164

164
Vincenzo's POV
I heard the gunshot before I was even out of the car.

I slammed the car into park and threw the door open without turning the engine off. Please, for the love of fucking God, let it be Joey fighting back. Or Raphael. Or a guard. Anyone but Carmella.

But the shattered remains of the gates at the mouth of the driveway were enough of a hint as to how this was going to go. The empty guard shack made it a near-certainty.

Carmella was here. And somehow, she had found her way to Raella.

Knowing that didn’t change the full-body ache that rippled through me when I made it inside and saw Carmella with her arm around Raella’s neck… and a gun pressed to her head.

“Don’t take another fucking step,” she hissed.

Raella was alive. Her eyes were closed and there was a bump on her forehead, but I could see her chest moving. Carmella wouldn’t be threatening to kill her if she was already dead.

As long as her heart was beating, there was a chance.

“Let her go and you can walk out of here intact.” My voice was tight, but it wasn’t shaking. A miracle, given the adrenaline pumping through me.

If I didn’t save her, I would never forgive myself.

Carmella cackled. There were dark circles under her eyes. It didn’t look like she had slept in days. Actually, it looked like she had died and come back from the dead. Whatever had happened to her in Moscow before she killed the guards and fled, it hadn’t been pretty.

“We’ve been through too much to lie to each other, Vincenzo. We both know I’m not walking out of here.”

“Fine.” I nodded. “If you back away from my wife right now, I’ll give you a quick death.”

It was way more than she deserved after all of the carnage and chaos she had caused.

If Raella could get the gun away from her head, even for a second, then I could take my shot. But right now, the risk that Carmella might take Raella down with her was too great.

“Your wife.” Her lip curled in disgust and I watched her hand tighten around Raella’s throat.

Wake up, love. Fight back.

Raella didn’t budge. But her chest was still moving.

“I should have been your wife,” she hissed. “I should have been someone’s wife. Anyone’s. I went to the fucking parties and wore the fucking dresses. I did what I was supposed to do and it didn’t work. You didn’t want me.”

“That isn’t Raella’s fault. Raella didn’t do anything wrong.”

“She didn’t do anything right, either! Raella had everything. Everything.” Carmella looked down at Raella for a second, hate burning in her eyes. “She was living with Damian and engaged to Dominic. Raella was going to live the life I wanted. The life I deserved. And she threw it away.”

“You wanted to marry Dominic Falcone?” It was hard for me to imagine any woman that desperate.

“I wanted to marry someone like him! Someone who could crush people like my parents under their heel without a second thought. I hated the Falcones for what they did to my family, but I didn’t want to kill them; I wanted to be them.”

I frowned. “Your parents were lawyers for Toni Falcone, weren’t they?”

“How else do you think they got introduced to the people who destroyed their lives? Toni Falcone passed my parents’ business card around to his friends. Next thing I know, my parents are gone every night. They come home out of their minds on drugs. We never had much money, but they spent all of it and more. They dipped into Toni’s money, too. Until he caught them. And killed them for it.”

“How did you manage going to private school with dead parents?”

“Toni took me in.” She brushed her tangled black hair back over her shoulder. “Since my parents couldn’t repay their debt, he took me as payment. I worked for him. I kept an eye on Karina. I know you and Kat like to think you pulled one over on Toni by sending her away, but he always knew his daughter was a flight risk. So he gave me a position in his house and in her school. I kept an eye on her. I had a front row seat to your entire engagement… and Karina’s disappearance.”

How many times must I have walked past Carmella while she was working at the Falcone estate? How many times did I look right past where she was lingering in the shadows? I had never noticed her. Not even once.

Not until it was too late.

“When Karina went missing, I struck a deal with Toni,” she continued. “I told him that I would help figure out what happened to Karina. But as time passed, my plan changed. I was tired of living near the upper crust. I could mimic their dainty, prissy voices and I had enough of Karina’s hand-me-downs to play the part to perfection, but I was on the outside looking in. Where you were concerned, Vincenzo… I wanted to be up close and personal.”

Even now, there was a purr to Carmella’s voice. An attempt at seduction, even while she was holding the woman I loved at gunpoint.

The woman was fucking unhinged.

“After trying to get your attention again and again with no luck, I thought I’d send in Raella.” Carmella stroked a hand down Raella’s dark hair, her face puckering in disgust. “She’s pretty, but she doesn’t belong in this world. Even better, she didn’t want to be in it. I wanted to get your attention with her and then pivot to me. But even when Raella ran from you, you chased her. You pursued her. You liked her. And the more Raella tried to get away, the more I hated her. She had everything at her fingertips and she had no fucking clue.”

My voice came out in a rasp. “If you want to be mad at someone, be mad at me. If you want to punish someone, punish me.” I held my hands out to the side, practically begging Carmella to shoot me.

If she turned her gun on me, I would take my shot. I would end this. Even if I died doing it.

Whatever it took to save Raella.

A slow smile crept across Carmella’s face. “That is exactly why I’m going to kill her, Vincenzo. To punish you.”

This was why I had wanted to send Raella away. I had wanted to get her out of this city and away from me. Because my love for her was reason enough for my enemies to come after her. This nightmare was playing out exactly like I knew it would.

And I didn’t know how to stop it.

“You’re going to watch the woman you love die.” Her hand tightened on the trigger.

“I’ll kill you. The moment that gun goes off, I’ll shoot you.”

Carmella shrugged. “I’m dead either way. At least this way, I know you’re as miserable as I am.”

“Raella,” I croaked. My voice was broken, desperate. Wake up.

“It’s too late for her.” Carmella smiled. “Say goodbye.”

She pulled the trigger and a gunshot pierced through the quiet.