After the tests were collected, Carmine headed for the exit, rolling his neck to get the tension out of it. He strolled out to the parking lot with the rest of his classmates, where the sound of squealing tires stopped him in his tracks. He looked up, his brow furrowing in confusion when the old pickup truck pulled into the parking lot.
“Isn’t that Nicholas?”
Carmine cringed as Lisa spoke behind him. Nicholas parked his truck and climbed out, glancing around in a rush. He looked in Carmine’s direction, muttering to himself as he approached. “Carmine, I need to talk to you about Haven. She—”
He didn’t have time to finish before Carmine swung. Nicholas’s head snapped to the side when the fist connected. Staggering backward, Nicholas glared at him. “There’s something wrong with you! I told her you’d go psycho if I came here!”
“Excuse me?” Carmine grabbed Nicholas’s shirt. “When did you talk to her?”
Nicholas pried his hands off, shoving Carmine away. “Twenty minutes ago when she called me.”
The words stung. “What do you mean she called you?”
“I mean—ring, ring—she called my phone,” he said. “What else would ‘she called me’ mean?”
Carmine lunged at him, but Nicholas was prepared this time. He barely stumbled before striking back, jabbing Carmine hard in the ribs. He gasped at the unexpected shot. Before he could recover, Nicholas struck him in the nose. Carmine’s vision blurred as sharp pain shot through his face, blood flowing instantly. Someone grabbed his arm before he could get his wits about him, and he turned to see that a crowd had formed.
Carmine wiped his face with the back of his hand, smearing blood all over himself. He grabbed the bottom of his shirt and pinched his nose with it, trying to stop the bleeding.
“You know, you’d think you’d show some damn gratitude,” Nicholas said. “I didn’t have to come here.”
“Why did you? You’re wasting your time.”
“Maybe I am, but I came here because Haven asked me to. She didn’t have anyone else, and she needed you to come home. I try to do her a favor, and instead of listening, you’d rather fight for no reason.”
“Why did she ask you to get me?”
“I think someone was there or something.”
Carmine tensed. “How do you know?”
“I don’t know. I heard a doorbell.”
Carmine pushed past Nicholas and sprinted for the car. His father was leaving town, so no one should have been at the house. He sped through the streets of Durante, trying to figure out who it could be. Salvatore? Had La Cosa Nostra come again?
Fresh skid marks aligned the driveway when he arrived home, ruts dug into the path, but there weren’t any cars in the yard, the house as quiet as he’d left it hours before.
Parking near the porch, Carmine climbed out and looked around, nothing raising any red flags. He unlocked the door and disabled the alarm when it beeped, his blood running cold when he saw the phone lying on the floor in the foyer. Glancing around suspiciously, he tried to remain calm as he made his way upstairs. He didn’t find Haven on the third floor, so he slipped into his bedroom and pulled his gun from the top of his closet. He had hidden it there before he dropped the Mazda off to be fixed, not wanting to carry it in his brother’s car. After checking to make sure it was loaded, he slipped the pistol into his waistband and went back down to the first floor.
His footsteps echoed in the house as he headed toward the kitchen, stopping in the doorway. Haven stood behind the island, her arm drawn back as she clutched a rolling pin. Carmine could see her trembling from where he stood.
If he hadn’t been confused, he might have found it amusing. “Are you okay, tesoro?”
She nodded. “Are you?”
“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”
She blinked a few times and continued to gaze at him. “What happened?”
“Shouldn’t I be asking that?”
“Yes, but your nose . . .”
Carmine grabbed his nose, wincing. He’d forgotten about his injury. “Had a little scuffle with Nicholas.”
She gasped. “You didn’t hurt him, did you?”
“No, he got me this time.” He cringed, not wanting to admit that. “Why did you call him?”
“Jen was here. Dr. DeMarco told me to call you. You didn’t answer, and she was upset I wouldn’t open the door, so I called him.”
His phone hadn’t worked since he had thrown it at his car. “So, did Jen give up?”
“I don’t know. She threatened me and said—”
“She threatened you?”
“Yeah, but she left, and—”
“What the f**k did she want?”
“I don’t know. I looked outside and—”
Her words faltered as the roar of an engine approached. Carmine stepped over to the window, seeing the truck pulling up out front. “It’s Nicholas.”
Nicholas headed for the house as Carmine went into the foyer and opened the door.
“Everything cool?” Nicholas asked, stopping a few feet away.
“It’s fine,” Carmine said. “You’re not needed here.”
“Carmine,” Haven scolded as she stepped past him. Her eyes darted around as she stepped off the porch and loosely wrapped her arms around Nicholas in a hug. “Thank you. Not many people would’ve done that for me.”
Nicholas stood frozen before halfheartedly patting her back. “Ah, no big deal,” he said, but it was a big deal. Carmine almost felt bad for hitting him, but the throbbing in his nose counteracted any guilt. “So, crisis averted and all that jazz?”
“It was Jen,” Carmine said. “My father must’ve kicked her to the curb. You know how scorned bitches are.”
