The Muscle Part Three by Michelle St. James Page A

shaking, and he smoothed her hair back from her head and looked into the eyes that were so like Isabel’s. He kissed her forehead. “It’s okay, I promise. Isabel is right outside. I’m not going to let anything happen to you. You’re safe now.” He put her arms around his neck so he would have a free hand. “Hang on.”
    He moved cautiously toward the door, Sofia in one hand, his weapon in the other.
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    I sabel stood behind the bushes in front of the house. She said she’d stay in the car, and she had until the gunfire stopped. She thought it was over, and she wanted to be the first person Sofia saw when she emerged from the house.
    But then a man stumbled out one of the windows, his arm bleeding profusely. She didn’t have time to move before he barreled into her. They went down in a tangle of limbs, and her gun went flying onto the lawn. The big arms around her held her immobile, and she instinctively kicked and thrashed, her body going into fight mode, remembering the last time she’d been made immobile by a man.
    “Stop it, punta, ” Eduardo said in her ear, “or I’ll have to kill you on my way out.”
    She spotted her gun on the lawn, and stopped moving, her mind trying to work out a way she might get to it. He dragged her back toward the bushes just as Farrell emerged from the house.
    “Stop moving,” Eduardo called out, his voice shaking. “I’ll kill her.”
    She felt the cold butt of his gun press into her skull. She thought Farrell might stop, or at least slow down, try to negotiate with Eduardo. Instead he kept walking toward them, stalking them like an animal not the least bit afraid of an adversary that was no match for it. Everything seemed to slow down as he raised his weapon. It seemed like minutes before she heard the blast of his gun, as she waited to feel Eduardo’s bullet enter her skull, but it must have been only seconds.
    The pressure around her released all at once, something warm and sticky spraying the back of her head. She was paralyzed, unable to even look behind her to see what had happened. A moment later, Farrell was lifting her off the ground, steadying her as she stood on shaky legs. When she looked back at Eduardo, she saw him sprawled in the bushes, blood seeping from a round wound right in the center of his forehead.
    In the distance, sirens wailed, but when she turned around to face the house, she saw Luca emerge with something in his arms. Everything else fell away as she rushed toward him, her heart squeezing painfully in her chest.
    The bundle in his arms was immobile, her face hidden against Luca’s big chest. Tears were streaming down Isabel’s face when she finally reached them, turning Sofia’s face toward her, praying to any god who would listen that she was alive.
    Her heart stopped when she saw that Sofia’s eyes were closed, her face pale and thin. But then her lashes fluttered, and she opened her eyes, her gaze coming to rest on Isabel. A second later, a small smile touched her lips. Then her tears fell.
    “Isa?”
    A sob wrenched free from Isabel’s lips and she wrapped her arms around her sister and the man she loved, both of them safe.
    Both of them safe.

22
    “ C an we get hot cocoa and watch the ice skaters, Isa?”
    Isabel looked down at Sofia and took her hand as they left FAO Schwarz. They rarely bought anything, but it was one of Sofia’s favorite places in the city, and she and Isabel had passed many happy hours within its magical walls since coming to New York in August.
    “Of course,” Isabel said, leading her toward the park. “Button your coat, though. It’s cold.”
    It was November now, and she was still getting used to the bite in the air. She breathed in the scent of the city — the cold, the smell of hot metal rising from the subway, the sweet nuts roasting in carts along the sidewalk. It was about as far from Miami as she could get in every way. She loved the noise and chaos, the way everyone walked everywhere and the way