“You’re on our turf,Luis,”I sneer back. “You think Rubio is going to let you live if you kill me here?”
Luis snorts. “Do you think Rubio gives two shits about you? You might be the don of the Guild, but they’re dropping like flies right now.”
I stagger forward again, letting myself drop low before.
Whack.
I kick him hard in the abdomen, forcing him to keel over. With another blow, I use his recovery time to disarm him completely.
A stray blow ricochets past my ear, but I dodge easily. I grab hold of his arm before he has a chance to retreat and bring it down on my knee, perhaps a little too hard.
Snap.
“Fuck!” Luis hisses as he cradles his broken arm back to his chest. “You’re insane.”
“What do you want with Isabella Natali?”
He blinks at me. “Shouldn’t I be asking you that?”
I kick him again in the chest, sending him to his knees again, very aware of the red and blue flashing lights that have appeared in the distance.
“You will stay away from her. You will not touch her. You will not even look at her. Do you understand me?” I glare down at the man before me and consider just killing him now to make things easier.
Still, Luis barks a laugh. “Did hell freeze over? A Vitale protecting a Natali?”
I reach forward with my good arm and pull his hair back with a sharp tug. “Let me make myself very clear. You can’t have her because she ismineto kill. Do you understand?”
I throw him to the ground just as the sirens start up.
“Oh, and tell Amos Rubio, if he insists on messing with Guild affairs again, the KOS will be mutual.”
14
ISABELLA
My heart is in my throat as I watch Teo throw Luis to the ground and step back through the gate.
The whole thing might have lasted less than a minute, but it was as if the entire world had slowed to force me to absorb every detail…
Teo had been shot. And it was my fault.
“If I die, my death can be on your hands.”
The bastard.
He knew what he was doing when he said that. He had been testing me the exact same way I was testing him. Because goddammit he’s hurt, and I did nothing, and I…
“Oh good, you actually do listen.” His voice snaps me out of the spiral.
Slumped against the doorframe, Teo still manages to look devastatingly attractive. Perhaps it’s the combination of bike leathers and dark hair that falls lazily to his shoulders, but those eyes seem all the more piercing, all the more endless.
It takes me a second to remember that he’s injured.
“Are you okay?” I gush as I run forward and begin to pry his jacket from his uninjured shoulder. “Let me see, I can stop the bleeding.”
“Belle.”
I ignore him, finally freeing his good arm and oh-so-carefully peeling the jacket away from his chest.
