Page 32 of Sicilian Savior

He went limp.

One left.

“Get here. Now!” a man shouted, presumably to his backup.

I rolled back up to my knees and lifted my finger to my lips. Lucia slunk lower but didn’t make a sound. I listened closely, all my senses firing as I tried to locate the last man standing. Finally, I heard the crunch of gravel.

Gotcha.

My lips twitched in a sinister smirk just before I flew up to the hood. My eyes tracked straight toward the place I’d heard the sound, and I put him right in my sights.

Bang!

It hit him in the chest, and he gasped twice before crumpling.

“Come on!” I shouted as I reached out and grabbed Lucia’s hand.

I yanked her up and took off through the parking lot, towing her behind me. Sirens wailed in the distance, their sounds amplifying as they neared.

“This way!” I pulled Lucia through the cars back toward the city center, hoping to make it to a crowd and disappear into them. A black SUV screamed around the corner. I slid to a stop, and my eyes locked with the driver’s. His gaze flicked to the gun in my hand, and his eyes narrowed as he locked onto me.

I fired a kill shot, but he ducked down.

“Fuck! This way!” Lucia didn’t hesitate as I grabbed her hand and yanked her after me, pulling her down the narrow road leading back into the city.

I heard shouting from the SUV as they tore after us down the street. Bullets peppered the walls as they collided with the stone buildings we raced past. Lucia screamed, and I pulled her in front of me, slowing down my strides to keep my body between her and the mafia chasing us down.

“Go left!” I shouted, squeezing off a couple shots of cover fire.

She veered left down a dark alley too narrow for the SUV to fit. The tires screeched behind us as they skidded to a stop, followed by doors slamming and voices shouting. A bullet whizzed past us, and I shoved Lucia out of the way. She shrieked as she tumbled to the ground and landed behind a dumpster.

I launched behind it with her, pressing my body against hers as I pushed her into the corner.

“What do we do?” she whimpered, her voice quaking with fear.

Her hat had flown off, and she’d lost her sunglasses while we ran. Even if these men didn’t recognize her, a description to Victor might be all that was needed for him to figure out she was here for her son. These men couldn’t live. None of them.

My eyes narrowed as my jaw ticked and tightened. “We kill them all.”

I pressed my body up against the dumpster and slid to the edge. Carefully, I peeked out. The four men moved down the alley, guns drawn, as they crept toward us. I heard shouting in the distance—the cops and the panicked people from the city center nearby. I didn’t have much time before we were discovered.

I waited until they were close, then leaned out and got two shots off. Two men dropped instantly, and the third and fourth jumped behind debris in the alley.

Patiently, I waited, my gun trained on the guy hiding behind a wall of pallets. His head peeked out slowly, and it gave me just enough of a target that I took the shot. I smiled when he flopped out onto the alley, his lifeless body still staring at me.

I aimed my sights toward the spot I knew the last man hid. He called for backup again, his panicked voice giving them his location. I didn’t have time to wait him out. If the cops didn’t find us first, more mafia men would come. They’d get a description of Lucia and me, and I couldn’t take that chance. No survivors could know what we looked like.

“Stay here. Stay low,” I commanded.

“Wait. Where are you going?” Her small hand wrapped around mine.

I struggled not to pull her into my arms and kiss her, telling her everything would be okay. Instead, I remembered my vow, then forced back the desire to hold her in my arms and comfort her, and I just squeezed her hand.

“I’ll be quick. Stay here.”

I let go of her grip and peeked back out around the dumpster. My instincts and the fear I’d heard in his voice told me this dude would lay low until more backup arrived. No hero was coming out, sending bullets my way. I didn’t see him in the alley, so I crouched low and crept silently toward his hiding spot... like a lion stalking his prey.

Carefully, I stepped toward him, my finger on the trigger itching to eliminate the threat to my woman. When I reached the garbage cans he hid behind, I spun around the corner, moving too quickly for him to get a shot off.