent of her, feeling her warm against me again.
"How?" she asks, her arms like a vise around me.
"Once I told Alessandro to kill me after I kill Maksim, he?—”
“What? You told him to kill you?” She jerks back and stares at me like she wants to slap me.
“He said the Bratva wouldn’t buy that I was acting on my own, but if he killed me and disowned what I did, they might.”
She steps back, and the distance kills me.
I continue to explain. “We staged it to make it clear to everyone that the Dante family had nothing to do with Maksim's assassination."
"You knew all this time?" Anger flashes across her face. "You all knew and let me think?—"
"We couldn’t tell you." I capture her face between my hands.
"Why couldn't anyone trust me with the truth?" Valentina pushes away from me, eyes flashing with fire. "I've been drowning in grief for the past hour thinking you were dead!"
Her rage is magnificent. I don’t like that it’s directed at me, though.
