“The dumbass tried turning himself in. He was trying to trade your safety for his life. Stupid idiot almost ruined everything. He was lucky I have an assassin that does contract work.”
I gasped. Nix tried turning himself in? Why on earth would he do that? I clutched my chest. My heart was pounding hard at this revelation. “So he’s not dead?” I asked.
“Not yet, at least,” Sunshine answered.
“Holy shit,” I murmured.
Sunshine smiled before leaning against the wall. "The Ringleaders are very powerful."
"Not as powerful as me," Gavriel growled.
Sunshine gave him a tight smile before nodding. "You're still the best crime boss, Sir," she placated him. Of course my brother would be on an ego trip about this. "But we have more to lose, now," she whispered before patting her stomach affectionately.
"Baby Moretti," I cooed.
"Baby Moretti," she echoed. "It isn't just the Ringleaders. It's everyone that the Bullets have ever pissed off. We realized that we were bringing this baby into a world where it has hundreds of powerful enemies. We figured the only way out is...death… I don’t want this baby to be scared. I want to be a good mom. I want to protect him or her from the world. We can’t do that while running the Bullet empire. It was a hard but necessary choice. The Ringleaders just pushed up the timeline a bit."
"You faked your death?" I asked incredulously. "You purposely crashed a plane that everyone thought you were on?"
"It was a borrowed plane. I found a Ringleader that charters his private fleet. An eye for an eye. Or a private jet for a private jet, in this case. I also might have found some rapists and murderers to put on the plane for more evidence. The bodies were incinerated, so they were impossible to identify, but the flight log helped our case. I have a man on the inside. The Ringleaders are convinced. We are done."
"Diabolical," I replied in awe.
"Yep. And since it was a Ringleader who owned the plane, they're even more convinced that we are dead," Sunshine added.
"We had to make it look very real," Gavriel replied. "I'm sorry we...worried you."
I scoffed. "I've been crying my eyes out all day. Ugly crying. Nix is...oh shit. Nix left. He's gone, we have to..."
"We know where Nix is. We have it covered," Sunshine replied. There was a bite in her tone I didn't understand. "Self-sacrificing asshole. I hope Hunter made him suffer."
A knock on the door stopped me from asking about a bazillion questions. "Baby, are we ready to go? Also, have you taken your prenatal today?" Callum Mercer stood at the door with his blond hair slicked back and a hand on his hip.
"Yes. I already took it. We're almost ready."
"I gotta piss," another voice, Blaise, said. He walked through the door with his cocky swagger and gave me a small wave. "Hey, Grace. Glad you're alive and shit." He walked through the room to the bathroom and shut the door. Well, hello to you too.
A horn honked. Ryker. "Let's go! Hunter said he would meet us in an hour. I don't want to be late," he shouted. “And Sunshine needs to rest! Are you hungry?”
“I’m fine!” Sunshine called back with a small smile.
The whole gang was here. Who the fuck was Hunter?
"This is insane," I whispered.
"We have a safe house to get to," Gavriel gritted while dragging a finger across the dusty nightstand. "The world thinks we're dead. I have cash stockpiled in offshore accounts. It took a few days to coordinate everything, but now we are free to live our lives. Maybe in a decade or so, we can go back to New York—once everyone has forgotten the Moretti reign. I want my child to experience the city."
"No one could possibly forget you, Sir," Sunshine said, affection warming her tone as she smiled at him. The toilet flushed in the bathroom.
"We'll raise our baby in peace. Keep to small towns until everything blows over. At least until the baby is ten or so. I have quite a few properties scattered across the globe in my new identity’s name. The Ringleaders won't be an issue anymore. Especially since they lost their best hacker. Not to mention, I now have a few people on the inside. Sometimes the best way to win a fight is to not fight at all. We're walking away."
To say I was shocked would be an understatement. Gavriel Moretti had turned his back on his empire. Everything he’d ever worked for. Babies really did change everything.
Blaise emerged from the bathroom and stalked over to Sunshine. "I love old motel rooms," he said in a low voice. "Reminds me of the first time we had sex. Remember that, Sunshine?"
Sunshine blushed. "How could I forget?" she asked. "Let's go meet Hunter. I need to kill my best friend."
Gavriel smiled. "That's my girl."
Chapter Twenty-One
Nix
"You dumbass," Sunshine said.
I woke up cotton-mouthed and hollow, the light of day stabbing my eyes with its promise of tomorrow and hope. Was this what dying felt like? I felt a palm against my cheek. "Sunshine?" I croaked. It felt wrong to want to see her, like I didn't deserve an afterlife where my best friend existed.
Had I really lost myself in this madness?
"Open your eyes and stop being a pussy. It was just a little tranquilizer. Nothing crazy."
Just a little tranquilizer? What the fuck?
My eyes felt heavy, like someone was sitting on the lids and keeping them closed. My body was exhausted and slow-moving. "Where am I?"
"Hell," a gruff voice teased as I blinked. Sunshine handed me a pair of glasses, and the moment they were on, the room came into focus. How she managed to find me a pair was a mystery. We were in a brightly lit hotel room with tall windows overlooking the ocean. White curtains were blowing in the breeze, and my best friend looked like an angel sitting there
