I almost made it to the table. Six more steps. That was all I needed. My name is Claire Dawson. I was twenty-eight, worked as a housemaid in Luca Moretti’s Chicago

The smell of gunpowder filled the narrow street.

Luca grunted sharply, his body jerking backward, but he didn't fall.

Before Vanessa could rack the slide to fire a second time, Marcus lunged across the pavement, tackling her violently to the ground. The revolver clattered across the asphalt, and Marcus pinned her wrists behind her back, locking handcuffs around them as sirens began to wail in the distance.

"Luca!" Claire screamed, her voice cracking with terror.

She caught him as he stumbled against the side of the sedan. Dark red blood was already soaking rapidly through the front of his beige overcoat, right below his left shoulder.

"I'm fine..." Luca rasped, his jaw tight with pain, but his eyes were fixed entirely on her face. "Are you hit? Claire, look at me, are you hurt?"

"No! No, I'm fine! You took the bullet for me!" Claire wept hysterically, pressing both of her hands tightly over the bleeding wound on his chest. "Hold on! Please, Luca, stay with me!"

Marcus rushed over, helping lift Luca into the back seat of the sedan. "Drive!" Marcus roared to the chauffeur. "To Chicago Memorial! Emergency entrance!"

The sedan tore down the avenue, tires screeching, running every red light with its emergency sirens blaring.

In the back seat, Claire sat on the leather floorboards, holding Luca's head in her lap, her hands drenched in his blood as she pressed a leather cushion firmly against his chest.

Luca’s face was growing pale, his breathing short and shallow, but his dark eyes never left her hazel ones.

He raised a blood-stained hand, his fingers gently brushing against her jawline.

"I promised you..." Luca whispered weakly, a faint, breathless smile touching his lips. "No one in this city... would ever hurt you again."

"Don't talk like that!" Claire sobbed, pressing her forehead against his. "Don't you dare die on me, Luca Moretti! Do you hear me?! I survived Vanessa, I survived Julian, and I am not letting you leave me now!"

Luca let out a soft, breathy chuckle, his eyes flickering under the heavy burden of blood loss. "You really... have a terrible bedside manner, Claire..."