Page 56 of Dreadful

My heart thrums.

The North End…

Tallie…

My addled mind provides a vision of her smiling wickedly at me.

Home. I have to get home.

I blink, and I’m back into reality where Claudio is still yelling as his soldier escorts me out.

“If he’s survived the ride by the time you reach the North End, let him find the rest of the way home. So help me, Severino, if I find out you’ve been the one taking out my men, I swear to God, I don’t care what your mother wants. I’ll end you!”

Not if I get to you first.

Act 3

Scene 16

TROUBLE KNOCKS

Talia

I’m wringing my hands, pacing back and forth in my apartment. The hem of my black, long-sleeved nightshirt brushes over my bare thighs, making me shiver. I’ve already washed off my heavy prosthetic makeup, and now that the corset is off, I can finally breathe, even though I’m on the verge of hyperventilating. My hair is still braided in a Dutch crown around my head, though the curls are springing from the plait. I’d take it down to get ready for bed, but I’m too busy wearing a damn hole in the hardwood floor.

Today was more informative than I could’ve hoped for, and I think I finally know all the names on my list. It still amazes me that I pulled the whole thing off. I thought I would get caught so many times. I thought I would break so many times. But my willpower is nothing if not strong. It wasn’t easy, but I did what I set out to do, even though I have more questions than ever now.

But I can’t shake the feeling that I’m in over my head. Did I miss my chance?

“If I wasn’t so fucking concerned about mystupidorder…” I groan for what feels like the millionth time since I got home. But if the list isn’t completed in order, everything falls apart. What if I had failed and the rest had gone free? What if I fail anyway and they all go free? What if it’s already out of order and I had nothing to do with it?

That last thought has plagued me all night, but I need to wait, plan, and prepare so I get this right. I stand by that decision.

I think.

“No, Iknow,” I mumble so low I can barely hear myself. “If I’m right and he took that one out, then I just have to get to the p—”

“Tallie! Tallie! Tallie!” mynonniscream at the top of their lungs out in the hall, jarring me out of my thoughts. I run to my door and fling it open.

“What the hell is going on—Madonna mia!” Tony and Gio struggle as they carry Sever, and I rush toward them. “Why the hell is Sev bleeding out in our hallway?!”

“Tallie,aiutalo!” Tony insists in Italian. “Help him, please. We were finishing up downstairs, and we heard him pounding on the door—”

“It’s bad, Tallie. His chest is wounded. It could be a gunshot or stabbing.”

“Why is he here, then? He should be at the hospital.”

Gio gives me a pointed look. “If he came here, you know he can’t go there.”

My gaze immediately drops to his blood-soaked shirt, and my own chest aches. When Tony stumbles, I help Tony’s frail body shift out from underneath Sever’s arm. His heavy weight drapes over my shoulders, and the scent of aftershave mixed with blood wafts up. Tony swings my door open so Gio and I can slowly help the six-foot-five giant inside. I rack my brain for anything I have that could help as Gio and I lay him over my bed with a grunt.

“Towels, Tony. Water. Then go downstairs and grab the clean cheesecloth you use for the cannoli.”

“Got it.” Tony’s fingers shake as he frantically tosses two towels by Sever’s head and leaves a pot of water on top of my laptop on the bedside table. He disappears through my door before I can thank him.

“Gio, give me the muslin mockup near the mannequin and my sewing apron.”

“Right, muslin mockup…” Gio murmurs and searches around my mannequin. “Wait…what’s a muslin mockup—”