“I don’t think—”
“She always was shady,” Nicholas said. “I never understood why he’d stoop that low. Even I wouldn’t touch her.”
“Bullshit,” Carmine said. “You slept with her.”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Yes, you did. We were at the hospital last year, and I dared you to do it.”
“Are you forgetting you tried to kill me that weekend? I never had a chance to try!”
“I didn’t try to kill you. If I wanted to kill you, I’d kill you. I only snapped because you stabbed me in the back.”
Nicholas glared at him. When he finally spoke, he said the last thing Carmine expected to hear. “You’re right.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Excuse me?”
“I said you’re right. I shouldn’t have said what I said, and I’m sorry about that, but you screwed up too, Carmine.”
It was the first time Nicholas had ever acknowledged he had wronged him, and it caught Carmine off guard. “Yeah, I probably shouldn’t have gotten with your sister. I’m so—uh, shit, whatever.”
Haven eyed the two of them in shock. “Wow, are you—?”
“Anyway.” Carmine cut her off before she could make a big deal out of it. “Everything’s fine. Haven could’ve handled it. She had the rolling pin ready to whoop some ass.”
The phone in the house rang, and Carmine ran to the foyer to grab it off the floor. He answered it as he stepped out onto the porch. “Hello?”
“Carmine?” Vincent’s voice cracked a bit. “Can you hear me?”
“Uh, yeah.”
“So, I have a joke for you,” Nicholas said, turning to Haven. Carmine rolled his eyes as his father said something about the airport, but the reception grew worse and Nicholas’s voice drowned him out. “What’s black, white, and red all over?”
“I don’t know,” Haven said. “What?”
A loud bang rang out in the distance. Carmine accidentally dropped the phone and cursed, reaching down to pick it up, when a piercing scream cut through the air. The hair on Carmine’s arms bristled as he spun around in time to see Nicholas drop to his knees, red seeping onto his white shirt. Clutching his chest, he opened his mouth to speak, but no sound came out. He dropped forward to the ground within a matter of seconds.
Haven screamed again, so loudly Carmine’s ears rang.
Everything felt like it happened in slow motion. He jumped off the porch and landed on top of Haven as another bang shattered the air. He knocked her to the ground behind the car, his body weight forcing the air from her lungs.
“Listen to me,” he said, pinning her trembling body there as she struggled to breathe. “I’m gonna count to three and start shooting back. I need you to get in the damn car. Got it?”
She was unresponsive as another shot rang out. Carmine winced as it collided with metal, the bullet striking the car. “Christ, Haven, you need to f**king listen to me. I need you to do this, so can you?”
Her voice shook as hard as her body. “I think so.”
Carmine reached up and opened the passenger door a crack. “It’s gonna be fine.”
Yet another gunshot cut through the stifling air. He flinched at the sound and took a deep breath. They were taunting them, he realized. Whoever it was could have easily killed them both by now.
He started counting, and Haven’s eyes widened as she clutched him. “Wait!”
“Christ, we don’t have time to f**k around here!”
“I love you.” The words caught in her throat and escaped as a sob. The sound of it burned, like she had taken a knife and plunged it straight into his chest, twisting it.
“Don’t act like we won’t see each other again in thirty seconds,” he said, grabbing his gun from his waistband. “Get in the goddamn car, baby. Three.”
He stood and aimed at nothing in particular, firing off rounds in the direction the shots had come from. Running to the driver’s side, he cursed when he tripped over Nicholas. Shame overwhelmed him as tears stung his eyes, but he fought to hold himself together for Haven’s sake.
Bullets whizzed by him as he ducked inside the car. Haven curled into a ball in the passenger seat, sobbing. He fumbled with the keys as he laid the gun down between them.
He threw the car in gear and swung it around, slamming the gas to get away from the house. He reached over and brushed Haven’s hair aside to get a good look at her as he flew down the driveway. “Are you okay, tesoro? Talk to me, please.”
She flinched when he touched her. “Nicholas! We can’t leave Nicholas!”
“We have to,” Carmine said. “It’s too late for him.”
She shook her head hysterically. “But he was just helping!”
“I know, hummingbird.” He swung the car onto the main road. He wasn’t sure what else to say. “I know.”
He tried to focus on the road, but something caught his eye in the rearview mirror. A black car sped straight for them. “Fuck.”
Haven glanced behind them. “Oh God.”
“Put on your f**king seatbelt,” he said. She froze for a split second before snapping it on. Carmine wanted to say something to comfort her, but he wasn’t sure those words even existed. The vehicle rapidly approached as gunshots cut through the air again, bullets hitting the back of the car. The right rear tire blew out as it was struck, the car jolting, but Carmine managed to keep it on the road. A moment later the left tire shredded, the screech of metal rim against the highway drowning out the sound of gunfire. Sparks flew, and Carmine’s panic deepened when he realized they couldn’t outrun them now. He grasped the steering wheel to brace himself and looked at Haven, unparalleled devastation reflecting in her eyes.