Page 222 of Ricardo

I step ahead of him. The apartment beyond is dim. I left one lamp on in the living room before I went to the gala, and its warm light spills across the entryway, the console table, the pale rug, the bowl where I drop my keys.

And the flowers.

The perfect white roses, arranged in a crystal vase, sitting in the center of my table.

Horror dawns, spreading through coldly me before I can make a sound.

I turn toward Dante.

His gun is out, and I barely register confusion before he snaps, “Down.”

He grabs me hard around the waist and and yanks me backward.

I hit the floor behind the kitchen counter, and the impact jolts up my legs.

A shot cracks through the apartment.

Somewhere above me, glass shatters. The wall splinters. I throw my hands over my head and gasp as Dante stands over me, shoving me deeper behind the counter with the weight of his body and the force of his arm.

Then Dante fires.

Once.

Twice.

The muzzle flash lights the kitchen in brutal bursts.

A body hits the floor somewhere near the living room.

I scream, but the sound is swallowed by another shot, another impact, Dante’s arm driving me lower, his voice cutting through the ringing in my ears.

“Stay down.”

He turns before I can grab him.

A shadow moves near the hallway.

Dante fires again.

The man grunts and goes down hard, knocking into the side table with a crash that shakes the floor beneath my palms.

A deafening silence falls over us.

I am crouched behind the kitchen counter with my hands pressed to the tile, staring at Dante’s shoe. At the blood that’s just begun seeping out of the man who crashed against the side table.

My breathing is loud and fast. There’s a high, thin ringing in my ears. The distant sound of someone shouting in the hallway. The smell of smoke and plaster dust and flowers.

Dante stays crouched in front of me, gun raised, body angled between me and the apartment.

“Julia,” he says. “Look at me.”

I try.

My eyes stray to the living room instead.

One man lies half in shadow near the sofa.

Another is sprawled by the hall.