Trapped in his End Game (Series)

I wake up on a soft surface and a hand slapping me awake. A man’s face swims in front of me-Carmine. My heart squeezes painfully as a jolt of adrenaline pierces through it and I back away from him, almost falling off the couch.

“Easy, Adriana. You’re safe.”

Safe? I’m not fucking safe.

I blink blearily and sit up on the couch. I’m wearing one of Vince’s robes, but we’re in Carmine’s house. The only light on in the house is the lamp on the end table. A horrible shock runs through my body.

“How did I get here?”

The last thing I remember was pressure against my neck, and then I passed out.

Carmine sits across from me on the coffee table, looking anxious. “I put you in a sleeper hold and brought you here. You weren’t being cooperative.”

It’s only a matter of time before Vince finds us. Stall him.

Suddenly, he hangs his head and massages his forehead. “I’m in a lot of fucking trouble.”

Good. Keep him talking. I swallow my nerves and try to sound concerned. “Why? What happened?”

He rubs his eyes. “I killed that cop. And my mother, too.”

I wrap my robe more tightly around my body, as if it can protect me from him. The light is gone from his eyes, almost as if he’s dead, too. He clasps his hands together and looks over my shoulder, wide-eyed.

“Why would you do such a thing?”

He bursts into odd laughter that makes me a chill run up my back. “Listen to you, acting all innocent.” He slaps his thighs. “You talk to me like I’m some kind of psycho, like I run around killing people every goddamn day. I always do things for a reason, Adriana. The cop was a necessity. He knew too much and it was his time to go. My mother was an accident, but that bitch had it coming for years.”

Jesus.

He’s nuts.

That cold, hateful look is back on his face. The one that makes me doubt that he was ever human.

“She did abuse you. You told me how much she scared you as a kid.”

Carmine stands up and sits down next to me on the couch. He leans his head back and murmurs. “Sometimes, I wonder what I would’ve been like if my dad raised me.” He opens his eyes and turns his body towards me. “Adriana, I know I’m fucked up.”

My lips part as he looks at me, his eyes fractured with pain. I don’t say anything.

“You would understand if you knew what I went through as a child, but I’m trying to be better.”

Please don’t come any closer to me.

He watches me for a moment, waiting for me to say something-to tell him that it’s okay, and that I trust him. It’s not okay. I don’t trust him.

I nod my head and he looks away, relieved.

“Tony is going to come after me. And that fucking asshole. When they do, I’ll be fucking ready. They’ll be the last casualties before we start our new life.”

He caresses the side of my face as my mind goes blank with terror.

“What do you mean, ‘new life?'” My skin grows hot when he smiles.

“I’m taking us out of this shit hole.”

What?

“-But my life is here. My school. Everyone I’ve ever known. I can’t leave.”

“Yes, you can.”

“You can’t leave, either. You’re in a-you can just leave, Carmine.”

He smiles crookedly. “Well, if they want to kill me, they can try.” Carmine grunts as he stands up, pacing up and down the room. “Fuck Tony and his bullshit. After I do him, we’ll leave this place. We’ll just drive somewhere far away where nobody knows us. I have lots of cash in this place that we could live off for a long time.”

“Carmine,” I say in a louder voice. “I’m not in lov-” I stop at the look on his face.

He stands up and I can feel the heat emanating from his figure. “You don’t, but you will.” Carmine reaches inside his jacket, pulling out a gun. “I can wait for as long as it takes.”

Fuck.

My fists ball at my sides. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”

Carmine gazes down at me, bewildered by my stubbornness. “Do you realize what I’ve fucking done for you? I betrayed the Rizzos so that I could be with you. Because I love you, and you’re the only person who can make me into a better man. I’m sorry for everything I’ve done to you-everything with your family. Why can’t you just fucking see that?”

What the fuck is he talking about?

The gun waves in his hand and I duck out of its sight, scrambling off the couch to hide from him. His loud footsteps corner me against the wall and I let out an ear-splitting scream as his gun wavers near my head.

CRACK!

The front door blasts open and Carmine slams into the wall, his arm outstretched. I throw myself on the floor as holes the size of craters explode near Carmine’s head.

“Motherfucker!”

I can’t see anything in the house from the floor, can’t hear anything but my own screams. What the fuck is happening? Who is shooting us? On my hands and knees, I crawl behind the sofa. I rest my back against the couch and flinch horribly at the sounds of them exchanging gunfire. Picture frames shatter and cheap plaster blows from the walls like chunks of white confetti. I inch my head above the sofa and see Carmine pinned against the wall, shooting at the open door.

