My legs were broken. My fingers pressed so hard against the scar it hurt.
I finally found the scream that was stuck in my throat.
Manzi cursed and lowered the pistol. His eyes leapt to the door, and he took one step away from me before shoving the gun into his belt. He turned and ran off into the night, leaving Dia alone on the wooden pier, her blood dripping down into the bay below, mingling with the ocean tides and the salt water, feeding the fishes and little creatures that feasted on life, her pretty hair drenched in the sticky red mess, her beautiful face absolutely ruined, and I was still screaming.
I must’ve been screaming the whole time until a hand pressed down over my mouth.
“What the hell happened?”
His voice. It barely cut through my total panic. His fingers were rough against my lips, and I forced myself to stop, took gasping breaths, blinked away the fear-induced tears that rolled down my cheeks, and looked back.
Roman stood just behind me, his chest like a prison and an escape.
I pushed his arm away and tried to get my looping brain under control.
“Manzi,” I said, breathless. “He shot her.”
Roman stared down at me, those ice-cold eyes calculating.
Weighing, measuring, judging.
“Did anyone else see?”
I shook my head. “We need to call the police.”
“Come on.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the parking lot.
Toward Dia.
“No,” I said, resisting. “I don’t want to go near her. Please, we have to call the police.”
But Roman’s grip was iron and he didn’t stop. I struggled, but that only made him turn back and stare into my eyes.
“If you don’t follow me right now, I can’t promise you’ll survive tonight. Do you understand me? Do you have any clue what you just witnessed?”
“Who are you? Why are you doing this?”
A smile quirked at the corner of his handsome mouth. “I’m nobody. Now hurry.”
He pulled me again, and this time, I followed.
I didn’t know why, but I let him tug me along. We skirted around Dia’s body—so much blood, all of it ruining that gorgeous dress, why the hell do I care about her dress she’s dead—and out into the parking lot.
Roman took out a phone and dialed a number. “Bring the car around. I’ll meet you out front. Hurry.” He shoved it back into his pocket as he dragged me toward the street.
“Wait, hold on.” My heart was racing, but my mind started to work again. I felt dizzy, like I might be sick, but at least I could think straight. “We’re calling the police, right? That was a murder back there.”
“You just witnessed the start of a war, you unlucky girl. There are men back in that building who will gladly throw you into the bay to make sure what happened just now never leaves this place. If you stay, they’ll make sure it happens.”
I tugged back against him. “What are you talking about? Are you crazy?”
He let out a frustrated growl. We were a few feet from the sidewalk and the streetlights, and for some reason, I didn’t want to go any farther with this man.
This terrifying monster. The sort of beautiful nightmare that was supposed to stay hidden beneath my bed or locked behind the closet of my childhood.
“Do you know who those men were back there? Do you remember the skinny guy with dark hair, looks like a school teacher? That’s Giatno Liberto, don of the Liberto Mafia. You just watched his son murder the daughter of a Ramos Cartel lieutenant. Can you begin to understand what that means?”
I opened my mouth to say something, but there were no words.
The worst part was, I did have some idea.
I had a shockingly good idea, in fact.
A black SUV screamed around the corner and pulled to a stop at the curb. The window rolled down and a young, handsome man with an intense jaw and a deep frown leaned toward us.
“You okay, Roman?”
“I’m fine.” Roman didn’t look back at the car, only stared at me with those killer eyes. He spoke softly, but with some urgency. “If you stay here, Giatno will make sure you can’t tell anyone your story. He’ll want to avoid a war with the Ramos Cartel at any cost. Do you understand how complicated everything’s going to be now?”
“Who the hell are you?” I drowned in that gaze. Roman was an avalanche, coming to bury me. I wanted to turn around and find Winter and tell her what had happened—she’d know what to do, she’d have some smart comeback. Hell, maybe she’d even kick these guys in the crotch for me.
But the mafia. I knew a little bit about the mafia.
My father, those men in my past.
The scar across my belly.
I knew what those monsters were capable of, and Roman didn’t seem like the type to lie to me.