Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 91164 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 456(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91164 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 456(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
My heart races. I ready my weapon and prepare for what I might find. Allegra was a target up there. Easier to hit than miss. I have to be ready. But how can you be ready to see the woman you love dead? How can you ever be prepared for that horror?
I lunge up the last steps to take cover behind a short pillar. Bullets from an automatic rifle shoot at me, but miss and I press my back into the bricks of the half-pillar. I look back over my shoulder, relieved when I see she’s not up there. The rope is hanging, but she’s not there. And she’s not on the ground.
“Allegra!” I call out.
Nothing.
“Allegra! Are you here?”
“It’s a trap!” Her voice is clear and she’s alive and the relief I feel makes me suck in a breath, makes my back slump against the wall in relief.
She’s alive.
She’s alive.
“Let her go, Enzo!” I call out because it’s going to be Enzo. I know it. I fucking know it. “Let her fucking go. This is between you and me. It has always been between you and me.” I move, coming out from behind the pillar.
A bullet flies, but I don’t stop. I stand.
“You’re not a coward, Enzo.” I turn to the sandbags. That’s where they are. “Fight me. Fight me fair, cousin. Fight me fair and win your place.”
“Drop your weapons,” Enzo calls out. “Fucking drop them, or my next bullet is for her.”
“Don’t do it!” Allegra calls out.
“I’m putting them down. Don’t fucking hurt her.” I pull the strap of the automatic rifle off and set it at my feet, then do the same with my Glock. I push them away.
Only then does Enzo emerge. Enzo, my cousin, my friend, a man I trusted. A man I defended.
And in front him, pressed to his body, is Allegra. His human shield.
I look her over, see how her wrists are still bound, how one arm is bent at an unnatural angle. See the pain on her face as her chest trembles with her breaths. Her body is bruised, cut. Her face, too. A line carved down one cheek.
Blood is splattered across her stomach, but that’s not hers at least. I meet her eyes. They’re wet as she looks back at me and to see her like this, to see her hurt like this. In pain like this. Broken like this. It makes my heart twist. It makes my gut burn. It makes my hands turn into fists.
I shift my gaze to Enzo’s. “Let her go.”
He walks out around the sandbags, half carrying her when she won’t move.
“Put your hands up,” he says.
I grit my teeth, but when he points the barrel of his weapon at Allegra’s throat, I do it. I raise my arms over my head.
“Let her go, Enzo.” I take a step toward them. “Your fight is with me.”
Enzo’s eyes narrow. “Stop moving. Stay where you are”
I don’t. “Why? Why did you do it? I don’t fucking understand.”
“I said fucking stop moving!” He pushes the barrel so hard under Allegra’s chin that it forces her head backward.
“Fine. I’ve stopped. You were my friend. Tell me why. At least tell me why.”
“There are no friends in our world.”
“Tell me why.”
“You know why. You fucking know why.” I keep my eyes on him, aware of how the sound of bullets has come nearly to a stop. Aware of a figure on the ground with his gun aimed at Enzo’s back.
Jet.
Jet standing among the bodies of the dead.
Jet ready to shoot, but waiting for my word.
“Let her go. You have me.” I lower my arms to undo the bulletproof vest I’m wearing. All my men are wearing them. Enzo is too. It’s at least one of the reasons we will come out of this victorious. If you’re loyal to me, I will be loyal to you. I will look after you. It’s my promise to my men. Always has been.
“Keep your hands up!”
“Cassian. Don’t. Don’t do it,” Allegra begs, tears streaming down her face. “He’s going to kill you anyway.”
I continue to slip the vest off and I toss it aside because better me than her. Better I die than she dies.
“You have me.” I rip my shirt open, baring my chest. I take another step.
“Stop fucking moving!”
I don’t. “Let her go, Enzo.”
Enzo shifts his weapon so he’s aiming for my heart.
“Cassian, no!” Allegra pleads.
I realize something. I understand it. He’s not going to kill her. He was never going to kill her. He can’t. He needs her alive because he’s simply going to take my place. To force her to marry him to take over both families. Just as I would have, except that I didn’t need to force her.
Except that we fell in love.
Involving Malek? That was just a lucky chance. Malek’s hate of me, Malek’s ambition, it would serve Enzo well. Hell, if Malek killed me, why not? It’d just make Enzo’s path to the throne that much easier.