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Walking into her bedroom, she dropped down on the edge of her bed, taking off her heels, then laying back on her silk sheets, wanting to see something before she got ready for bed.

Maria grabbed her phone and typed in the episode of The Walking Dead that she and Cassius had been watching when Dominic had made him to turn it off.

Fast-forwarding through the episode, she got to the part right before he changed the channel. When she saw the gun fire, she jumped when she saw who it hit.

Maria could watch anything. Her cold, dead heart kept her from even reacting from the scariest of jump scares to Old Yeller getting shot. But this scene was too real as she watched the blood drip down his face.

The character was a young boy named Carl … and the bullet had gone right through his eye.

The elevator was already open and waiting for him when he made it down the hall and passed the guard Ed. And when he turned to get on the elevator there was another Caruso waiting.

Dominic did a full stop, staring at the blackish-blue eyes of the brother who had been taken away from him—Salvatore.

Taking a step onto the elevator, Dom didn’t say a word, and neither did Sal, as he put in the code. They might’ve had the same blood, but this brother, Dominic didn’t know.

He likes to kiss Lucca’s and my father’s asses.

One of them, he semi put his trust into, but the other didn’t even have his respect. If Sal kissed Dante’s ass, then blood brother or no, Dominic couldn’t trust him, no matter how badly it hurt him.

His siblings were his only weak point. It would be naïve to think Sal wouldn’t use him, especially with what Lucifer had done to him. Truthfully, Dom wouldn’t blame him. Sal had an origin story that rivaled his, and until Dominic figured him out, Sal was no brother of his.

Both watched the elevator door slide close.

Keeping his head forward, he looked at the numbers that began to fall as he broke the tense silence. “How’s it going?”

“Can’t complain.” Sal gave a quick spin of the keys in his hand that was hooked on his finger. “You?”

Dominic gave a little shrug. “Could be better.” That was an understatement, compared to what Maria tricked him into believing he should have been doing right now.

Dom missed the little tug on Sal’s lips as they continued their silent journey, the only noise in the tight box was the sound of the keys clashing into each other with each twirl.

Nearing the end of the ride, Sal gave the keys in his hand one last spin around his finger, catching them so the only thing that could be heard was his voice. “So, Maria, huh?”

Dominic looked away from the digital display above the doors to look over at a smiling Sal, knowing exactly what he meant. He answered just as the door slid open. “Yep.”

Putting his eyes back forward, Dom walked off the elevator.

“Dominic ….”

He stopped, turning back to look at The Great Salvatore who was beginning to disappear as the doors slowly started to close. Dominic didn’t know if the look on Sal’s face was one of pity or delight.

“Good luck.”

Maria awoke in the middle of the night, not from one of her good dreams—the ones she’d had of Kayne and Dom—but from a nightmare. Feeling wetness on her pillow, she sat up and touched a finger to her cheek. It was … wet?

She had been crying in her nightmare. Only, it hadn’t been a nightmare. Maria’s mind replayed the scene over and over again of the car blowing up and Leo losing an eye.

Watching the scene from the show had drudged up all the feelings of hate, fear, and loss that she made herself subdue. It was as though Dominic had known it would affect her. He had gotten mad at Cassius when he didn’t change the channel, because he had wanted to spare her feelings.

As badly as Maria hurt him, Dominic didn’t want to see her hurt.

Her choices were now coming back to haunt her.

Maria grabbed her phone off her nightstand, hitting the contact that had once put a smile on her face. It went right to voicemail.

“This is Kayne Evans. Leave a message, and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.”

Beep.

She was silent at first. Hearing the voice of a ghost who she thought she loved brought a single tear to her eye.

“You lied to me, Kayne.” Maria clutched her black heart as she rocked on the bed. “How could you do that to me?”

The ding from his nightstand had him reaching over to pull out the cracked phone that had disrupted the darkness.

One new voicemail.

Putting it up to his ear, his heart sank as he listened to the woman he loved cry into the phone over another man.