Page 96 of Cruel Kiss

No, he's not.

He's shoving meoutof the way…

… and raising himself up as a barrier to protect me.

"Ro—!"

I hear the rounds. Two of them. Close together, close enough that they're almost one sound, that flat, wet thud that has nothing to do with the movies, the sound a body makes when it stops something meant for someone else.

We go down together. I crash hard on the asphalt with him on top of me. I hear my men firing back now, the crack of return fire, tires screaming, an engine gunning, somebody yellinggo, go, go.The enemy SUVs are already peeling off. In and out. A professional job.

But I'm not paying attention to any of it.

Because Navi is heavy on me, dead weight in the true sense, and when I get my hands up to push him off, they come away wet and red.

"No," I hear myself say. "No, no. Navi.Navi."

I get out from under him and roll him onto his back on the street, spreadeagled in the broken glass, in the spreading dark. I press my hands to his chest because that's what you do, you press, you keep it in, you don't let it out.

There's so much of it. It's coming through my fingers no matter how hard I press, hot, slick, and impossibly fast. His shirt is soaked through until it's black. His eyes are open and finding mine.

"Told you to get down," he croaks. "You never listen to me."

"Shut up.Shut up.Don't you dare talk right now." I lean on him harder. My hands won't stop the flow. Nothing will. "You idiot. You stupid, stupid idiot—why would you?—"

"'S the job," he breathes. His hand comes up and finds my wrist and holds it, weak. "Take a bullet for you. Said I would. Been saying it since we were kids stealing cigarettes off your old man. Guess I'm a man of my word after all."

"Not like this. Not for me. Navi, look at me.Navi."

He smiles. Blood in his teeth.

My cousin, my whole life. The last honest thing.

"Wasn't me," he says. "The codes. The scale. It was never—" He coughs. I feel more of him leak through my fingers. "Had to make you hear it. With my own mouth. Wasn't me, Ro."

"I know," I sob. It kills me, that he's spending the last words he'll ever have to tell me the one thing I should never have doubted. "I know it wasn't. I always knew. Forgive me. Please, Navi, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry."

His eyes are going somewhere. Somewhere past me, past the gray sky, past all of it.

"A CAR!" I scream. It rips out of me, raw, a sound I've never made in my life. My hands are packed to the wrist in my cousin's chest and I can't stop it, I can't hold it, it won't stay in. "Somebody get me a fuckingCAR!"

Footsteps. Shouting. The world crashing back in.

"Stay with me," I beg him, pressing, pressing, useless. "Navi. Stay. You stay with me, you hear? Don't you leave.Please."

His grip on my wrist goes soft.

27

CALI

I wouldn't have noticed the phone ringing if I hadn't happened to walk past the kitchen counter in search of the butcher's knife I keep moving around. It's not a contact number I have saved, so the spam filter kept it from vibrating. It's just the lit-up screen that catches my attention.

I frown. "Hello?"

"Mrs. Akov," booms a dark, deeply accented voice. "My name is Grigor; I work with your husband. I am calling to inform you that there has been a shooting. Navi is hurt. We are taking him to the hospital. Ronan wants you to know he is fine. Do not worry."

Do not worry.