Page 133 of Our Violent Ends
There was a sudden motion from behind Da Nao. A man stepped out, a pistol held to Da Nao’s head, his expression tight. Juliette recognized him. He was a Scarlet—he had once run a message for her.
“Please understand,” Da Nao said, his voice barely audible as the river rolled beneath him, “that as much as I want to help you, Miss Cai, your Scarlets have always been watching.”
The Scarlet fired, and Da Nao fell with a spray of red, the bullet in his head killing him instantly. With a horrified gasp, Juliette lunged forward, preparing for a fight, but the Scarlet did not turn his pistol to her next. He turned it upward and fired once, twice, three times, each bullet piercing through the awning of the fishing boat and studding into the sky, itsbang! bang! bang!loud enough to be heard over the storm.
It was a signal.
No.
Juliette turned fast on her heel. She sighted Roma and Alisa’s blurry forms immediately, but by then there was countermovement in the crowd, and the Scarlets who had been playing guard were on their way to the waterfront, merging into a task force.
“ROMA! ALISA! RUN, RUN NOW!”
Someone tackled Juliette from the side.
“Stop!” she shrieked. “Get off of me!”
Sheer instinct kicked in. She threw her head back as hard as she could, colliding with her attacker. There was a sickening crunch that sounded like a nose breaking, and when her attacker momentarily loosened his grip around her arms, she pulled free and ran.
They had intercepted her cousin’s note. They had been one step ahead of her this whole time, waiting with Da Nao. Juliette should have known there would be eyes everywhere in the city after her little scheme. She should have known that her father and mother would pull out every stop to figure out what game she was playing at after disrupting Scarlet business and disappearing into the night.
Juliette skidded off the wharf, frantically wiping at the rain on her face to clear her vision.There—she spotted Roma and Alisa again, circled in by a group of Scarlets with firearms. Roma still had his weapons; with a pistol in hand, he managed to take down two Scarlets.
But he was outnumbered. Before Juliette could reach them, the Scarlets had him disarmed.
“Don’t touch him!”
The moment Juliette ran close, the nearest Scarlets dove at her. She tried her best to dispatch them, ducking fast and sliding under outstretched arms, but she was one girl without weapons and they were loyal to her no longer. Just as Juliette stood again, one of the Scarlets pressed the barrel of his gun to Roma’s head.
And Juliette came to a complete stop.
Two of the Scarlets grabbed her by the shoulders. All the faces here were familiar, all of them names that she was sure she could recall if she thought a little harder. Under the pour of vicious rainfall, they could only look upon her in hatred.
“Don’t,” Juliette managed. “Don’t you dare hurt him.”
“It is your own fault for delivering him right to us.” The Scarlet who had spoken looked even more familiar than the rest, undoubtedly a leader among them, undoubtedly one of Tyler’s former men. He had a hint of glee in his eyes, that same old bloodlust Juliette was so tired of seeing. “Thankfully for you, you don’t have to watch. Take her to Lord Cai.”
“No!” It didn’t matter how much she kicked. With a Scarlet on either side of her, the men lifted her easily by her arms and started to lead her away. “How dare you—”
Of course they dared. She was no longer Juliette Cai, the heir of the Scarlet Gang, to be feared and revered. She was a girl who had run away with the enemy.
“Don’t touch them!” Juliette screamed, throwing her head over her shoulder.
The Scarlets didn’t listen. They started to lead Roma and Alisa in the other direction, pulling at Alisa so roughly that she cried out. Even as the distance between them grew and grew, Roma had his eyes latched on Juliette, his face so pale under the shadow of the sky it was as if he were dead and executed already. Perhaps Juliette had an ill-divining soul. Perhaps she was seeing his future, perhaps by the day’s end he would be lying at the bottom of a tomb as the last of the Montagov line.
“Roma, hold on! Hold on!”
Roma shook his head. He was shouting something, again and again, the sound lost to the rain, and he did not stop until Juliette was out of sight, dragged away from the Bund and onto another main road.
It was only then that Juliette realized what he had been saying, his eyes stricken like he had already lost hope of seeing her again.
I love you.
?
The rain came down like a tidal wave, but it did not discourage the crowds moving through the city.
Even if Celia had suddenly decided to abandon the procession, she had no route out. She was boxed in on all sides, surrounded by workers and students and ordinary people who looked no more like revolutionaries than she did. Yet nonetheless, they were here and screaming—screaming at the top of their lungs, long banners in their best penmanship unfurled into the air.
