Indebted to the Mafia King
I Love You

Eleni

The world slows around me. Gravel crunches under my bare feet. Oh, god, how has this happened? Everything hurts as I sprint across the warehouse parking lot to where Dante fell.

Gouts of crimson blood stains the rocks in front of him. My heart hammers, drowning out voices and gunfire and anything else. I drop to my knees and skid the rest of the distance, barely noticing the pain as my skin shreds. His eyelids flutter. Not dead. Yet.

"Eleni." He reaches for me with a weak smile.

My heart is in my throat. I run my hands over his chest, not bothering to be careful, until I find a patch of his suit soaked through with blood. Right in the middle of his chest. Tears fill my eyes, magnifying the shine on something a bit behind him.

His gun.

Luca begins laughing. "Looks like we've got more than one night to enjoy, Ellie."

My feet move before I know what's going on. All I know is that Luca has taken too much from me. I'm tired of hiding, of waiting, of preparing. I snatch Dante's gun out of the gravel.

Finger on the trigger. Roll it back. I have never wanted someone dead more than Luca Lombardi. The gun, still warm from Dante's hands, jumps, and Luca falls. Tears stream down my cheeks. I pull the trigger again and again, but it only clicks. Dante had one bullet left.

Someone puts a hand on my shoulder, and I jump. It's just Tony. He looks at me with nothing but worry in his eyes.

"Seb's calling Domino," he says.

Dante. I toss the gun aside. Having Luca dead doesn't mean anything to me when Dante's bleeding out. My weeks of hunting revenge fizzle away as I scramble back to Dante's side.

"El," he mumbles.

"I'm here." I take his blood-soaked hand and clutch it to my chest.

"It was a small-caliber bullet," Tony says. "That's good news."

I can barely listen to him. Every sense I have attunes to Dante, the rasp of his breathing and the tremble of his hand in mine.

"This is why I wear black," he says.

I force myself to smile through my tears. "Why?"

"So no one can see the blo" He coughs as Tony leans on his chest.

"What are you doing?" I yell at Tony. "Get off!"

"You want him dead?" There's no humor in Tony's face. "I'll get off if you want him dead."

The words land like stones between us. Dead. Dante is dying. He'll die if we don't move fast enough. Oh, god. The smell of blood surrounds me, and it's like I'm in the apartment again, realizing Baba is dead because I landed in his blood on the carpet. I press a hand to my mouth. I can't lose Dante. Luca can't take someone else I love from me.

"I love you," I gasp before I can lose my nerve. He has to hear it if... if this is my last chance.

I don't know what to expect. Another smile, maybe. A feeble kiss. Maybe even a snarky look from Tony to undercut the moment.

What I don't expect is for Dante to go pale and whisper, "Don't say that."

"What?" I ask.

He shakes his head. "Don't-you can't-"

I cup his face. "I do. I love you. Tell me what's going on."

He closes his eyes like he's gathering strength for something. Seb skids up, sending gravel flying.

"Domino's too far out. He's sending a colleague."

Tony nods. I don't look away from Dante. Finally, he opens his dark eyes again.

"Luca wasn't wrong," Dante says.

My stomach sinks. He's delirious and we're losing him.

"Listen-" He coughs again, and I watch droplets of blood spatter out of his mouth, onto Tony's sleeve. Whatever he has to say now, it's fine. I love him. There's nothing he can say to stop that.

"I know what happened to Christos," he says finally.

I squeeze his hand. "We can talk about this later."

If there is a later. A life I didn't realize I'd dreamed up for us flashes before my eyes. Dante and I gathering Mama from Greece, installing her in the house on Staten Island with us. She'd open her own restaurant out there, though she'd have to get new help. I'd design her new website and finish getting my degree while working side-by-side with Dante to run New York City better than Frank Lombardi could've ever dreamed. We'd put Baba and Christos to rest, for real, and start to heal as much as we could. Maybe we'd even bury them alongside Dante's parents so Baba could meet them in the hereafter.

Dante squeezes back, a hollow ghost of his normal strength, and I snap back into the moment.

"You're not listening," he says. "El, Christos ran with the Lombardis."

I shake my head. "Mama thought he might've started hanging out with them, but he wasn't actually a member of their organization. He wouldn't have."

"He did." Dante groans. "And... and I hate the Lombardis."

I frown. None of this makes any sense. What is he saying? Why is he wasting our last moments talking about this?

Tony shakes his head. "You shouldn't do this now. She loves you, you're going to live. Let that be enough."

"Can't have it both ways." Dante smiles weakly. "I hunted down a group of their soldiers. Tortured them for information, killed them."

That's his job. I don't understand.

"I killed Christos."

I lean back, the world going slow again. A car pulls up with a spray of gravel, and a woman with a doctor's bag climbs out. Tony seems to explain the situation, then climbs off of Dante. I am pushed back-pulled back by someone. Warm hands. I don't know who. Dante killed Christos? That's just not-I mean, it can't-I can't have

My pulse roars in my ears. The doctor crouches over Dante, doing something. Everyone looks severe. I just keep staring at Dante as his eyes flutter closed. He killed Christos.

It turns out he could say something that might stop me from loving him.