~ Massimo ~
The ringing in my ears was a bloody high-pitched scream that wouldn't stop. My lungs burned with the taste of pulverized concrete and gasoline. I tried to blink, but my eyelashes were heavy with soot.
Slowly, the blurred world began to sharpen. A few feet away, the BMW was a roaring metal skeleton of orange flames.
Silvio... he was gone.
He hadn't even had a chance to bloody scream. He had turned that key, and in a heartbeat, he was gone.
A hollow ache settled in my chest, but I shoved it down immediately. In our world, grief was a luxury I couldn't afford.
Especially not while I was still drawing breath.
Then the realization hit me like a second blast. Keith.
The time spent in his bloody office was all a setup to get me into that car at that exact second.
If that Senator's son hadn't stopped me in the lobby to yap about his father's influence, I'd be ash right now.
I'd be nothing but a bloody headline.
