Page 83 of Winter
Luna.
It wasafter eleven when the security guard came to find them. “Miss Sardee? There’s a Luna Rosenbaum here to see you … I made her wait at the front door because it’s late … what do you want me to do?”
“Luna’s here?” Inca got up, but Tommaso halted her.
“It’s way too late, Inca. Tell Miss Rosenbaum to come back in the morning.'
“No, it’s okay. Let me go see her. Thanks, Craig.”
He nodded and left them. Tommaso shook his head at her. “I don’t like this.”
Inca rolled her eyes. “It’s just Luna. I won’t turn my back on a friend.”
“Let her go, Tommaso.” Raffaelo sounded irritated. “You’re not her master.”
Inca threw a grateful look at him and patted Tommaso’s hand.
“I won’t be a second.”
Luna looked as if she were shivering, and Inca reached for her to pull her into the warm of the house.
“No.” She avoided Inca’s hand, and Inca frowned.
“What is it, bubba? What’s going on?
Luna was staring at her, studying her intently. Inca got worried. “Are you okay? Is Olly okay?”
Luna was still staring, her ice-blue eyes wide. “It’s like a cancer.”
Inca was confused. “What is?” She began to shiver now— the night was cold, and her thin white dress was no protection. “Come in. I’m cold.”
Luna gave her a strange smile. “You won’t be in a minute. Your beauty. It’s like a cancer. It infects everything you come into contact with; it always has. All those women … Nancy … your birth mom … Scarlett. She was wearing your coat.”
Inca started to get scared now. “Luna …”
“She was wearing your coat, and I thought it was you. I thought it wasyou.”
Realization dawned, and Inca covered her mouth to stop herself screaming. “Oh, my God …”
Luna pulled out the gun she was hiding in her pocket and leveled it at Inca. “I won’t make the same mistake this time. No more cancer.”
And she shot Inca. Inca staggered back, blood blooming across her right side. She stumbled and dropped to the floor as Luna pointed the gun at her again and fired another bullet at her. Inca had raised her arm to defend herself, and the bullet smashed through her forearm and grazed her temple. In horror, she saw Luna placed the muzzle against her own head, and as Inca heard shouts coming from every direction, Luna smiled at her and blew her own brains out.
The last thing Inca remembered were the horrified faces of her two lovers as she lost consciousness …
