Page 161 of Savage Don

“No…” I choke.

Just like that, Ray’s approaching star vanishes, and there’s nothing left inside of me but empty darkness.

“That’s right, dear. He’s dead. Ashes. Barely a memory,” Sonia eyes glisten as her lips twist into an awkward sneer. But the longer she talks, the more her voice trembles. “He won’t get to save you. He won’t get to carry out his threats. He lost…”

“And we won,” Father finishes for her.

But even through my own devastation, I can sense that Sonia doesn’t share the same confidence.

Something’s wrong. She’s not being completely truthful.

“That reminds me,” Sonia mumbles, her glistening eyes pulling away from me. “I have something to show you, dear.”

Slipping her hand off of Father’s lap, Sonia slides over to her purse, which leans against the door on the opposite side of the car.

“Is it good or bad?” Father asks, straightening up in his seat.

“Bad, I’m afraid…” Sonia sighs. “At least, for you it is.”

I hardly have time to blink before she’s pulled out a gun from her purse. Father is either too stunned to react, or not expecting what comes next, because he doesn’t even move as Sonia points the barrel at his head.

Then, without saying another word, she pulls the trigger.

35

Ray

Everything hurts.

My lungs. My hands. My chest and my back and the soles of my feet.

They all burn, singed by fire and gutted by dark black smoke. Physically, I’m a mess. But I’m not worried about any of that.

Because what hurts worse than any of my injuries, is the pain in my heart.

“Where the hell is she?!” I roar.

The whole left side of my calf has been burnt to a crisp. Beneath my pant leg, I can feel my tender flesh sizzling.

But that doesn’t stop me from pacing back and forth along my bloody front driveway. The pavement is littered with dead bodies. The corpses of men I trusted to protect what’s mine.

Francesca is gone.

I’ve already searched the entire mansion. It’s empty. Somehow, even more empty than it was before I brought her here.

“I’m still waiting on a call back,” Maksim responds, checking his phone.

“We’ll find her,” Leonid assures me, before coughing up a plume of black dust. “We’ve put every Black Delphi assassin on the task. It’s only a matter of time before we learn where she is.”

“We don’t have time!” I shout. Closing my burnt fingers around the seared flesh on my palm, I punch the fountain in the middle of my driveway, and a chunk of the ceramic explodes out onto the grass.

Sonia was clear that Francesca wasn’t long for this world. But that bitch has underestimated me for the last time.

She will suffer.

“Let’s start looking ourselves,” Maksim says, limping towards me. Half of his face still looks like it’s about to melt, but his eyes glow with a fiery determination.

“I’m down,” Leonid nods, before turning to me. “Should we stick together or split up?”