Costa keeps smiling and moves a bit closer.
“How do you know her name?” Sam repeats. This time, it’s a demand.
“She’s really cute, Sammy. Nicely done.” Costa blows me a kiss.
Before I can react, Sam barrels both hands into Costa’s chest, throwing him backward and hard onto the floor.
“If you touch her, that’s it.” Sam stands over him now, enraged and ready to attack. “Is that crystal clear? She is off-fucking-limits with your game. I swear to God, I’ll—”
Costa laughs. “You’ll do what?” He slowly returns to his feet and then brushes his hands together. “What can you possibly do to me?”
Sam steps back, creating distance between them. “What the fuck do you want?”
“God, I’ve missed you, Sam, so much.” Costa drops his head to one side and smiles.
He’s so relaxed, so eerily at ease in this exchange, while Sam and I are anything but.
“Did you miss me?” Costa puts his hands in the back pockets of his jeans. “Sam, did you miss me?” he asks more insistently. “It’s been forever since we’ve seen each other, hasn’t it? I want us to hang out again, like we used to.”
Sam’s hands tremble as he defensively holds them up. Against what, I’m not sure, but my stomach drops because Sam sees something coming that I don’t.
Sam shakes his head. “Costa, don’t do this. Please.”
“We had so much fun, Sammy. Remember when it was just us? Tell me that you missed me the way I missed you.” His words and tone are harmless, but Costa is most definitely not. “Let’s get back what we lost, shall we?”
That smile again, and this time, it sends ice through my veins. I scramble to the edge of the chaise, panicked now. “Sam…”
“Stella, don’t! Stay there!”
Sam throws out a hand, and I do what he asks, holding still only because I’m afraid to make the situation worse if I jump between them.
With immeasurable steadiness now, Sam says, “Costa, please leave. I’m begging you. Don’t you do this to me, not now.”
I look back and forth between them, trying to decipher what they’re talking about. Tension throttles the air, all of us on high alert.
Then, Costa slips a hand from his pocket and raises a gun to Sam.
I scream and lurch forward, but again, Sam yells for me to stay.
He stares at the gun and inhales loudly. “You don’t want this, Costa. Please.”
“Sam, we were so good together. So, so good. You remember, right?”
I don’t know how to defuse this, and my heart is in my throat anyway. I cannot think or speak anymore. All I can do is see the gun and the inexplicably sultry, seductive expression on Costa’s face along with the pleading look on Sam’s.
Sam shakes his head, silently conveying so much to Costa.
But Costa simply stares directly at Sam and cocks the gun. “You owe me this. For fun.”
In slow motion, I watch Costa pull the trigger, and my world explodes.
I think I’m screaming. Or maybe I’m trying to. I might be choking.
Through my tears, I see Sam’s chest turn red.
Costa steps in a bit and fires off another round.
I find myself on the floor, crawling toward Sam through my hysteria. In a blur, I make out Costa’s boots next to me, and I feel his hand on my back. He calmly says something that I can’t understand before he walks away.
