Page 78 of Ruthless King
Enzo walks into the house, holding a gun of his own.
“You fired Enzo when he did nothing wrong,” Andrew says. “He wants justice for that.”
“Nico, what do we do?” I whisper.
Andrew laughs. “He can’t answer you because he knows he can’t win this. I spent years working for you. I did everything for you. And you repaid me by marrying a woman who wanted to kill you. You put her first. I’m not going down for Giovanni’s murder. You are.”
“Fine,” Nico grits out. “I’ll go to the police. But if you kill Aurora, all fucking bets are off.”
“Deal,” Andrew says.
“Nico, you can’t.” I grip his arms, drawing him closer to me. “They’ll put you away for murder.”
“I got out once. I can do it again.” Even though I can tell he means what he says, I don’t believe it’ll be that easy. Because Nico escaped once, the police won’t be too keen on him escaping again.
The police are probably already on their way to our house right now.
If we don’t stop Andrew and Enzo, I’ll lose Nico forever, and then I’ll truly be alone.
But both Andrew and Enzo have guns on us. There’s nothing we can do but listen to what they say.
“I’ll go,” Nico says, pushing me gently away. “Don’t hurt her.”
“I won’t,” Andrew replies though I know it’s a bunch of bullshit.
Nico slowly approaches Enzo’s side. “I’ll admit, Enzo, I shouldn’t have fired you over a lie. I’m sorry.”
Enzo’s stance softens just slightly. It’s a small movement, but he lowers his gun just the tiniest bit.
And Nico moves.
He grabs Enzo’s arm, knocks the gun out of his hand, and aims it at Enzo’s head. “But I was always better than you,” Nico says.
Before I can react, Andrew runs over to me, pointing his gun at my head. “If you kill Enzo, I’ll kill Aurora. I’m still in charge here, Nico. Do as I say.”
Nico shakes his head once. “No.” Then he shoots Enzo in the head. The blood splatters to the wall, and Enzo’s body is loud as he thuds to the floor.
Andrew is distracted by this, and during his distraction, I reach for his gun. He turns back to me with a snarl. We fight over the gun as Nico runs over and tackles Andrew to the ground.
Somehow, I’m left with Andrew’s gun in my hand.
The sound of police sirens ring out in the night. Nico and I need to get out of here.
“Give me the gun,” Nico pants, holding Andrew down. “Aurora, I don’t want you going down for murder.”
“I’m already a murderer.” I set my eyes onto Andrew. “And he tried to murder me.” I pull the trigger, and the bullet lands in Andrew’s skull.
Nico backs up and grabs the gun from me, stuffing it in his jacket pocket. “We have to run. Now!” He pushes me forward, and we sprint to the backdoor.
We make it to the backyard as police swarm through the front door.
“This way,” Nico says, leading me through the back gate and onto the road. “We don’t have a car. We’ll need to steal one. Come on. I have a safehouse no one knows about. If we get there, we’ll be safe.”
It dawns on me as I run by Nico’s side that if we’re both caught, we both go down for murder.
Nico is truly the only one I can count on now. The only one who truly understands me, and I understand him. This world is a dark and dangerous place. I know that now. My father died in it.
I’ve killed within it.