The lock gives a long beep.
“Fuck!” Lito snaps his gun back up.
The door opens.
We both fire.
But the door doesn’t open all the way, and a canister rolls in. It spews smoke that burns my nose, my throat, my eyes.
I pull the trigger again and again until I’m out of bullets, then I sink to my knees and pull my shirt to my nose. It does no good. Everything burns and stings.
Someone grabs me, and for a moment I think it’s Lito, but then I’m being dragged out of the panic room and into the adjoining closet.
“Lucretia!” Lito yells as Vincenzo slams the door shut, then uses the butt of his gun to smash the digital keypad.
I cough and sputter, my eyes and nose running as Vincenzo yanks me to my feet and walks me from the closet.
He rips his gas mask off and tosses it to the floor. “Come on.” He drags me to the door and into the hallway as I try to fight him off. But he grabs me and slams me against the wall, my ears ringing and my forehead exploding with pain. “Cut that shit out, Lucretia or I’ll shoot you in the head and be done with it.” He takes my arm in a brutal grip and pulls me along with him.
“Get off me!” I scream. “Mateo!”
“Mateo’s dead.” He shakes me hard. “So shut the fuck up and come along.”
“No.” I try to free myself. “You’re lying.” I swing, catching him in the jaw.
He yowls, and I run. But I’m still partly blind from the gas, and he grabs a fistful of my shirt, yanking me backwards.
I scream as he shoves me against the wall again. “Last chance. Stop fighting me, or I will kill you.”
“Get the hell away from me!” I swing for him again, but he blocks it.
“Stupid cunt. I warned you.” He raises his gun to my face.
“Let her go.” Mateo’s voice rushes over me like a soothing balm.
“Mateo!” I scream as Vincenzo yanks me back and puts his gun to my head.
My eyes are still awash in tears, but I can make out Mateo farther down the hall, a gun in his hand. “You’re alive.”
“You can’t get rid of me that easily, princess.”
The arrogant tone in his voice is more reassuring than anything. He’s okay. He’s come for me.
“Cut the shit, kid. Put your gun down or I shoot her in the head. Your choice.”
Mateo steps closer.
Vincenzo squeezes me harder, his arm like a vise around my ribcage. “Don’t try it, Mateo.”
“I’m not trying anything. I just want to know why.”
“Why?” Vincenzo scoffs. “Why the fuck does it matter?”
“Because I deserve an answer.”
“The way you deserved the empire that I helped your father build?” Vincenzo’s tone is laced with derision. “You think your last name gave you the right to take and take and take. I should’ve killed you the day they died.”
“Why didn’t you?” Mateo eases a little bit closer.
Vincenzo chuckles mirthlessly. “I guess I got a little sentimental when I was middle-aged. But I finally came to my senses, and now here we are. It worked out better this way. I got a cut of the old business, and now I’m getting a cut of what you built with your own hands. I’ve milked the Milani family to death, and I have to say I’m pretty proud of it. Like I always say, work smarter, not harder. Now, put your gun down or she’s done. I’m not fucking around, kid.”
“I’m putting it down.” Mateo glances at me, not an ounce of fear on his bloodied face. Then he slowly lowers himself to the floor. Right when the gun touches the runner, he yells, “Now!”
Someone hits Vincenzo from behind. We both fall forward, and then two deafening gunshots sound.
I’m dead. Vincenzo shot me in the head, and my blood is pouring out and soaking the side of my face and my shirt.
“Lucretia!” Mateo yells, and then I feel his hands on my shoulders. He’s pulling me free. When he has me in his arms, I turn and look.
I’m not the one who was shot. It was Vincenzo. I’m covered in his blood.
“Are you all right?” Mateo swipes the bloody hair from my face and peers into my eyes.
“I-I think so.”
“And this is for the tear gas!” Lito kicks Vincenzo in the side. “Motherfucker!”
Mateo is still searching me for wounds, his hands running through my hair. “You’re certain you’re okay?”
“I’m fine.” I take his wrists and hold them in front of me. “What about you? And Red? And Benny?”
“All good. We routed the ones out front and Benny is holding them off in the back. They’re scared now. They know we have snipers in the trees picking them off, so they’ve slowed considerably.”
“It’s almost over?”
“It is.” He kisses my hands. “And then—” He smirks. “Then we take the fight to them.”