Break All Ties

Chapter Thirty-Six

He was dead. Beside me, there was a dead man. A man who'd been alive and breathing not two minutes ago. Now, he was dead.

Luca Columbo was dead.

His everything was dead.

I checked his airways as if by some miracle he'd still be breathing. I checked for a pulse. I found nothing.

I'd been exposed to a lot of death over the last three years. Daniel. Giuseppe. Kinsey. Reese. Benito. I'd seen plenty of people die. I'd been getting used to it. Only—

Only I'd never killed anyone myself.

I'd never taken someone's life with my own hand. I'd seen others do it, but I'd never inflicted physical pain or injury upon anyone else. It wasn't who I was. It wasn't how I'd been raised. It wasn't in my nature.

I couldn't kill someone. It wasn't me.

I had a degree in nursing. I was supposed to be a healer. I wasn't supposed to be like this.

Eyes wide, I pulled myself up from the bed and stared down at his still body in horror. I hurried to pull my dress back down, thanking God I hadn't eaten anything.

He was dead.

Dead because I'd killed him.

Me. As in Charlie. As in I'd just killed a man.

Oh God.

I'd killed him. Me. He was dead because of me. Because I'd shot him. I'd shot him through the eyes. I'd taken his last breath and his last heartbeat. I'd made sure he'd never breathe again.

I snatched the gun back up, fixing it in the holster on my leg. The more I stood there, the less I knew what to do. I'd just killed him.

I'd just-

Me.

I'd killed him.

Lorenzo would know what to do. Of that, I was sure. He always knew what to do. He always knew how to fix things.

"Find Enzo," I whispered to myself.

There was no use in working myself up into a state.

Even as I thought this, I dashed out of the room after fumbling with the lock. I slammed it shut and backed away from it, trying to remember which way it was to the stairs.

I tripped and fell down them, my heels long since forgotten about.

How did people do this? How did Lorenzo do this without worrying that everyone knew? The guards knew. Surely they knew. They had to know. They'd have heard the gun. There was no way they didn't hear it. No way they didn't know.

How did people do this?

How did they—

When I spotted Turtle in the entryway, I made a sound that sounded oddly like a screech.

"Turtle! Oh God! Turtle!" He opened his mouth to speak but fell silent at the sight of me. His mouth fell open. "Please tell me you know where Lorenzo is. Please. This is serious. I- I don't- I don't know what to do. I- I need- I need Lorenzo. I-"

"Miss me?" His hands grabbed my hips from behind. Just feeling them made me cry a little louder in relief.

He was here.

He'd know what to do.

"I've been looking everywhere for you," He said.

I turned and threw myself at him, locking him in the tightest hug I could manage.