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“Jesus, Rico. What are you? Two?”
Smack.
“What the fuck, Gabe?” I rubbed the back of my head where he’d smacked me.
“Ma wasn’t here to do it. I’m the oldest, so the brotherly duty of knocking some sense into you falls on me.”
“Thank God my parents couldn’t have any more kids.”
Duncan Palmer waltzed into the room undetected, again.
“Fuck, Palmer. You need to teach me how you do that.”
“Gotta be dead to learn it, Alec” he quipped.
“Touché.”
“You look like shit, man,” Gabe interjected. “Do you want to tell us why you flew out here instead of calling?”
“Have a seat, boys.” He pointed at the table.
Putting his head in his hands, he let out a breath before looking at me when he said, “Maxwell Daubson was found dead three hours ago in a seedy hotel room in Vegas with a needle in his arm.”
“Fuck me,” I slammed my fists against the table.
“Suicide?” Rico asked.
“The coroner hasn’t ruled it out yet, but from the ligature marks on his wrists, I’d say it was murder.”
Panic hit me like a two-by-four. I shot out of my chair and raced for my phone, which I left on the counter.
“Where’s Joel?” I hollered over my shoulder.
“Still with the senator, as far as I know.”
Pulling up the camera feed to Emory’s apartment, I cursed when I saw the flashing alert. The motion sensors would have been activated when she got home which, looking at the clock, should have been less than five minutes before. I rewound the footage and the air stilled in my lungs.
“No, he’s not.” I turned. “He’s at Emory’s.”
My brothers and Duncan exploded from the table, each of them checking the weapons on their sides as we raced out of the building. Alec and I leapt into his SUV while the other three got in Gabe’s.
“She’s gonna be fine, Luc.”
His reassurances did nothing to control the fear coursing through my body. Joel wasn’t some drunk guy with a knife. He was the worst kind of evil, the kind with nothing to lose, which made him incredibly dangerous. Emory was everything good in my life. If she was taken from me now, I’d be lost forever.
We got to her apartment quicker than we should’ve, thanks to Alec’s lead foot. He and I were out the door and running up her steps when I heard something get knocked over.
“EMORY!” I bellowed.
I didn’t think before I drew my Glock out of its holster, lifted my foot, and kicked in her door on the first try.
Bang.
The gunshot echoed throughout the room. My eyes were still adjusting, but I saw them. Emory was lying on the floor with Joel slumped over top of her. We hurried across the room, Alec pushing Joel off as I pulled an unconscious Emory into my lap. There was so much blood I couldn’t tell where it was coming from. I ran my arms all over her body, looking for the source while Gabe called for an ambulance.
“I don’t think it’s hers, Fratello,” Alec stated. “Point-blank shot to the chest. He’s gone.”
“Emory, babe, wake up.”
