"Co on." I stand carefully and offer him my hand. "Bedroom. You need rest."
"I’m fine."
"You’re bleeding through your bandages." I point to the red seeping through the white gauze. "Bedroom. Now."
He lets help him up, which tells just how much pain he’s in. Tony doesn’t take help from anyone unless he has no other option.
We move up the stairs gingerly. Every step makes him flinch, though he tries to hide it. In the bedroom, it takes a little effort to help him lie down there. I turn him half-reclined using pillows.
The dical supplies Dr. Zhang has left behind are my charge. I pull the desk chair close, start carefully peeling back the blood-soaked bandages.
The wound was beginning to look inflad. Stitches hold torn flesh together. Evidence of how close I ca to losing him.
My hands begin to shake again.
"Katherine." Tony’s hand covered mine. "I’m okay."
"You got shot." My voice breaks. "He was aiming at and you just–you moved–"
"Of course I moved." His grip on my hand tightens. "You think I’d let him shoot you? That I’d choose anything over keeping you safe?"
"You could have died." The tears flow now, hot and fast. "Tony, you could have died trying to save ."
"But I didn’t."
He pulls closer, cautious of his injury, until I’m sitting at the edge of the bed. "I’m right here. Alive. With you."
"This ti." The words erupted from . "You were quick enough this ti. Next ti-"
"There won’t be a next ti."
"You can’t promise that." I’m crying harder now, the delayed shock finally hitting. "Vincent pointed a gun at . Your own head of security betrayed you. If there’s soone above Angelo, soone we don’t even know about, then who else might-"
"Hey."
Tony’s hands cup my face as he makes look at him. "Look at . Right here. Focus."
I try. His green eyes, usually so controlled, are raw with emotion.
"I thought I was getting used to this," I whisper. "The violence. The danger. The constant threats. But I’m not. Tony, I’m not getting used to watching people try to kill you. Kill us."
"I know." His thumbs wipe away the tears. "You shouldn’t have to get used to it."
"Then what do we do?"
"We can stop." I knew the words cost him to admit. "Walk away. I’ll leave the family, we’ll disappear. Change nas, move sowhere remote, start over."
I looked at him. "You’d do that? Give up everything?"
"For you?" His smile is sad. "Without hesitation. Katherine, you’re everything. The family, the business, all of it, an nothing without you."
The offer is genuine. This I see in his eyes and hear in his voice. Tony Marvin, feared mafia heir, will walk away from his world because of .
"And spend our lives looking over our shoulders?" I whisper. "Running from the shadows? Always wondering who Vincent, Angelo, and this faceless man ’M’ will turn up next?"
His jaw clenches because he realizes that I’m right.
"There’s only one way forward," I repeat. "We end the threats once and for all. Track down who’s actually in charge and bring them down."
"Running just delays the inevitable." I lean my forehead against his. "We fight, or we live the rest of our lives in fear."
"You’re sure?" His hands slide to my waist and lodge there. "Because once we do this, there’s no turning back. It gets more dangerous before it gets safer."
"I’m sure." And I am. Terrified but sure. "We end this. Together."
"Together," he repeats.
I finish cleaning the wound and dress him with trembling hands. The antiseptic sll fills the room. anwhile, Tony’s muscular fra is tense with pain and exhaustion.
When I’m finished, I help him lie back correctly and position pillows so he’s comfortable. He watches as I move through the room, turning off the lights and the curtains to create the most secure environnt possible.
I climb in beside him and carefully get in next to him to avoid hurting him on the side. He automatically puts his arm around and pulls against his uninjured side. My head presses against his chest, listening to the thud of the heartbeat beneath my cheek: strong and steady and thriving.
"You see, when Vincent pointed that gun at you," Tony whispers through the darkness, "I saw my whole future just disappear. All the things that I want, that I am, everything I could be - gone in a second."
My hand spreads across his chest to feel his heartbeat pounding against my skin.
"I’m here. We’re both here," I say.
"I know." His lips press against my hair. "But in that instant, I saw a world without you in it. And Katherine, it was empty. aningless. A world of only violence and darkness without light."
I turn my face up and kiss him. The kiss was tender, cautious. Reaffirmation of life after almost death. His hand cradles my face, thumb ridged against my cheekbone. When we break apart, our faces are wet.
"No more close calls," I whisper.
"I’ll do my best."
He pulls closer. "Sleep. We both need rest."
I move against him, careful about the bandages, grateful for the warmth of him, the rhythms of his breathing, the hard truth of his existence.
His breathing stabilizes eventually. Sleep overtakes him despite the pain.
I’m drifting off when the phone buzzes beside him on the nightstand. 3:17 AM the clock reads.
Tony doesn’t move; apparently, the pain dication Dr. Zhang administered has worked.
I carefully reach across him and grab his phone. A text ssage from an unknown number.
My blood runs cold as I read it.
Vincent was telling the truth. Angelo reported to . Two decades in New York. You know , Anthony. Your father does too. In fact, your father has been employed under since before you were born. Proof? Ask Thomas about the elimination of the Ramírez family. Who truly issued the order? Who truly took out your mother?
-M
The phone slips from my nerveless hands.
Thomas has been employed at M before Tony was born. Before his mother died. Which ans everything - the Ramírez elimination, the revenge arc, Tony’s childhood - has been based on a lie.
And M realizes that we’re there. In this house. Right now. That Tony’s hurt. That we’re sitting ducks.
I watch Tony sleeping beside , so serene in the face of what’s happening. Tomorrow I’ll have to show him this ssage. Tomorrow, his entire understanding of his father, his family, and his past will shatter.
However, tonight, I hold him in my arms and hope that whatever the future might bring, we can survive it.
Because the person who really controls this city has just announced their existence.
And they’ve been observing us the entire ti.
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