Page 128 of Entangled

“He couldn’t just let her be,” Dom howled as his hands enclosed Cara’s throat. He squeezed hard, taking away her air and making her lungs burn. “He’d never let her be happy, not like he wanted to be. Fuck him, and fuck you.”

Blood rushed Cara’s ears. Her vision blurred. Her lips tingled with numbness, like the rest of her extremities. She swore she felt her heart slow.

She wasn’t sure how it was possible, but it was as though the world slowed down all around her in those moments. It made her far more painfully aware of the fact she was about to lose her life, and there was nothing she could do about it.

“Please don’t hurt the baby,” Cara managed to get out with what last bit of breath she had left. “Please—”

“Shut the fuck up! Shut up, shut up, shut up!”

Somewhere in the back of Cara’s hazy consciousness, she was sure that she heard a ding echo through the penthouse. Not that it mattered, because Cara didn’t even have the energy to keep her eyes open any longer, never mind pick up her fists to keep fighting.

Please don’t hurt my Marcus.

Please don’t hurt my baby.

I’m sorry for whatever I did, but don’t hurt him.

She wasn’t sure if she said those words out loud, but she thought them. Her mind screamed them until her throat felt raw and bloody, but that could have just been from the choking, too.

The happiest memory Cara could think of in that moment was waking up in the hospital the first night after Marcus was born, to find Gian singing a French lullaby to their son. She didn’t know he could sing at all, and he hadn’t noticed her awake. It was the sweetest sight—proof in an instant that no matter what, he was going to love his child.

And perhaps if one of them could make it out of this alive, she would want it to be Marcus.

He would always have his father.

Crack.

The loud sound accompanied a sudden intake of air into Cara’s lungs. Her eyes widened at the absolute agony it caused for her to breathe in, but all she saw above her was the falling form of Dom coming at her. She couldn’t even find the strength to move out of the damn way.

“Shit, Cara, just a second, baby. I got you.”

That voice … it was so beautifully, wonderfully familiar.

She barely moved at all as Dom’s dead weight was shoved off her. She clutched at her throat, taking in gulps of air. It didn’t really help.

“Look at me,” she heard the man demand. “Let me see your eyes. Don’t take in such big breaths.”

She couldn’t focus on the blurry image above her, her pupils struggling to form the shapes it needed. Careful hands touched her face, and that hurt, too.

“Christ, mon ange, look at your face. Try to calm down and focus.”

Cara did, but it didn’t help. “My baby … get my baby, please.”

“Shh. Marcus is fine, just angry.”

“Get my baby!”

“Okay, okay.”

In the time it took for Cara to smell the sweet scent of her child and have him in her weak arms, her vision had cleared enough for her to see again.

Gian.

He sat across from her, his gaze wary, and his hands outstretched to take her into his embrace when she was ready to move. She only shook her head, not wanting anything to touch her or her child in that moment. He checked her over from afar as she soothed Marcus in a daze.

“Don’t look at it,” Gian said when Cara glanced to the side at Dom’s body.

The back of his head was blown apart.