Page 58 of Drowning in the Deep

“Hang on, babe,” I told him, smoothing back his hair. “I hear sirens.”

“No,” he said, coughing up blood. The red specks landed everywhere, letting me know just how serious this was. “I can’t go to a hospital.”

“Daemon, if you don’t, you’re going to die,” I reminded him. The pool of blood beneath him seemed to be getting even bigger with each passing second.

He shook his head. “Your father will find me. I’ll be too vulnerable.”

Fuck. He was right. I couldn’t chance that either. The last thing I needed was for my father to bust into a hospital and kill both of us. No, Daemon needed help, but it couldn’t be at any place like that.

There was no way in hell I was going to leave him here to die, though. Quickly, a plan came to mind, and I got up off the floor, wondering how in the hell I was going to get him into the car. Well, I’d heard before that people under duress were capable of some pretty amazing things. Now was the time to find out if I was able to pull something like that off myself. With the sirens growing closer, I went around behind Daemon and slid my hands under his armpits.

“What the fuck are you doing, Elisa?” he asked me as I hoisted as much of him off the floor as I could. Remarkably, I was able to get much of his torso up to my waist.

“I’m getting you into the fucking car before the police get here.” I was already struggling to talk and breathe at the same time as I slid him to the door.

“Help me up, and I’ll walk,” he said, but I could tell that wasn’t going to work, so I ignored his request, and he was powerless to fight me at the moment. As I dragged him across the floor, he continued to bleed, leaving a trail across the white linoleum.

I got to the door and realized it was a pull from this side. “Shit.” Using my shoulder, I managed to hit the handle enough to get it to swing open so that I could wedge my foot inside and then kick it. I knew what was going to happen as I hauled him to the door, but since neither one of us could do anything about it, I had to let the door swing into his leg.

“Fuck,” Daemon mumbled as I fought to get him out and across the sidewalk.

“Just a flesh wound,” I reminded him, glad I’d at least left the passenger side door of the car open. I was about ready to collapse myself when I reached the car and slung him inside.

I got about half of him in when he said, “I’ll do it myself, fuck!” and wiggled away from me. I stood there while he pulled himself up and into the car, slumping over the console. I picked up his right leg and set it inside before slamming the door and running around to get behind the steering wheel.

I didn’t bother to try to put a seatbelt on him, but I put one on myself out of habit. I remembered the first time I’d seen this car, how I’d jokingly asked if I could drive it. A shiver went down my spine as I thought of what Daemon’s response had been. “Over my dead body.”

“That’s not happening today,” I said to myself, noting he was out again. I could see his back now, which was coated in blood, and knew we didn’t have much time.

With a deep breath, I shifted into drive and pulled out onto the road, knowing there was only one person who could help me now. “Don’t worry, Daemon,” I said to his unconscious form. “I know exactly where to take you.”

EPILOGUE

RAVEN

The swelling had already set in as I scrambled to my car parked in the back alley behind the bakery, making it hard to see. The bridge of my nose was killing me, but I didn’t let it slow me down. Leaping inside, I threw my vehicle into gear, sideswiping the Jeep of the woman who owned the place as I headed out of there as quickly as possible. Sirens blared in the distance. Well, it wasn’t like that bitch was going to be driving anywhere now anyway. I readjusted my boot on the gas pedal, the sticky blood from her body making it hard to mash the pedal down as hard as I wanted.

“Son of a bitch.” I hit the steering wheel hard, taking a side street and beginning to wind my way back to the Petrov mansion, going over what I was going to tell Alexander in my mind as I drove. No matter what I said to him, it wouldn’t be good enough. I knew that for a fact. Hell, it wasn’t good enough for me either. I was pretty sure Daemon Petrov was dead, but I hadn’t got the kill shot in, and that would make my cousin very angry.

I was angry, too. That fucking bitch had walked in and hit me in the face with a goddamn tire iron right before I was able to sink that final bullet into his brain, which would’ve certainly given me vengeance for my twin brother’s death. Now, I was left questioning whether my first three shots had been on target enough to finish the job.

That wasn’t the only thing I was questioning. I had been an assassin for my entire life. My parents had raised me to kill. In many countries, I was known for my deadliness, my accuracy, my unwavering hand. But as I drove through the neighborhood that would bring me face to face with Alexander La Rosa, I was left wondering if I had lost my touch. How the fuck had the sudden appearance of my cousin Elisa caught me so off guard?

I realized then it wasn’t that she was there that had thrown me for a loop. No, I’d been expecting that to a degree. It was the fact that she wasn’t screaming and crying, that she’d actually fucking done something, that had made me hesitate. The woman had thrown a goddamn tire iron and hit me in the face, for fuck’s sake, not to mention the fact that she’d shot at me.

The discussion of what to do if she showed up had never taken place because Alexander wasn’t sure where she was. When his house went up in flames, he’d assumed that Daemon had been the one to do it, and he suspected he’d gotten her out first. But there was a body of a young woman found downstairs, too burned up to identify, so part of him had wondered if his daughter was dead. Maybe she’d been shot in Daemon’s rescue attempt, and he’d burned the house down as revenge.

“Now at least we know the answer to that question,” I muttered as I pulled into the driveway and got out of the car.

I approached the house the same way I approached everything in my life—with confidence. Even if I wasn’t exactly feeling it all the way to the bone at the moment, I needed to give off that vibe. Otherwise, Alexander would squash me like a bug.

I found him in a makeshift office on the first floor. Thankfully, that shrew of a new wife of his wasn’t around. Walking inside, I approached him with my head held high. He didn’t look up from whatever paperwork he was studying as he asked, “Is it done?”

“I think so,” I told him, realizing as soon as the words were out of my mouth that it wasn’t the most self-assured statement I could’ve made.

His eyes snapped to my face. He cringed a bit when he saw me, noticing the mark across the bridge of my nose, no doubt. I wondered if it was broken, but I didn’t raise a hand to it now, ignoring the pain. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” he asked.

I swallowed back my apprehension and replied, “There was a complication.”

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