Page 225 of Vicious Intentions
“I’m sorry,” I mutter, the wheels screeching as I take a sharp left. “I’m just…”
“I know, Jude. I know,” she says, running her fingers along the nape of my neck, soothing me with her touch. “It won’t be long now.”
I grip the steering wheel tighter.
“Just make sure the twins don’t let Marcello’s men pass them on the road. We can’t have too many people seeing what’s about to go down.”
“I doubt anyone will see a bloody thing in this weather,” Mina says, eyeing the storm outside.
Like always, my wife is right again.
The snow is coming down so hard that it blurs everything in sight. Streetlights. The road ahead. Everything. My visibility is shit. This is the kind of weather that turns a bad situation into a fucking death sentence. And with the way I’m speeding to catch up to my sister and her husband, it’ll be a miracle if none of us gets hurt.
And just as I turn onto the street leading to LaSalle Street Bridge, that’s when we spot them. Annamaria and Matteo’sstolen car swerving across the icy road ahead of us, bypassing the few cars still out on the road this time of night.
Mina’s hand slips over to my thigh, her grip tight and trembling.
“Do you see Enzo or Alejandro anywhere?”
“Not yet,” she says, worry lacing her tone. “But isn’t that a good thing?”
“I’d rather know where they are. Text them and find out.”
“Just because we can’t see them doesn’t mean they aren’t here. They know what they’re supposed to do. Have faith in Marcello’s plan, luv,” she tries to reassure me.
“I’m fucking trying,” I curse before muttering a small prayer in my head, one meant to keep my sister safe. “This better fucking work.”
And just as the words fall out of my lips, the road ahead suddenly forks in two, one lane curving toward Lower Wacker while the other climbs toward the bridge.
Matteo’s car disappears behind a curtain of snow for a second before reappearing on the road leading to LaSalle Street Bridge.
“Fuck,” I breathe, gripping the wheel tighter just as I put the pedal to the metal. “Hold on!” I yell at my wife, needing her safe as I eat the distance between us and try to ram my car into the back of my sister’s.
I barely manage to give it a love tap before the car fishtails on the ice.
“Oh my God,” Mina shouts beside me, her voice sounding just as panicked as I feel right now.
We watch in horror as their tires lose traction completely, the back end swinging too far. The bridge railing groans when the car slams into it, the metal straining under pressure it was never meant to withstand.
Then it gives.
My sister’s car tips dangerously over the edge. For one terrifying second, it hangs there like the world itself is holding its breath.
And then, as if fate had always intended this to be their end, the car plunges over the side.
I slam the car into park and throw the door open, the cold punching the air from my lungs. Everyone spills out behind me. Marcello’s men. Mina’s cousins. Even the unlucky witnesses who happened to be on the bridge at this late hour. We all just stand there. Watching as the car crashes through jagged sheets of ice, the dark water swallowing it whole.
Fast.
So fucking fast.
The taillights flicker beneath the surface one last time and then… disappear.
Gone.
She’s gone.
The realization lands heavy and final in my chest.
