Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 84446 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 422(@200wpm)___ 338(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84446 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 422(@200wpm)___ 338(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
There was steel under all that soft and sweet.
With that, she squeezed her eyes shut, and let me lead her through the room.
“Make sure you grab the phones,” I told Cinna, getting a nod from her. “You, with me,” I said to Cage, who fell into step behind Lore as we moved into the garage. “Okay, you can open,” I said, but felt her pull to a stop. “What is it?” I asked, finding her gaze on the car crashed into the garage door.
“I did that,” she admitted. “I locked myself in. Which pissed them off,” she said with a ghost of a smile on her lips. Proud of herself. As she should be. “And the driver was close enough that I thought the fob might let me turn it back on. So I did… and did that.”
“That’s what happened to your face?” I asked. “The airbag?”
“Yeah,” she said, nodding. “Think I might have a little whiplash from it,” she admitted, reaching up to rub the back of her neck.
“We’re gonna take care of you,” I assured her, pulling her close to press a quick kiss to her lips. “Fucking proud of you, mouse,” I said, watching the pleasure spread across her face. “Now, let’s get the fuck out of here.”
Cage drove us home in silence, lucking out on a parking spot near the apartment, and followed us up to take Elian’s space outside of the door. But this time, I had men stationed outside of the building as well. No one was getting in here again.
There was a lot of fucking work to do.
Bodies to dispose of.
Leads to track down.
Other men to take out for their disloyalty.
But right now, none of that was as important as taking Lore upstairs, turning on the shower, stripping us both, then climbing in, and cleaning off the grime that was all over her from being on the ground in that building.
She clung to me for a long time, just needing to borrow some strength.
“Renzo?”
“Yeah?”
“What are you going to tell my family about this?” she asked, angling her head back, giving me a brow raise.
“The truth,” I said, shrugging.
First, because it was her family. They deserved to know what happened.
Second, they were allies now, and depending on how big this coup went, I might want some backup.
“But not tonight,” I said as I pulled her out of the shower, drying her off.
“Not tonight,” she agreed, following me to bed, and curling up on my chest.
I waited for her to sink into me before asking her about her head, about any dizziness or nausea or anything that might suggest I had to get her to see someone.
But aside from a headache, she said she was fine.
Fucking miracle, given the situation.
If I’d been any later… if I hadn’t shown up with Dav and Cinna strapped to the hilt…
It could have been so much worse.
This was twice I’d failed to protect my woman in the short time we’d been together.
And it was going to be the motherfucking last.
I held her while she drifted off to sleep.
Then slid out from under her, heading downstairs, and getting to work on making sure it never fucking happened again.
“Lore? Is everything alright?” Nico’s voice met my ear as I used her phone to find his number and call.
“It’s Renzo,” I said, hearing the tension like static on the line. “Get your brothers and come to my place,” I said, rattling off my address. “I need someone to protect Lore while I make sure she never needs it again,” I said.
“Again?” he asked, voice tight, and I could already hear the movement as he left wherever he was, the city sounds coming up in the background.
“Someone wasn’t happy about our alliance. Tried to stage a coup. One of my men is shot. Lore was hit over the head and taken. I got her back,” I rushed to say. “And believe me, the fuck who tried to do worse to her was praying for death by the time it came.”
Nico made a growling noise in his throat. “Is she okay?”
“She’s got an egg. And some scratches and bruises, maybe some whiplash, from an airbag hitting her in the face. Other than that, she’s okay. Sleeping. She’ll be happy to see you guys here when she wakes up.”
It might distract her from my absence.
“We’ll be there in… forty minutes. Tops.”
Then they were, filing into the apartment, faces grim, stinking up the place with their combination of anger and concern.
“You guys packing, or you need to borrow?” I asked.
Nico moved his jacket to the side, showing a gun in a shoulder holster.
“We’re covered.”
“Lorenzo,” Cesare, her brother I’d almost had killed said, speaking of the Capo dei Capi, “wants to know if you want men to help you question the rest of your crew.”
“Don’t have an answer on that yet,” I admitted. “Was focused on getting Lore home and settled,” I added. “Haven’t been able to suss out anything else yet. But I will let him know, if need be.”