Page 66 of Twisted Throne

Two.

Three.

I exhaled and squeezed the trigger in one smooth motion.

Crack.

“Augh!” Emilio grunted out, then crashed down into the rose bushes. His gun fell and skittered across the path away from him.

I approached him quickly but remained cautious. I could almost guarantee he was strapped up with at least one more weapon. He lay still, and the dark rust color of blood was rapidly covering his white shirt from the hole I’d made in his chest.

“Bastard,” he muttered. His eyes were open and he looked at me with pure hatred. His hand fluttered weakly, stretching out toward his fallen gun. “Jumped-up gutter prick.”

I kicked it further away, although, from his feeble movements, it didn’t look like he would have had the strength to pull the trigger even if he could get to it.

My gun was still leveled at him, and I took a step closer.

“You should have never touched her.”

I steadied my pistol and took aim at his head, but before I could fire, Emilio kicked his legs out into my knee and I dropped to the ground. He threw himself at me, grabbing at my gun. I threw him off me and scrambled back to my feet, knee throbbing.

A shot sounded and Emilio froze, a look of shock on his face before he dropped lifeless onto the gravel, the hidden gun falling from his hand.

I turned in the direction that the shot came from and saw Gia standing there, eyes wide, Emilio’s dropped pistol in her hand.

Chapter Thirty

Gia

Holy shit, I just killed someone.

I still had the gun clenched in my hands when Paul reached me.

“Gia, you’re okay. Hand me the gun.”

His voice was steady and he reached out for the gun slowly, as if afraid he’d spook me.

I handed it over readily enough and threw myself into his arms. He held me close for a moment, and I leaned into him, savoring the warmth of his body against mine. The scent of sweat and cologne was intoxicating and comforting at once.

“I told you to go to the house.” Paul pushed me back to look at my face. “Why the hell did you come out here? You could have been killed!”

“Well, it turns out that you were lucky that I did,” I snapped at him. Annoyance was quickly replacing my shock. “Most people would say thank you!”

His eyes widened in shock, then he burst out laughing.

“I guess you’re right about that,bella.” He pulled me back against his chest and titled my chin up. “You’re a fierce little thing aren’t you?”

“Well, as everyone keeps reminding me, I am the daughter of Angelo LaRosa after all.” I smiled up at him.

His lips met mine and all of the horrors of the night faded away. I was lost in him. I was his, and he was mine. Time stopped. There was nothing except his taste on my lips, his hands on my back, and the push of my breasts against his hard chest.

After an eternity, reality began to snap back into focus. I stepped away from Paul and looked down and the body behind us. Emilio's sightless eyes stared up at the black night sky. We had both hit him in the chest. His shirt was black with blood and it had pooled out to stain the rocks below him.

Paul took me by the arm and turned me around gently and started to walk me back toward the house.

“Don’t dwell on it,” he said quietly. “He was an evil man, and he got better than what he deserved.”

I nodded my head in agreement, and we continued on out of the garden until we reached the lights of the backyard. I know that I should have felt remorse, or even horror at what I just did. But I didn’t. He had come here, to threaten the family at our very home. He had deserved everything he got, and then some.