"Maria was a drug runner, for god's sake. She was in the business! Nicole...Nicole is innocent." His expression softened when he looked at her. "Let her go, Luca. We'll settle this another way."
"There is no other way," I told him.
My grip tightened on Veda's arm for a moment, an unconscious reaction. Moving my hand to her back, I gave her a hard shove and sent her stumbling across the concrete.
Mario rushed toward her, coming to an abrupt stop when I raised my gun and aimed it at her head. He threw up his hands, his eyes pleading now. "Luca, please. I'm begging you."
The sense of satisfaction I felt wasn't nearly as strong as I'd imagined it would be, but it was there.
Veda lifted her head, then slowly turned around to face me. Her eyes met mine, and there was acceptance in her gaze. Acceptance and sorrow.
And love.
I gave my head a little shake. No. That couldn't be right. How the fuck could a woman like her love a monster like me? I was seeing things. Trying to give myself a reason not to do it. She was making me fucking soft. Weak. Just like my brother. But I wasn’t like him. Not anymore.
Steadying my arm, I took aim at the center of her forehead. I didn't want her to suffer. A gust of warm summer wind blew by, ruffling the soft strands of her hair. I wished I could run my fingers through them one more time.
"I forgive you," she said softly as her eyes grew shiny with tears and one slipped down her cheek. "I want you to know that."
"Don't do that," I whispered. The door I had shut tight on my emotions rattled inside of me. "Don't fucking do that."
"I'm so sorry he did that to you." Another tear rolled down her face, and she blinked hard.
I watched that tear travel along the side of her nose to the corner of her sweet lips, still swollen from my kisses, and drip off her jaw. I wanted to taste her pain as I tasted her blood that first night. Take it away from her and inside myself so she wouldn't hurt anymore.
There was a sharp, stabbing pain in my chest. Another crack in the ice I'd held around my heart.
Fuck.
Fuck. Fuck. FUCK.
Shoot her! Just fucking shoot her!I had to go through with this. I had to. If I didn't, I was as good as dead myself. If my brother didn't kill me this time, someone else would, once they knew I had a heart to crush. Veda would end up a pawn in the endless death games the families played. As soon as word got around that she was a weakness for me, she'd be hunted like an animal. My enemies would come after her as a way to get to me, just as I had with Mario. It was how it worked. She would never be safe. She was better off dead now.
"Luca..."
Enzo's urgent tone came to me as if through a fog. I realized the gun was shaking in my hand. No. My hand was shaking. My arm.
"Just do it, Luca," Veda whispered. “It’s okay.”
But she stared at me with those luminous eyes. The wrong color, but still her looking out at me. They drilled everything she was feeling right into my heart. Right into my soul. Goddammit, I could fucking feel her inside of me. What would happen when I went through with this? How would I breathe without her beside me?
I caught movement in my peripheral. I shifted my gaze just in time to see Mario make a motion with his hand. He lunged for Veda as shots fired around me.
In slow motion, I swung my arm to the left and pulled the trigger. Mario's right shoulder jerked back as my bullet caught him, but he didn't stop. He kept going, ducking behind Veda like the fucking coward he was and pulling her against him with his good arm as I took aim again.
Something primitive and feral snapped inside of me the moment he dared to touch her, breaking me down and violently shaking me out of the prison of revenge I'd caged myself in.
Ignoring the bullets flying back and forth between my guys and his, we stood at a standoff, my gun still aimed at his head. But I didn't dare shoot.
Mario had one arm around Veda's throat and one around her waist, the tip of his Glock shoved into the bottom of her breast, pointed at her heart. He whispered something in her ear and her eyes widened as they locked onto mine.
I gave her a fast shake of my head. Too fast for anyone but her to see. And I could only hope she understood my meaning and wouldn't let on who she really was. If she told Mario her true identity, she would be dead within the hour.
Tristan grunted to my right, and I felt more than saw him go down to the floor.
"Fuck! Luca, we gotta go," Enzo yelled. "We have to go!" He stepped in front of me, still firing shots. "Get Tristan."
"I'm not leaving here without her," I told him as I stepped around him and fired off a few rounds, catching one of Mario's men off guard. His gun fell to the ground with a clatter of metal on pavement, his arm hanging useless at his side.