Chapter 32 · Count to Six

Four red dots danced across Dominic’s chest.

Tiny. Shaking. Right over his heart.

Danny had broken cover. The idiot was standing in the open, screaming Gia’s name, and Gia was already down on the gravel with dark blood pumping between her fingers.

I didn't think. I just threw my entire body into Dominic’s ribs.

The wooden crate behind him blew apart into kindling.

"Mara!" His arm locked around my waist like an iron band. We rolled hard behind the steel wheel of a rail car. His gun was out before we stopped sliding.

His chest heaved against my cheek, pounding fast and hard. The only part of the man that wasn't dead calm.

"I'm fine," I wheezed. "Get Danny!"

"Stay down."

"He's gonna get killed!"

He ripped out a savage curse in Italian, lunged into the dirt, and snatched my brother by the scruff of his hoodie. Dragged him in like a bag of wet cement.

Danny crashed onto his knees, choking on snot and tears. "She's hit, Dom—she’s bleeding out, I didn't—"

"Shut up," Dominic snapped, eyes on the yard. "Breathe through your nose."

I scrambled over to Gia. Her skin was the color of curdled milk.