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The bullet didn’t make it through. It falls to the ground at my feet, flattened, the last wisps of smoke dancing in the air before vanishing.

Her smile turns into a full smirk. “What was that?”

Too stunned to form words and relieved I am still alive, I barely register when she bends at her waist to pick up the bullet. I think I am in love.

Grabbing my hand, she slaps the bullet down, the implications clear. But all I focus on is that she had yet another chance to kill me but didn’t follow through.

The biggest grin arches the corners of my mouth. She knew I was wearing the jacket. She was by the window of my tailor when I showed it to her and winked, yet she shot me in the place where my lapels meet and not above to be lethal.

“Don’t be so self-assured, Enzo. Keep it as a reminder that you won’t know when your last moment comes, just that it will.”

She struts away, and I can’t let her have the last word, so I say to her back, “Same time tomorrow?”

She mumbles under her breath something that sounds like “impossible” before she puts her helmet on and climbs back on her bike. The engine roars to life and as she drives away, her departure echoes in my hollow heart.

I roll the bullet between my fingers before sliding it into my suit jacket pocket.

She shot me, and I am unfazed, holding on to my belief that she did it more for show than wanting to kill me. It’s right here and now I don’t have a doubt anymore. I am certain I have lost my mind.

As I head to my car, I am buzzing. The energy coursing through me rewires my system. I feel more alive than ever before.

When my best friend calls me, I put it on speaker, barely suppressing my excitement.

I hear his molars grinding. “Should I worry about your mental health?”

“I know what I am doing,” I grumble.

“I saw it live on the fucking cameras. You know the ones we installed to watch who the fuck comes in and out of Reno?” he snaps.

Did I forget? No. But I was busy with other things at that moment, like wanting to fuck Luciana on the hood of my car.

“Nothing happened.”

His heavy breathing shows how mad he is.

“At least you’re not a complete moron. Still, it will leave a bruise, especially from so close. Next time, she should aim for your head because it’s useless. What should I have written on your tombstone? Too stupid to live has a ring to it, but again, we need to preserve a shred of dignity, as apparently you fucking forgot who you are.”

He’s pissed, and leave it to him to pour a bucket of reason over my head.

“She won’t kill me… You don’t get it.” I sigh, knowing it’s impossible to make him understand. Everything I say will sound as if I’ve lost it.

“There are things you don’t do. Limits you don’t fucking cross, even if you’re dying to do so. I get it. What it would be like to indulge in the forbidden for just fucking once… but we don’t get to have everything, Enzo. So pull your head out of your ass.”

He hangs up, and fuck, I know he’s right. Though I have no clue what it is that my best friend wants that he can’t have. We share fucking everything, and I thought there were no secrets between us.

I’m too riled up to go to him and we have a meeting tomorrow, so I drive back home.

Once inside, I call her suite. It’s not the first time either.

“Hungry?”

“I tried to kill you.”

I can’t help the grin tugging at the corners of my mouth. “Tried being the operative word.”

She groans. “You’re impossible.”

“And failed. Again. I wonder why. But I don’t think you’re ready to accept the truth, so let’s move past your latest failed attempt.”