Page 111 of Blood in the Water

But she didn’t.

I watched in slow motion as she fell, hands outstretched, into the shards of glass that covered the ground like a minefield.

Bright red blood gushed down her arms. Time jolted forward with asnap.

It was seconds. Happened so fast.

“Wynn!” I shouted.

He didn’t hesitate. He fired one shot, and it landed in Volpe’s shoulder. He staggered back, grabbing at the blooming red on his shirt.

It wouldn’t kill him. But it would fucking hurt, and that’s what he deserved.

More Italians rushed to Volpe’s side, dragging him back inside the house. He shouted for them to hunt us down.

Without looking back, I scooped Leona into my arms and carried her through the backyard. Wynn followed behind us, providing cover fire as we disappeared into the trees, but I didn’t miss how the muscle in his jaw betrayed how damn scared he was as blood streamed down her arms and dripped steadily from her fingers. We needed to get pressure on her arms. Immediately.

Leona saved my life and shredded her arms to ribbons in the process.

I was ready to take her enemy’s bullet, and she had the balls to push usbothout of the way instead.

I’d spent my entire life believing nobody would look out for you, so you had to do it yourself. Every other member of the Yakuza had drilled that into my head, even myoyabun. He’d proven it was true when he shot me.

But that’s not what she did. She put my safety before her own. The only other people who had ever done that were my brothers.

I finally allowed myself to think the thought circling on the edges of my mind since I met her: maybe she was different than I thought.

As her blood soaked through my shirt, I realized I didn’t want to lose her. Not yet. Not so early.

39

LEONA

Once again, I found myself lying beside an unconscious Caspian, trying to hold back tears.

Except this time, I was failing spectacularly.

I didn’t even try to wipe them away. I let them soak my face, hoping they’d clean away some of the shame. Some of the guilt.

Once again, my heart had been carved from my chest. I was utterly purposeless, my life was in shambles, and Cas had paid the price for my mistakes.

One breath at a time.

But was that breath even worth it?

My father stole drugs, laced them with deadly additives to stretch product, and sold them to unsuspecting innocents who died on the streets.

My father bought and soldpeopleinto the skin trade, directly contributing to the rape—and worse—of hundreds of people over a decade.

My father was a fucking traitor, selling guns to the government for who knows what reason.

The Vero name was as worthless as Max said it was.Iwas as worthless.

I curled up into Cas’s side, watching his bare chest’s steady rise and fall.

Ryuji and Wynn had decided that Max had likely kept Cas alive to bait me—and it worked. It was the perfect draw to the house to catch me looking through those files. I wasn’t sure why he wanted me to know the truth if he was just going to kill me anyway—but whatever his plans, I had played right into them.

I still couldn’t believe we made it out of there alive. That Cas was alive.