Chapter 14 - THE LAST BULLET
Dante moved in front of Mara.
Mercer laughed.
“Still protecting people. Just like your father.”
“You say that like it’s an insult.”
“It got him killed.”
“And it’s going to put you in the ground.”
Mercer raised his weapon.
Mara screamed.
“Dante!”
Both men fired.
Mercer stumbled.
Dante dropped to one knee.
Mara’s heart stopped.
“No!”
Mercer had been hit in the shoulder.
Dante was bleeding from his side.
He raised his gun again.
Mercer laughed.
“You don’t have it in you.”
Dante’s eyes went cold.
“You know better.”
Sirens screamed in the distance.
Mercer looked toward the gate.
Dante looked at him.
“It’s over.”
“No.”
Mercer lifted his gun toward Mara.
Dante fired.
Once.
Mercer fell.
Silence.
Then the gun slipped from Dante’s hand.
Mara crawled toward him.
“You’re hit.”
“I noticed.”
“You idiot.”
He smiled weakly.
“There she is.”
Mara grabbed his face.
“You are not dying.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Another contraction hit.
She screamed.
Dante’s eyes widened.
“Is that supposed to happen this close together?”
“How would I know?”
“You’re the pregnant one.”
“I’ve never done this before!”
Gabriel ran over.
“Ambulance is here.”
Paramedics flooded the yard.
One went to Dante.
Two went to Mara.
A third checked Senator Thorne.
Then quietly shook his head.
Mara looked away.
She didn’t have time to grieve.
Her body had decided that for her.
Twenty minutes later, she was in an ambulance.
Dante was in another.
She kept asking the paramedic the same question.
“Is he alive?”
“Yes.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“Don’t lie to me.”
“I’m not lying.”
At the hospital, Mara was rushed into surgery.
The baby’s heart rate was dropping.
Doctors moved fast.
Masks.
Bright lights.
Urgent voices.
Mara cried.
“Where’s Dante?”
A nurse squeezed her hand.
“He’s in surgery too.”
“No.”
“He’s alive.”
“Bring him here.”
“We can’t.”
“Then tell him—”
The anesthesia mask lowered.
“What do you want us to tell him?”
Mara fought to stay awake.
“Tell him he better not die before I get a chance to yell at him.”
The nurse smiled.
“I’ll tell him.”
Mara woke hours later.
Her room was quiet.
For one awful second, she forgot everything.
Then she remembered.
The baby.
She grabbed the nurse call button.
A nurse rushed in.
“My baby.”
The nurse smiled.
“Your son is alive.”
Mara burst into tears.
“He’s small. He’ll need time in the NICU, but he’s fighting.”
“Dante?”
The nurse hesitated.
Mara stopped breathing.
Then the door opened.
Dante stood there in a hospital gown, pale as death, one hand attached to an IV pole.
Mara stared at him.
“You’re supposed to be in bed.”
“So are you.”
She laughed through tears.
He walked slowly to her.
“Can I?”
Mara knew what he meant.
She moved over.
Dante sat beside her.
For the first time since the cemetery, neither of them had anything to fight about.
“Our son?” he whispered.
“Alive.”
Dante closed his eyes.
A tear escaped.
Mara pretended not to notice.
Then the nurse entered.
“You can see him now.”
In the NICU, their son looked impossibly small.
Tiny fingers.
Tiny chest.
Fighting for every breath.
Dante placed his hand against the glass.
Mara stood beside him.
“What do we call him?”
Dante looked at her.
“You choose.”
She thought of her mother.
Of his father.
Of all the dead people who had tried to leave them something better than what they received.
“Anthony.”
Dante’s eyes softened.
“After my father?”
“And Eleanor can be his middle name.”
He smiled.
“That will confuse him.”
“Good. Builds character.”
Then Gabriel appeared at the end of the hall.
His face was serious.
Dante turned.
“What?”
Gabriel held up his phone.
“Rachel Sloan published.”
Mara looked at him.
“All of it?”
“All of it.”
“And Bianca?”
Gabriel’s expression changed.
“She just asked to speak to Mara.”
“Why?”
“She says Senator Thorne left one final recording.”
Mara looked through the glass at her son.
May you like
Then back at Gabriel.
“For me?”
