Nina says my name, and I rejoice and about die at the same time.

She is saving me.

But she’s just killed my brother.

I don’t know whether to love her or kill her.

But I don’t have time to think about that. I look at Enrico, who has a shocked expression on his face. He was expecting her to choose death rather than choose one of us to kill. But, now that she’s chosen, it’s only a matter of seconds before he follows through.

He turns, aiming the gun at Arlo.

Arlo takes a deep breath.

“No!” I scream, trying to stop him, running toward Arlo.

I hear the pop of the gun and watch as Arlo moves, trying to avoid the bullet, but he doesn’t move far enough. It hits him square in the chest. I continue running to him as he falls to the ground.

Nina screams, sobbing behind me, but I don’t turn to look at her. I’ll deal with her later. Right now, all I can think about is Arlo.

I get to him in seconds, immediately applying pressure to his wound to try to stop the bleeding.

“Just hold on, Arlo. You’re going to be okay,” I say, not really believing my own words. Of all the times Arlo has been shot, this is the least safe I have felt when saying those words. Not just because his wound is in one of the worst places for it to be, but also because, at any second, Enrico could shoot him again.

Arlo winces as he tries to move.

“Relax. Just stay still, and let me take care of you.”

He closes his eyes and then opens them. “You…”

“Shh, just rest.”

“You have power now,” Arlo barely gets out.

It takes me a second to realize what Arlo is saying. But he’s right. I have power now. Nina gave it to me the second she saved me.

“Move aside, Matteo. If he’s not dead already, I need to finish the job,” Enrico says as he walks toward me.

I stand slowly, putting my body between Enrico and Arlo. “No.”

“You don’t get to tell me no. Now, move,” Enrico says.

“No, you don’t have any power anymore. I have all the power. Nina chose me. Now, back off.”

Enrico glares at me while holding the gun, aiming it at my heart.

Instantly, the men in the room all aim their guns at Enrico. They are my men now, and they will protect me without me having to say a word. Even from their old master.

Enrico lowers the gun and takes a step back. I exhale. I have power. Now, I just have to get Arlo to a hospital, and he’ll survive.

But, before I can give the order for my men to transport him to a hospital as fast as they can, shots ring out.

They stop almost as fast as they started. But, when the smoke clears, it’s easy to determine what happened. Enrico shot Nina, and my men shot Enrico. My heart drops when I see them both lying on the floor. Both possibly dead in a second.

I walk past Enrico. I will deal with whatever is left of him later. It hurts to walk past him. He was, after all, my father. But I have two more important people that I need to ensure stay alive.

I run to Nina. He shot her in her already damaged leg, but it was enough to knock her unconscious and make her breathing weak. She won’t survive much longer without immediate help.

“Get Nina and Arlo to the hospital. Now,” I give the command and watch as the men immediately break into two groups, one group going to each of them.

I walk back to Arlo, mainly because he’s awake and I’m not sure how I feel about Nina at the moment. I still love her, but right now, she’s pissed me off for making such a stupid decision.

“No…” Arlo croaks.

“Shh, I don’t know what your deal is with going to the hospital, but you are going whether you like it or not. You need to be in surgery. I can’t save you.”

Arlo shakes his head. “Nina. Make sure she’s safe.”

I smile at my brother. Always the martyr. “I’ll protect her to the ends of the earth. She’s safe. Always,” I say, keeping the same promise I made to Arlo when he came to me almost seven years ago.

* * *

“You are the worst patient ever, you know that?” I say to Arlo as he tries to climb out of bed for the hundredth time this week.

“I don’t give a shit. I need to see her,” he says as he stumbles out of bed, probably popping his stitches in the process.

I grab hold of him to keep him from falling. “Fine. I’ll take you to her if you let me push you in a wheelchair.”

He grumbles.

“It’s not like you have a choice, not in your state, and even if you were healthy, I have the power now. I have dozens of men who will keep you in this bed forever if I told them to,” I joke.

