Gentle hands haul me up. They turn me around and hold me tight, and I sob into Amadeo’s chest. I sob. And when Bastian’s hand comes to the back of my head, I shift into his arms and hold them both tight. I sob for all of it, all the loss. The senseless loss. My mother, myself, Emma, our father.

I need to know one more thing. Did he kill Dad too? Will I ever know? I try to stop sobbing long enough to get air in. To ask the question. But the tears won’t stop.

“Get her out of here,” Amadeo says, handing me off to Bastian.

“Wait,” I cry out.

I wipe my eyes with the backs of my hands. They’re covered in blood and gunk, and Bastian holds me as I turn to look at my brother one final time. Because he won’t walk out of here today. Today, he’ll pay for what he did. And it’s not only me he owes.

I look down at Lucien. His face is unrecognizable. His eye sockets are blood, just blood, and he’s sobbing. I look at Dmitri, who is watching me.

“Give me your gun,” I say to him.

“Vittoria,” Amadeo says.

“Give it to me!”

“You don’t want any more of his blood on your hands,” Dmitri says. “You don’t want his soul linked to yours.” I open my mouth to speak, but he goes first, and what he says silences me. “Your mother wouldn’t want that, Vittoria.”

My mother. He’s the reason she’s gone. Lucien is the reason.

I close my eyes and turn my face into Bastian’s chest, and he just holds me tight because Dmitri is right. And to know that he knew my mother so intimately is a strange, bitter comfort.

“How far out is the convoy?” Dmitri asks.

“Ten minutes if you’re lucky,” Amadeo says.

“Chopper?”

“Outside. Give me your gun.”

Dmitri hands him his gun.

Amadeo nods. “Go. Bastian, take her.”

“Amadeo, you can’t be the one to stay,” Bastian says.

Amadeo looks at me, then at his brother. “This ends today. Here and now. Get her out of here.”

“They’ll take you in—”

“She needs you. Get her out.”

Bastian is clearly not happy about this, but he looks down at me, wraps an arm around me, and we walk out. The three of us along with two of Dmitri’s men board the chopper, the others leaving with the SUVs. And I imagine I hear the sound of the gun being fired although I know that’s impossible with the noise of the blades. But I know it’s over now. It’s finally over.

30

AMADEO

“Who’s there? Who the fuck is there?” Lucien asks, his voice frantic as he tries to scramble to a seat.