Chapter 195 198

Chapter 195 198
And fall forward into the night below.

But I’m hardly airborne before three pairs of strong hands come grab me. My shoulder crunches painfully and I scream, thrash, scream again.

It’s no use.

They’ve got me.

Coarse fingers tug me back up and drag me onto the carpeted floor. My chin clacks hard on the leg of a chair and I see stars.

“On your feet, bitch,” Kazimierz hisses from above me.

More gunfire. More screams.

The atmosphere in the room is shifting subtly. The calm that first accompanied Kazimierz’s appearance has all but disappeared now.

Which tells me one thing: the men approaching us are not Polish.

“Cover me!” Kazimierz barks.

I’m pulled up onto my feet and shoved towards him. I hit his body with a hard thud, and he grabs me, his nails digging into my arm as he pulls me in front of him.

Then his arm snaps around my neck and he pushes me through the door, using me as a human shield.

“No funny moves,” he whispers into my ear. “Or I will fill you with bullets.”

To drive home his point, he shoves his gun into my spine and digs it in as he pushes me down the hall towards the next room.

Once we’re on the inside, he shuts the door and turns to me.

We’re in Evie’s room.

The star machine casts a whole galaxy on the ceiling. Revolving slowly in glowing white light.

It’s just the two of us in here. His men are nowhere in sight.

My stomach twists with nausea as I back up as far away from him as I can get.

“Don’t look so scared, Charlotte,” he tells me with a smile that promises all sorts of pain. “We’re old friends, aren’t we?”

“That’s not the word I would use.”

He takes a step forward and I move back instinctively. A pulsing star passes slowly across his face.

“Stop. Don’t come any closer.”

It’s a pointless statement, obviously. Even if he doesn’t get closer, he’s got a gun. One shot is all it would take to end me.

He smiles, seemingly oblivious to the sounds of struggle coming from just beyond the door.

“I did suspect that you were lying, you know,” he informs me. As if that matters now.

He doesn’t want me to think that’s he’s a complete fool.

He doesn’t want me to believe that he believed my con wholeheartedly.

Image means everything to men like him.

Even here—at the end of things.

“And yet you let me leave anyway,” I say.

“I did,” he replies. “You intrigue me, Charlotte.”

“Gee, I’m flattered.”

Anything to keep him talking.

If he’s talking, he’s not shooting.

“Can I ask why you risked your life and put yourself in my path?” he asks. “You must have known that when I found out, I’d kill you.”

I gulp and take another step back.

His smile only gets wider.

“I did it for Evie.”

He narrows his eyes, but the smile stays on his face.

“For Evie?” he asks. “Or Lucio?”

“For both.”

“Why? Because you think he’ll protect you when the time comes?”

“I know he will.”

He laughs condescendingly. “You really believe that?” he scoffs. “He will never put you over his precious Family. He will never put you above himself.”

“He did,” I bite back at him, without thinking. “He’s willing to sacrifice himself for me and for his men. Which is something you’d never do.”

Kazimierz only looks at me with that pitying, manic glint in his eye.

“Is that what he told you?” he asks. “I would have thought you’d recognize a lie when you see one. After all, lying is what you do best, isn’t it?”

I shake my head. “He wasn’t lying.”

“Let me guess,” Kazimierz drawls with total confidence. “He was being held at gunpoint when he offered up himself as a sacrifice.”

I tense instantly, giving him an answer without meaning to.

He smiles triumphantly.

“See?” he says. “I know Lucio Mazzeo, Charlotte. I am Lucio Mazzeo. The only reason you can’t see it is because you’re in love with the man. He and I are cut from the same cloth, Charlotte. He’s only hoodwinked you into thinking he’s different. I’m impressed, really. He’s played the part quite well.”

“Shut the fuck up,” I beg. “Just stop fucking talking.”

He presses forward. “He’s using you like I did. Like Officer Murphy did. Like every other boyfriend before him, undoubtedly. Because you are nothing but a toy, Charlotte.”

I bump into the back wall. I’m out of room. Nowhere left to run.

He walks right up to me and puts his hand against my cheek. So gentle that I actually flinch back in surprise.

“What a beauty you are,” he says hungrily, staring down at me. “It must have been easy for him to pretend to care.”

I close my eyes. “Stop,” I tell him, but it comes out as a whisper. A plea that borders on prayer. “Please stop talking.”

He keeps stroking my cheek.

“You need to hear this,” he continues. “The truth always hurts. But I won’t ever lie to you. Not like he did.”

I’ve fallen so deep into the conversation that I scream when the door to Evie’s room is blasted open.

But it’s not one of Kazimierz’s men standing in the threshold.

It’s not an FBI agent, either.

“Lucio,” I whisper, my eyes focusing on him.

But before Lucio can make a move forward, Kazimierz twists around and whips me in front of him.

His gun pressed up against the side of my head.

“Don Mazzeo,” he says calmly. “Nice of you to join us.”

Lucio doesn’t say a word. There’s something different about him right now. His expression is cold, almost unrecognizable.

He looks just as sinister as Kazimierz does.

It sends a shiver through my body.

And it’s born out of a fear that maybe, just maybe… I don’t know this man as well as I think I do.

That maybe Kazimierz is right—and there is no golden heart deep down in Lucio’s chest. That he is cut from the same cloth after all. That he cannot be saved, or changed, or redeemed.

“Will you fight me like a man, Kazimierz?” Lucio asks conversationally as he steps further into the room.

I’m aware of Evie’s things scattered around the space, but I can’t bring myself to focus on any one thing in particular.

I can’t take my eyes off Lucio.

And the bloodthirsty look of fury on his face.

“I’ve got nothing to prove,” Kazimierz replies. “I plan on living and if this little slut is my insurance out of here, I have no qualms about using her.”

Lucio stares in my general direction, but he’s not looking at me. More like looking right through me.

“What makes you think she’s insurance?” he asks.

I feel my heart beat jump around erratically.

What is he saying?

“There’s nothing I won’t do to kill you, Kazimierz,” Lucio continues, still refusing to meet my eye. “There’s no one I won’t sacrifice.”

“Even her?” Kazimierz asks.

“Even her,” Lucio answers without hesitation.

I wince as the hurt courses through me. It’s powerful and crippling, leaving me limp against Kazimierz, barely aware of the gun pressed to my temple.