Page 136 of Devil's Vows

Blood.

Myblood. Bullets. Guns.

Did this hurt?The question I asked him about his own gunshot wounds ages ago.

Probably. I was too focused on what I had to do to survive to take stock of how they felt.

I can already feel I’m not going to survive this, but I stopped this woman. I stopped Mara.

“The girls…she will never touch the girls,” I murmur, my breathing strained. “She will never touch any girl again…” This is as close to avenging Mother Lucia’s death as I’ll get, but it’s better than nothing. I’ll be with her soon.

“Gabi—Gabriella?—”

“Ivan,” I murmur, wanting to tell him everything.

That I didn’t run away, that I was brave, like a dragon. I faced her head-on, with courage I didn’t know I had. I showed him how loyal I am, what I would sacrifice for him, for his girls. He told me to prove it and I’ve proven myself, with honor.Thisis who I am at my core, whichever name I carry. In my fairy tale, I have fought a dragon, just like my brothers. Now I can finally be free.

But none of this seems important now. It’s only him and me here, and I’m not wasting my last breaths on valor.

“I’m in love with you, Ivan…” I whisper, feeling Death’s fingers curl inside me, reaching for my heart. I don’t have time. “I prayed…so much that you would fall in love…with me and we could love…each other…and the girls.” I swallow, blood somehow coming up my throat. I cup his face, his beautiful face, so close to mine. “I wanted more…more than two sons—I—” It is getting hard to focus my thoughts. “I-I wanted everything with you…be everything you need… show you how worthy you are of love…I thought we still had time?—”

70

IVAN

Gabriella closes her eyes and slumps in my arms.

“FUCKKKK!” I growl into the abyss, being ripped apart as her body goes limp. “No-no-no-no…fuck no?—”

Time…I thought we had time, too.

“Lay her down.” Dominic is by my side, dropping to his knees as he strips off his jacket. “Bring the fucking emergency kit!”

I can’t let go. It feels as if the warmth is already slipping from her body, and her blood on my hands…it’s me.Idid this to her.Ibrought her here, insisted on?—

“Ivan,” Dominic urges me, his hand on my shoulder, steady, calm. “You’ve got to trust me. Lay her down. On her left side. She got shot on the right.”

Yuri is next to me, his hand on my other shoulder. “You can hold her later. She isn’t dead, but it’s serious.”

Then Matteo is there, wheeling in a massive cupboard, already opening its double doors to a plethora of medical shit.

I glance down at Gabriella’s beautiful face, pale, blood spluttering from her mouth as she exhales. Relief zaps through me, but I know the signs. This is as bad as it gets. I carefully layher down, Dominic’s jacket a pillow. He is already pulling surgical gloves on, and then I see how they move like a paramedical team, working together, knowing exactly what to do.

“There are no front exit wounds. Roll her on her side,” Dominic says, and I gently ease Gabriella over.

I’m sick to my stomach. My wife…my gorgeous, golden-hearted girl took two bullets to protect me, and now her white shirt is stained red with blooms of blood. Matteo is cutting open Gabriella’s shirt, and he is even paler than she is.

“She will not fucking die on our watch or under my roof,” he hisses as he shoots me a glance. “Trust us.”

“Here,” Dominic says, checking her back. “Bullet went in, between the spine and scapula, but hit the upper right lung, therefore the strained breathing and blood in her mouth. Her lung’s collapsing. We need oxygen and a needle decompression to stabilize her. Lower—” He pauses to inspect the blood and where the bullet tore through skin. “No exit wound so it’s stuck, but by the look of it, didn’t hit the spine or kidneys. We stabilize her and get her to the clinic. Call the surgeon.”

“Already did. The clinic’s ready and on standby.”

I look up, and there’s another man I’ve never seen before. He’s tall, like his brothers, hair longer, dark eyes like all of them, but the leanest of them all.

“Benedict Scalera,” he says with a rushed nod. “We’ll figure this out. You keep a hand on her. The shock made her pass out.”

I look down at Gabriella. For all I’ve killed men, I’ve never experienced a situation where a loved one died in my arms. I had to kill Dimitri, but that was different.