Page 159 of When She Falls (The Fallen)
The air quiets.
“Leave him to me.”
“Hey, don’t be a hero,” Orrin says. “We’ve got this.”
“I said leave him to me.” My voice is laced with steel as I step out from behind the van, gun at the ready.
Nunzio stands on the other side of their car, his own weapon pointed in my direction. He sneers at me, blood trickling down his arm.
“You really think you can take me?” he taunts.
“You’re not worth anyone else’s trouble.”
He laughs, but it’s shaky. “You’ve never won against me, Ras. Not once.”
I don’t reply, just take a deep breath and aim my gun. “Why do you think that is?"
“Because you’re a fucking weak—”
My bullet pierces his skull.
Nunzio’s eyes go wide as he falls to the ground.
The bastard was too arrogant to pull his trigger before he finished his sentence.
Orrin appears beside me, surveying the bodies littering the pavement. He claps me on the back. “Cleanup’s going to be a bitch. I’ll get the boys to drop off the goods and then come back for us with supplies.”
Blood seeps out from under Nunzio’s body, the pool reflecting the moon and a starless sky.
I tuck the gun inside my waistband and stare at his ruined skull. There’s an unsettling emptiness inside my chest. I’ve fantasized about this moment for so many years, and yet I feel…nothing.
No closure, no joy, no relief.
My past has haunted me for so long, but at some point, it became irrelevant.
I scratch the side of my neck. Only one thing haunts me now, and it’s Gemma’s voice.
“Why are you doing this?”
“Because I don’t love you.”
CHAPTER34
GEMMA
Rafaele started workingon getting Papà out the day I returned, and a week or so later, Papà arrives at the house.
Mamma, Cleo, and I are waiting for him in the foyer, his core crew gathered around us.
When he walks through the front door, everyone acts like he’s some kind of a hero. There’s cheering and clapping. Someone pops open a bottle of champagne.
Papà laughs, triumphant. Even the Feds couldn’t keep Stefano Garzolo locked up. He is a legend. Weakened but undefeated. I hear the words “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” repeated over and over again.
When he comes to me, my muscles tense up on their own accord. It must be a new automatic response I’ve developed to him after what happened. He takes my stiff body into his arms and presses a kiss to my cheek. Out of the corner of my eye, I notice Vince watching us, his lips a tight line.
“Gemma, my darling. I’m glad you’re here,” he says with a genuine smile. I guess he’s elected to move on from all the trouble I’ve caused now that everything’s fallen into place.
Has he also decided to forget the fact that the last time we saw each other, he tried to kick my ribs in? Before I muster up a response, he’s being corralled away by his men into the living room where a lavish feast has been laid out.
