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“Enzo! I have a wonderful idea!” she announces. “Let’s play a little game! I’ll let you choose which girl lives and which one dies.”
Enzo gasps, locking his eyes with mine. I hold his gaze. This is going to end badly.
“But every choice has consequences, doesn’t it?” Alexandra muses, pulling a gun out of the holster on her tight and spinning it wildly. “You choose the right girl, and you live. The wrong girl? Well, I guess it’ll be a double funeral tonight.”
My eyes are locked on the gun and the casual way Alexandra’s spinning it.This bitch is going to kill us all.
“Alexandra, please,” I plead, trying to appeal to her human side. “You’re a mother, you must understand how dangerous it is to play with a loaded gun like that. Please, for the sake of your child, put it down on the table.”
“Shut up,” she screams, not even looking at me. She’s staring madly at Matilda, grinning like a devil. Matilda holds her gaze, not shrinking back, just like I taught her.
“You must have some sense of decency and humanity,” I beg, watching her drunk, shaky movements with the gun. “Put it down, please.”
“You!” she growls, stumbling wildly over to me. “Talk, talk, talk. You talk too much! I said shut up!”
She’s got one hand curled around a wine bottle, the other by her side, clutching the gun. I can see the weight of both of these objects making her slower and weaker.
“The girls have done nothing to deserve this,” I cry, egging her on. I see Enzo slowly rising out of his chair, making a shushing movement to the girls to keep quiet.
Alexandra’s eyes are wild, her face flushed with fury. She sets the gun on the table and uses her free hand to slap me hard across the cheek.
Perfect. Do it again.
Before I can goad her into it, she spots Enzo’s movements out of the corner of her eye and grabs the gun again.
“What are you doing?” she shrieks, whirling to point the gun at him.
“Whoa, whoa, sweetie,” he says calmly, raising his palms up innocently. “I thought you might need some backup. I just came to help you.”
Some of her anger deflates, but her eyes are full of suspicion. I nod slightly at the gun, and Enzo blinks, letting me know he’s on the same page as me.
I have to make her put it down again. It’s our only chance. This might get me killed, but I take a deep breath and call her name.
“Enzo never loved you,” I say, smiling cruelly at her. “He told me horrible things about you. He said he just used you to get off when he needed to. He said?—”
“Shut the fuck up!” she screeches, dropping the bottle on the floor and slapping me with her free hand. The glass smashes, littering the ground.
Matilda chokes back a scream, and I hate that she’s here, seeing this all happen.
She dropped the wrong fucking item. Of course.
“Enzo! Pick a child!” Alexandra says. “I’m tired of this.”
“I can’t,” he says softly, and my heart breaks for him and the position she’s forced him into. Deep down, I know Enzo won’t ever be able to make a choice as horrific as what she’s proposing, but I also don’t see a way out of this.
“Pick one or I do it for you,” Alexandra grits through her teeth, aiming the gun straight at Matilda’s forehead.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Enzo
“Alexandra,”I choke out in a panic.
My insides are twisting and writhing with fear—fear for the girls’ lives, for Valentina’s, for mine. It clouds my judgment and makes it difficult to think clearly.
“Sasha,” I try again, recalling the nickname she liked me to use back in college. Her eyes snap to mine, wild and intense, but the name gets her attention. “Sasha, baby, put the gun down.”
Slowly, she lowers the pistol, and I hear Matilda hiccup with fear, but I don’t dare take my attention off Alexandra right now.