I am distracted for only a few seconds, but it is long enough for Felicity to retrieve a knife strapped to her thigh and sink it into my chest. The pain is white-hot. I scream and lurch toward her, but Felicity scuttles out of my path.
BANG.
The man who kicked Alexis falls dead to the floor, and Alexis swings the gun toward Felicity. Felicity tries to scramble to her feet. If she starts to run, Alexis might not be able to hit her. I really need to make sure she gets combat trained when this is over.
I try to sit up, and the knife wound screams at me. I only have a precious few seconds before Felicity is on her feet, so I push through the pain and lunge after her. My fingers wrap around her ankle, and I yank her back to the ground, holding her in place despite her kicking at my face.
“Shoot!” I urge Alexis.
Alexis has both hands on the gun. She stares down at Felicity with a hatred so dark and so bitter that I wouldn’t be surprised if Felicity perished from the look alone.
“You were never my mother, bitch,” Alexis snaps. Then she pulls the trigger.
The bullet hits Felicity in the chest, and she collapses.
“Silvano!” I roar, catching the attention of my second, who is nearby holding a bloody knife. “Get Alexis to safety!”
The hardwood floor is wet and sticky against my hand, and I lift it groggily up to my face. It’s blood. I look down at the wound in my chest. My blood.
My strength saps away, and I sag to the floor.
35
Alexis
There is so much commotion in the ballroom that I can hardly tell who is who, which side is which. There are people grappling on the ground, someone strangling someone against the table, bodies strewn across the floor. Antonio’s wife Sheila roundhouse kicks a Cartel member in the face, and her dress rips all the way up her thigh. I decide if I make it out of here, I have to learn how to do that.
“Silvano! Get Alexis to safety!”
Gabriel.
I blink, and it’s like the world comes back into focus. My fingers are clenched so tightly around the gun in my hand that the knuckles have gone white. The gun. Felicity. I look down and see the woman who claimed to be my mother bleeding out on the floor. The ruby-red blood is striking against her pale skin and white dress, and flecks of it have spattered her blonde hair. It looks like I killed an angel.
An angel in disguise.
Someone grabs my arm, and I whirl on them, pointing the gun. Silvano puts his hands up, grimacing.
“Careful, I don’t have many lives left,” he says. “We need to get you to safety.”
“Do you have a phone?” I ask, lowering the gun.
He leads me past Dom and Antonio, who are hoisting Gabriel up between them. Both of them hiss in pain as the action elicits complaint from the wounds they endured the night Gabriel killed Kevin Lynch. “I called for backup already.”
“I need to make sure Harry and Clara are okay,” I insist.
“When we get to the safe room, you can call whoever you want.” Silvano pushes through the door and peeks around the corner before guiding me through. I look behind me to make sure Dom and Antonio are following with Gabriel, and my heart breaks. They’re having to drag him because he can barely move his feet. His head hangs down, long black hair falling over his face.
“Alexis, you can’t help him right now,” Silvano says, drawing my attention back to the task at hand. “We’re almost there. Do you still have bullets?”
I lift the gun up to eye level and frown. I have no idea how to check.
We make it into the bedroom with the hidden door, and Silvano lopes across the room to the closet, calling instructions back to me. “That’s a semiautomatic handgun, so click the button on the back to slide out the magazine.”
I check and see the magazine is about half full. I slide it back in. “Yeah, I’m good.”
The door is open, and Silvano ushers me inside. Dom and Antonio bring Gabriel through and lower him onto the sofa. I rush to his side.
“I don’t understand,” I say to Silvano as he and the others retreat from the room. “Felicity’s dead. Why hasn’t the fighting stopped?”
“Because the Cartel are sick, violent bastards,” Silvano replies. “Backup should be here any minute, and we should be able to hold them off until then, but do not open this door until you have confirmation that it’s safe.” He tosses me his phone, and I catch it. “The password is 3265. Don’t make me regret telling you that.”
With that, Silvano is gone. The lock on the door clicks closed, and I can barely hear a whisper through the reinforced wall. Now that it’s quiet, I can hear Gabriel’s rasping breaths, and I bolt over to the first aid kit and pull out gauze and disinfectant. I dial Clara’s number and put the phone on speaker as I start cutting Gabriel’s shirt away.
“Um, hello?” Clara answers.
Relief swells through me. At the very least, Clara is alive. “Clara! Are you okay?”
“Alexis, what the hell is happening? I’ve been trying to call you!”
I peel the bloody fabric back from Gabriel’s chest and wince. The knife wound is still weeping blood, and as I remove the fabric from his shoulder, I find a bullet wound in his arm as well.
“I left my phone in the middle of a battlefield,” I tell Clara. “Gabriel and I are safe for now, but I needed to know that you and Harry are okay.”
Gabriel murmurs weakly, “Harry.”
I pour a load of disinfectant on his chest, and he growls in pain.
“Yeah, we’re fine, just freaked out,” Clara replies. “They’ve shoved us in some sort of safe room and won’t tell us anything. I tried to call Angelo, but he’s not answering either.”
Thank God. As long as Harry is safe, I know that I can get through whatever else happens tonight.
“He’s probably on his way here,” I say, pressing dressing to the wound. “The Cartel attacked the dinner. Gabriel’s been stabbed and shot. I got kicked in the back. Didn’t enjoy that. Otherwise, I’m okay.”
“Jesus,” Clara hisses through her teeth.
“I’ve got to go,” I say. “I need to bandage Gabriel up, but I just wanted to make sure you were okay. Give Harry a hug for me and tell him that I love him.”
“I will. Stay safe.”
I chuckle darkly. “I’ll try.”
After I hang up the phone, I wrap Gabriel’s chest in bandages and move on to his arm. I have no idea what I’m doing—just another thing I need to learn when we get out of this.
If we get out of this.
I hate that I can’t hear anything through the thick wall. I have no idea if the fighting is still going on or if more Italians have shown up or if Felicity’s men are standing in the bedroom only a few feet away from me, trying to figure out the best way to force their way inside.
Then I hear the knock. Heavy, fast, and insistent.
“Alexis,” I hear. It’s a female voice, but I can’t place it.
“Who is it?” I call back.
“Antonella. Backup has arrived. It’s safe to come out now.”
The fact that Silvano hasn’t come to fetch us personally is worrying. Is he dead? Gabriel will be devastated if he loses another Gambaro. I really hope Silvano is just busy somewhere. In any case, Gabriel needs to get to a hospital now, so I don’t have time to dwell on who it is delivering the news, just that they’re here.