My gaze caught on someone walking down the hall through the crack of the door. Black suit. Broad shoulders. Straight lines. My heart cooled before icing over. His gaze was lowered as his hands twisted a silencer onto the barrel of a gun.
My throat tightened, and panic bit at my veins.
He looked up. His eyes were cold enough to give me frostbite.
“No,” I breathed.
But it was too late.
He pushed the door open, and his lazy, heartless gaze found Charming. A muffled pop hit my ears. Blood splattered across the counter and cupboards. White powder dusted into the air as Charming hit the floor, cloudy blue eyes wide open, a bullet hole in his forehead.
Bile rose in my throat, and I hunched over, covering my mouth.
I looked at the door to see a stare of dark indifference as Allister twisted the silencer off and put it in his pocket.
His apathy filled me with an anger so deep I saw red.
“Figlio di puttana!” I spat. You son of a bitch.
As he turned to the door, cold panic flared in my chest.
“Wait,” I pleaded. “Please don’t leave me with this! Allister!”
He didn’t even look back.
“Ace . . . he’s dead.” My hand shook around the burner phone I was supposed to use for issues like this. “Really dead.”
“Who?”
“Charming,” I mumbled, eyeing the body on the floor. I wasn’t making any sense, but the blood was about to soak into my area rug.
“Where are you?”
“My apartment.”
“Jesus,” he muttered. “What the fuck did you do?”
I paced the living room. “I didn’t do anything! Allister shot him and then just left!”
A long pause. “For fuck’s sake.”
“There’s blood all over my kitchen,” I whined. I heard Nico talking to someone, and while he did, the blood reached my vintage area rug. “I’m going to kill him,” I admitted calmly.
“You’re going to tell him thank you, and then shut your damn mouth.”
“I’d rather throw myself from my balcony.”
“If you fuck my relationship with Allister, Gianna . . .”
I frowned. “What do you mean? I thought he was just one of your men?”
He laughed. “He’s his own man. It took my father a long time to convince him to work with us, and if you’ve fucked it up I’m gonna strangle the shit out of you.”
Oh. No wonder Allister always looked at me like I was simple-minded when I’d talk to him like he was the help. I swallowed. “I’m one measly girl. What could I have done to ruin your relations with the dirty fed?”
He grunted. “You’re only ‘measly’ when it’s convenient to you. Do not go anywhere. Do you understand me?”
“But his eyes are open—”