Suddenly a hand lands on my shoulder and I scream. Carmine wheels around with his gun and I raise my hands. An explosion bursts my ears and the body behind me crashes into the floor with a thud. I look at him.

A dark-haired man whose face I know very well is screwed up in pain, a dark hole burning through his shoulder. His gun lies on the floor next to his hand.

“Fuck,” he mouths.

“Vince!”

No, no, NO!

I swallow his wound with my hands. The blood pools around it immediately, staining my hands. A rough hand grabs my shoulder and shoves me aside. Carmine aims his gun.

“NO!”

I tackle his legs with every bit of strength inside me and he stumbles backwards. Then I position myself over Vince’s body and Carmine looks at me with poison in his eyes.

I will not let him die. I will not.

“Carmine, I love him. Please don’t-please don’t kill him.”

His face twists in fury. “I fucking saw you first!” he screams. “I knew you. I knew your mother.”

Behind me, Vince sits up against the couch and tries to push me aside. His fingers still brush over the gun, but Carmine is so upset that he’s completely forgotten about it.

“What-what are you talking about?”

Vince leans forward, I feel him against my back. “He killed your father. He collected payments-”

A hole explodes into the sofa right next to his head, missing him by inches.

“Shut the fuck up.” His face is red, strained, but he doesn’t deny what Vincent said.

The man in my nightmares who dragged his knife across Dad’s throat is him? Carmine? I don’t believe it.

“I don’t believe it.”

He looks at me with the same tortured look he gave me when he told me about killing his mother. “It was a mistake, Adriana. I was in love with your mom. I just wanted us to be together.”

It’s absurd. I can’t believe it. My father died because some lunatic thought he could have my mother.

“You were in love with my mom?”

“She-she was always nice to me when I went over there. I was a boy, and I made a terrible mistake-”

“You killed him!” I scream suddenly. “That wasn’t a fucking mistake! You selfish, piece of shit. You ruined my life!”

Remorse fills his face until Vincent groans painfully and then rage thickens his features. He shoves me to the side as he buries his gun against Vince’s forehead.

“It’s all your fucking fault. Why can’t you just fucking go away? I gave you up to the fucking cops, and you’re still here. How?”

Vince looks at Carmine square in the eye. “You don’t want to kill me. You want Tony. He set you up.”

A forced grin stretches his face. He nudges the gun. “Go ahead. Spin your little fairy tale.”

I force myself to remain calm. When I look at Carmine, I’m filled with disgust.Content property of NôvelDra/ma.Org.

“It’s true, Carmine. He forced me to end my engagement to Vince to get closer to you because they knew all along that you were talking to law enforcement. They wanted me to find proof.”

An anguished look spreads over Carmine’s lined face as he steps back, looking from me to Vince as if to catch us in a lie.

“I didn’t find out until recently, but Tony told me himself. He’s the one who has been jerking us all around for months. He needs to die.”

Vince makes a face and I turn towards him. His entire sleeve is soaked with blood and I press down on the wound.

I kissed my father’s murderer and actually liked him in the beginning. I hate myself.

“How could you do this to me?”

The tone of betrayal in his voice makes me angry. A throb of rage combines with the grief I still feel over my dad.

“You killed my dad. We’re even.”

Carmine chokes and momentarily lifts his gun as he grabs the sides of his head, looking deranged. “I can’t believe this.” Then he points the gun at us shakily. “You both should die.”

“I had no choice. Please let us go!”

“Do you love him?”

I freeze beside Vince, acutely aware of the gun pointed to my chest. I grasp Vince’s hand and my eyes squint, waiting for the explosion-for sudden death. For some reason, my brain has calmly accepted this.

“Yes, I do.”

The anguish on his face makes me feel a little guilty. He looks down at his feet for a moment and a spasm of energy moves through his body. He raises his gun and aims it at Vince, who scrabbles for handle of his. Vince shoves me aside when I move my body over his, and another horrible crack splits the air. Vince falls on his side and I see smoke spiraling from Carmine’s gun.

Crack. Crack.

Vince fires from the floor at an angle and Carmine screams as it cuts into the side of his face. He dives into the kitchen as gunshots blast from Vince’s gun and then I hear the sound of a screen door opening and rapid footsteps.

Then I hear nothing but the sound of Vincent’s haggard breaths, and the ticking of the grandfather clock.

From the moonlight in the kitchen, a pool of darkness spills around Vince’s body, which remains so still that if it weren’t for the sound of his breaths, I would think he was dead. Then his eyes-his beautiful, dark eyes that I love so much, slowly close.