Page 95 of The King of Hearts

What happens next is too fast for me to comprehend. I don’t know what direction it comes from because the sound echoing off the walls sounds like it came from all directions, but there’s a loud bang, followed quickly by a spray of something hitting the side of my face. A split second later, the hand covering my breast drops, and the weight at my back jolts me forward. I catch myself on the table and spin around just in time to see the man hit the floor, a huge, bloody hole in the side of his head.

Screams erupt in the room, and there’s a mad dash for the front door. I’m still trying to grasp what in the hell just happened, so I stand there like an idiot, frozen in place with my mouth hanging open. It’s not until someone grabs my arm and gets in my face, yelling my name, that I’m knocked from my stupor.

“Vina, are you okay?” I stare at Tomas. His brows are pinched into a concerned frown. “Fucking answer me.”

“What?” I ask faintly. I shake my head, attempting to come back to reality. “Yes. I’m fine.” I look around the room, then back down to the man who has blood and gore seeping from his head. “Emersyn. Where is she?”

I look to the last place I saw her, but find her sitting in the same seat she was sitting in before all of this happened. She has a red mark on her cheek, and there’s a smear of blood on the corner of her mouth.

My feet start to move to go to her, but someone steps in my path, and my eyes clash with Marcelo’s. I look down at his hand, which is hanging by his side, holding a gun. For some odd reason, I notice the little red dot that indicates the safety feature is off, and I realize there’s only one man dead on the floor.

“Where’s the other one?” I ask, my frantic eyes looking around the room.

Marcelo’s jaw tics when he answers. “Got away.”

“What do you mean, he got away?” I ask.

“It means, he fucking ran out the back door and disappeared before I could put a bullet in his head.”

“Wait.” I shake my head again. “Youjustshot this one. You haven’t even had time to chase after him.”

“Vina, you’ve been standing here for five minutes staring at the body,” Tomas says, making zero sense.

“No, I haven’t.”

“Yes, you have. Look around.”

It’s then that I notice the place is empty except for the three of us and Emersyn sitting at the table and the body on the ground. A look through the windows shows everyone else outside, along with a group of bystanders. A police cruiser comes screeching to a halt with their lights flashing, and a moment later, the bell over the door dings when two officers come inside. Another cruiser pulls to a stop as the door whooshes closed.

But it’s the black Audi that comes roaring up that holds my attention.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

HIM

When I got the alert on my phone from Marcelo, I was on the other side of the island. There was no message attached to the alert, just a silent, vibrating alarm, but I knew it concerned Savina. My Vicious was at her favorite coffee shop, visiting her friends, and Marcelo was with her.

I debated calling Marcelo to get information, but decided against it. He may be in a situation where a phone call could be a distraction. Instead, I sent a return message to inform him I was on my way. As I sprinted to my car, I pulled up a program that would activate the speaker and camera on Savina’s phone. I slammed the device into the holder on my dash and took off, waiting impatiently for the video and audio to start playing.

“...around like that is making my dick hard, baby doll. Maybe that should be my last request. I should bend you over right here and fuck you in front of all of these people. Since it’s my last day, I’d certainly die a happy man.”

Those words barely register before there’s a loud feminine cry, and I immediately know who made that sound.

My hands grip the steering wheel so tightly that my knuckles turn white and my teeth grind together. A red haze fogs my vision, and all kinds of scenarios form in my head of how I’m going to kill the bastard who said those words.

I have no fucking clue what in the hell is going on, but it doesn’t matter because the outcome will be the same. That bastard’s blood covering my hands.

“Get your filthy fucking hands off her, you asshole!” Emersyn screams in the background. Bless her fucking heart for coming to her friend’s defense.

I look at the screen of my phone and my anger mounts when I don’t see shit. Savina’s phone must have fallen to the floor because all I can see is the underside of a table.

I break every fucking traffic law there is as I race across the island. The gas pedal is to the floor, and stop signs and red lights are a blur as I speed past them. I narrowly miss a head-on collision when I pass a car going around a sharp curve; the car I pass and the one I almost hit are blaring their horns at me. I have tunnel vision as I navigate the streets and hit the outside of town.

As I drive, there are mumbled words coming from the speaker, but they’re too low for me to understand them. Not knowing what in the fuck is going on has my body shaking with so much rage, I have to force myself to keep my hands steady on the steering wheel.

I’m a few blocks away when a gunshot sounds through the speaker, and I nearly lose my shit. I’m forced to slam on the brakes when a kid comes running out into the road in front of me. I barely refrain from blaring my horn, but the poor boy is already scared shitless from the sound of my brakes screeching on the concrete. He looks at me through the windshield withfearful, wide eyes. I’m sure what he sees on my face doesn’t reassure him. A mom comes running across the street and snatches her kid up, her own frightened gaze meeting mine through the glass. As soon as they’re out of the way, I slam my foot back down on the gas pedal.

When I screech to a stop in front of The Bean Shop, there are already two police cruisers and over a dozen people milling about on the sidewalk. The one person I want to see isn’t, though. I get out of my car, slamming the door shut behind me, and stalk by everyone. When I walk through the door, my eyes immediately find Savina. She’s over by a table with Marcelo and Tomas on either side of her. Two police officers have just approached them, but the two men won’t let them near her. Which is a good thing, because if either of them get near her before I can check on her myself, the Hollow’s Police Department will have two fewer law enforcement officers.

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