Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 92071 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92071 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
Just then, gunshots rang out, and then more pounding on the door and voices. I recognized one of them and glanced at Dante, but he must have also recognized the voice because he began to smile. “Put the blade down, Tommy. My guys are here.”
Tommy frowned. “How?”
“When I was being kicked around, I stamped hard on the tracker in my heel and smashed it. I knew the moment it stopped bleeping my guys would come to the spot it last flashed at.
“Alright then, here we go,” Tommy said, and just a mere few seconds later, the door was busted in, and Dante’s men rushed in.
“Took you long enough,” I heard Tommy grumble loudly, but he was laughing with happiness.
“Are you alright, Boss?” someone asked.
“Yeah. Good job. Thanks!” Dante said.
My eyes landed on Ugo. His blood had turned the floor of the room a bloody red, and even as I shut my eyes, I knew it was an image that would haunt me for many years to come.
There was another image that would also linger in my heart for many, many more years to come. Of Dante's eyes staring straight at mine. There was a lightness to them that I couldn't recall ever seeing. Or perhaps it was a reflection of what I felt, which was the massive and almost crippling weight coming off my shoulders. We had faced death and come out on the other side.
“It’s over,” I whispered.
“It’s over,” he echoed.
Epilogue
Zola
Icould hear the thunderous sounds of bullets the closer I got to the shooting range. Finding Dante here was a very easy indication to me that he was worried or unhappy about something, and this time around, I was very aware of what it was.
I felt the same unease too as it was the very first time we were accepting people into our home. However, it was a time for celebration, and I didn’t want my paranoia to get the better of us.
I watched him in the cage for a little while, not wanting to bother him.
A few minutes later, after emptying his clip on the target, he took the headset and gloves off. As he turned around, I waved and he saw me. Immediately, the corners of his mouth tilted into a smile, and he came out toward me. I felt his arms encircle me and was grateful and happy to be held inside his safe warm embrace.
He hugged me tightly before pulling away and crouching down to place a kiss on my growing belly.
"You’re so tense. Relax, my beauty. This party's for you."
I rubbed his hair. “You’re such a liar.”
“You are beautiful. More beautiful than any woman, living or dead.”
I shook my head. It amused me whenever I heard him refer to me in this way. I was not one of those blessed with a glowing pregnancy. My hair was always greasy and because I was always hungry, I had put on a ton of weight in the last couple of months.
He looked around him quickly, his eyes alert and suspicious. He wasn't much different from how he had been when he hadn't completely cut off all ties with the mafia. His vigilance remained in all ways, but it was such a joy to see him happier and more relaxed than I'd ever thought possible. It had taken a while for us to get over everything that happened after the move from New York, but now we were both ready to open up our lives and welcome new people in again.
I took a peek at the gun range. "I can't believe I still don't know how to shoot.”
He held my hand and began to lead me up the main stairs. "You'll learn after the baby comes.”
I gave him a look. "That's what you said before our wedding, and then during the honeymoon. Then the first year went by, and the second ..."
"You had some lessons."
"Well, I'm still not as proficient as you are."
"You don't need to be." He paused to stare into my eyes.
"But I do," I said, as my hand went to my belly. “Especially now.”
He completely understood my fears and proceeded to comfort me. "We're fine and we’ll always be so. It's been three years, Ugo is where he belongs.”
“At the bottom of the sea?”
“No, burning in hell with all the other psychopaths.”
“Mmmm …”
“And most of his men have been given sentences that will keep them in prison for many years to come. And we have all the security at hand that we could ever need. For the first time in my life, I'm truly living, and sometimes when I first wake up, it seems too good to be true and I think that I was dreaming. Then I turn over and I see you sleeping next to me and I remember I’m the luckiest guy on earth."