Page 47 of Love Me (Touch of Death 3)
Enrique simply walks past me, leaving us alone.
“Shhh,” I whisper, stroking over her head with trembling hands. Tears run freely as I press my cheek to the top of her head. “Shhh, it’s okay,” I choke again over the steady splatter of her blood hitting the floor.
Her body goes limp, and the flow of blood slows. He cut her like a slaughtered animal, and she deserved so much more.
I hold her and cry into her hair until her body starts to cool. I’m numb, lost, in a state of denial where my mind can’t process what just happened. The blood on my shirt goes cold and sticky, and a shiver works over my skin. I don’t want to move because I’ll have to look at her lifeless face, to face the reality that she’s dead. Gabriella, my older sister, my best friend, just…gone.
Eventually, I realize that she’s still tied to the chair, and it upsets me. No dignity, there’s no dignity. I push her back in the seat, and her head slumps to the side. Lifeless, glazed eyes stare blankly at the wall, and it’s like someone has reached inside my chest, grabbed my heart, and squeezed until it can’t physically beat. She’s dead. The pain intensifies until I feel like I’m burning alive. I reach out, closing her eyes. My father would be turning in his grave, knowing that his oldest daughter met this fate at the hands of that worthless animal.
I pull the duct tape from her beautiful face, then unbind her wrists and ankles before lowering her to the ground. I push the blood-stained strands of hair away from her cheeks, committing her features to memory because I’m terrified I might forget them.
Then I just sit there, numb, holding my sister’s cold hand with my blood-covered one. I don’t know how long I’m there, but eventually, something touches my shoulder. I slowly look up at a strange man in a suit. Two more men pass him and start moving Gabriella.
“No,” I crawl forward. “No, leave her! Don’t touch her!” They’re going to take her and bury her in an unmarked grave somewhere, alone.
Panic grips me at the thought of her out there in some hole in the ground. Hands grab at my shoulders, and I’m dragged to my feet. The two men pick her up like she’s some kind of meat carcass.
“No! Don’t take her!” I fight the person holding me, raking my nails over his skin and kicking wildly.
“Enough. Calm down.”
I fight harder before pain ricochets around my skull. My vision swims for a moment, and then everything goes black.
14
Sasha
It’s been twelve hours since Adelina went to Bianchi, and I can barely sit still. One look at Lorenzo’s face upon his return was all I needed to know that it wasn’t good. Gabi never came back, either. I pace the living room from the window to the door and back again. A decanter of whiskey sits on a side table with two glasses upturned next to it.
I don’t really drink, but as the sun starts to dip below the horizon, I find myself pouring a glass. I need something to steady this frantic energy that I have no idea what to do with. The amber liquid burns its way down my throat and heats my chest. I don’t like the taste, but I take another long sip until the glass is empty.
I pick up my phone and call Una again, hoping she’ll answer this time. It rings twice before she picks up.
“Nice of you to finally call. Where the hell have you been?” she snaps.
“I tried to call you earlier.” I sigh.
“Well, I was busy,” she snips like a teenage girl.
“I need to speak with you.”
“Well, I needed to speak with you last week—when I called.” Una doesn’t do well with being ignored.
“I was busy.” I hesitate, hating the deception that lingers between us because I haven’t told her things—all in a bid to protect Adelina. I’m not comfortable with my split loyalties, and I know exactly how Una would feel about it if she knew. “Enrique Bianchi is alive.”
There’s a beat of silence. “What?”
“He’s alive.”
“So, Adelina didn’t kill him?”
“She cut his throat. He survived.”
“And you haven’t remedied this?” Her voice is ice cold and full of accusation.
“He’s not stupid. It’s the obvious next course of action. He’s gone to ground. I can’t find him.”
“So, Adelina can’t very well take a seat that’s still occupied.”
“That’s the least of our problems now.” I pinch the bridge of my nose, feeling the first niggling of a headache. “He made himself known and gave her an ultimatum: kill me as revenge for his brother’s death and return to him.”
“Or what?”
“It wasn’t really stated, but she didn’t do it, and he’s taken Gabriella.”
“Jesus, do those Ricci girls ever have a dull day? Let me guess, Adelina wants to trade herself for her sister?”
