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He was the reason I was in this situation. He’d started the chain of events that led to all of this. Why? What kind of monster was he?
The worst kind. The kind who took no accountability for their actions.
I stared at him, looking at his greasy, messy brown hair. As usual, he looked nervous, his brown eyes darting from me to Dario.
He pointed the gun at Dario, placing his weight on one foot and then the other, as if trying to decide whether to move.
He was wearing dark pants and a football jersey from a local college that looked like it hadn’t been washed in a few days.
I didn’t know what to say or do about what was happening in front of me. I was scared shitless because I knew how easily Nico could kill.
He took Jason’s life. Would he now take my own?
“Put down the gun.”
“Nope. Not until we brainstorm a way to get everything off that flash drive that you just tossed into the river.”
“It’s all gone, Nico. I don’t have a backup.”
“That’s bullshit. Everything backs up to the cloud or whatever the fuck they call it.” He suddenly looked confident saying, “I know…hand me your phone. I bet it’s all there, isn’t it?”
“There’s nothing on my phone. I deleted everything. Contacts. Numbers. All of it.”
He aimed a gun at Dario’s head and I sucked in a breath. “No.”
“Shut up,” he said to me, and then something about me caught his attention.
He then gave a weird little chuckle and said, “So you’re Jason’s little widow, huh? Thought you’d be hotter.”
I wanted to punch him in his throat and push him into the river. Now I regretted not killing him when I had the chance.
“Maybe when I take care of my brother, we can get to know each other better,” he said taunting Dario.
He sent a lascivious look toward me, and I couldn’t help myself. I punched him in the face.
For a moment, he was stunned, and that was the only moment Dario needed. He lunged for Nico, but Nico had youth on his side. He shot Dario in the same shoulder that the fence wire had pierced, and Dario stumbled back, sliding down the wood-paneled walls.
“No, no, no, no,” I said, throwing myself onto the floor next to Dario. I felt sick as I placed my hand over the wound. “It’s okay, you’re going to be okay, Dario.”
“Damn, bro. You don’t look too good. Come on Mya, it’s time to go.”
He attempted to pull me up, but I couldn’t leave Dario like this, bleeding to death on the floor.
But Nico was too strong. I fought him as best I could. I didn’t know what else to do.
Where was Joseph?
I screamed, hitting Nico, trying my best to escape, but he grabbed me forcefully by the hair and struck me in the face with the gun.
I felt my mouth fill with blood.
“I should have killed you when I had the chance,” I said through clenched teeth.
“Yeah, you should have.”
He wrenched me forward and dragged me through the woods. I hadn’t known how close we were to the road. A single car waited there, and inside the car was Matteo. He gave me a little wave.
“How’s it going, sweetheart?”