He glares at me, not appreciating my joke.

I sigh and go get the wheelchair. I help him into it before wheeling him down the hallway toward Nina’s room. I’m not sure why he wants to see her so badly anyway. She’s not awake yet.

That was a stupid thought. I know exactly why he wants to see her. The same reason I’ve spent all of my time split between both of their rooms. Because he loves her as much as I do.

I open her door and wheel him over to her bedside while I go around and sit on the other side of her bed. We each hold on to her hand, both willing her to wake up. To survive. We didn’t go through all of this mess, only for her to die.

We sit like this as the minutes tick on. Neither of us speaks out loud, silently begging her to wake up.

Her eyes open. And she smiles, squeezing both of our hands.

Arlo and I exhale, relieved that she is awake.

“How do you feel?” I ask.

“Like I just got hit by a car, a train, and an airplane, all at the same time,” she says.

“I will have the nurse increase your pain medications.”

She nods.

But that’s all any of us says as more minutes pass. None of us can find the right words for this situation. There are no right words. Only wrong ones.

“So, who do you want? Me or my brother?” I tease, although I’m not really teasing. I need her to choose one of us. I need her to choose me. Controlling the Carini empire means nothing to me without her by my side.

I expect her to smile, like she always does. She knows that I made a joke to try to lighten the mood, but she doesn’t smile. Her eyes go back and forth between both of us.

“I want to go home.”

My heart sinks. That was the one answer I wasn’t expecting. I wanted her to choose me. But I don’t understand her choice.

“I thought you saved me because you…” I can’t finish.

“Because you thought I loved you more?” Nina finishes for me.

I nod.

She closes her eyes a second as a wave of pain hits her.

“I saved myself. That’s all it was. I didn’t want either of you to die. But it ultimately wasn’t about either of you. I chose one of you to save and one to die because I had to save myself. Arlo had been shot the most, and I felt he had the best chance of surviving.”

My eyes widen. My heart has just been ripped from my body. I thought she loved me. How stupid was I?

I look across to Arlo, who seems just as hurt. Not surprised. Just in pain.

She really did play us all.

“Of course,” Arlo finally answers for us because I’m too angry to say anything. “As soon as you are well enough to fly, we will have you on the first flight home. But you do need to know that, when you leave here, you aren’t safe. You need to hire the best protection you can.”

“What do you mean, I’m not safe?” Nina asks.

Arlo sighs. “We think Enrico survived. We think some of the guards were still sympathetic toward their old master and saved him. It’s also possible that Erick and Clive want you. Not as likely, but they aren’t happy that we took you from them. If they realize that we let you go, they might come after you. Or any number of our enemies. Promise me that you will protect yourself.”

“I promise,” Nina says.

Arlo drops her hand and begins to wheel himself out of the room. I follow, not even able to look at Nina right now.

When I get to the hallway though, I explode. “We are not going to just fucking let her go. Not after everything we went through!”

“Yes, we are,” Arlo says.

“Like hell we are! She almost killed you. And she played both of us to save herself. She…” I can’t even finish.

“We are letting her go.”

I glare at him. “You aren’t the boss. I am. You can thank that stupid little cunt in there for that.”

“She ripped out my heart, too, but keeping her would make us as bad as Enrico. We aren’t the best people in the world, but we are better than him.” He pauses. “But, ultimately, that decision is up to you.”

I look at him with a raised eyebrow. “So, you are going to respect that I am the new head of the family?”

He nods. “Do I still have a job, working for you, or do I need to find employment elsewhere?”

I smile as Arlo and I shake on our new arrangement. I turn my attention toward my heartache in the hospital bed on the other side of the door. I don’t want to keep being a monster, so I’ll let her go. But I feel my heart harden as I think about Nina. My heart closes off a little more to the world.

My father used to always say that my mother betraying him was what he needed to become the leader that he was. He needed that heartbreak to become a stronger, more powerful leader. And I think, for the first time, that he might be right.