Page 62 of Deathless & Divided

“Who the fuck was it?”

“White car, I think.”

“You fucking think?”

“Definitely white!”

“Dark windows. Too dark,” Tommas spat. “Shit, it’s not stopping. I can’t get it to stop.”

“Mia? Mia … baby …”

The gurgling continued, but it was becoming faint.

“No, breathe!”

Where was Tommas? He was talking but she couldn’t see him. Lily tried to discern the voices and the people, but the haze just wouldn’t clear no matter how many times she tried to blink it away.

“Lily …”

She felt the arms of Damian wrap around her waist and pull her back. She fought against his hold, seeing Evelina crumple into a heap of limbs and tears on the floor. Lily needed to help her friend—she had to.

“Let me go!” Lily cried. “Let me go, please!”

Damian kept pulling her backward. Lily fought harder.

“Move, move, move!” Ben DeLuca shouted. “Out, Boss. Now.”

Lily watched as her uncle pushed a stunned looking Terrance from the space. They brushed past Lily and Damian without so much as a single glance backwards at the devastation and pain they were leaving behind.

Protect the boss.

Always.

Lily felt sick.

She wasn’t the only one, apparently. Serena Rossi vomited in a corner while her husband backed against a wall, pawing at a bleeding wound on his shoulder.

“Through and through,” she watched him mutter to himself.

Joel Trentini was the second to leave the space, following behind his grandfather and Ben quickly.

Shock was a terrible place to be.

It ate away at everything. It debilitated worse than even fear did. At least with fear a person had a chance to fight or flee. With shock, there was nothing … just stillness, slowed reaction, and total uncertainty.

“We have to go,” Damian said in Lily’s ear.

She couldn’t let him drag her out of there, no matter how much her instincts screamed for her to leave. Her friends were inside that restaurant. Evelina was still a crying mess on the floor begging through sobs that Lily couldn’t understand.

“Please,” Lily begged, jerking against Damian’s hold. He was relentless in his intent to get her away. No matter how hard she struggled, he didn’t let go. “Damian, please!”

Lily blinked again and the haze began to clear. Under the table on the other side, where one of the table cloths had been ripped down, lay a body prone and bleeding. The one side of the person’s face was unrecognizable. Blood pooled in a dark puddle of red around the person’s head, staining the beige carpeting.

Tommas palmed the person’s face, tilting their head back as he shouted again for them to breathe. Riley Conti sat on the floor, his face in his hands and his shoulders shaking. Lily started to glance around at the faces, taking inventory, realizing who was still there, talking, crying … breathing and alive.

“Mia …”

“Mom,” Adriano said hoarsely.