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I turned away from Kay, and then I saw it. A slight movement toward the back of the house. “Kay,” I said under my breath.
“I see it.” She nodded, reaching for her handgun tucked in the back of her waistband. As usual, she stepped in front of me as if I were the one that needed protection. We were both in danger. But sometimes Kay liked to play my bodyguard. With her dad being my dad’s lieutenant, we grew up together. We were more than best friends; we were sisters.
“Let’s split up.” I gripped the handle of my weapon.
“We never split up,” she hissed. “This isn’t some recon mission, Luce. We assess the danger and then take cover.”
“Are we seriously having this conversation right now?”
“You started it.”
“Fine.” I put up my hand. “Left side has more trees in the way.”
“One, two, three,” she counted fast then bolted.
“Dammit.” I darted after her, keeping my weapon aimed at the ground. The last thing I needed was my gun going off because the adrenaline rushing through me made me trigger happy. Kay’s dad had trained us both since we were twelve. Kay had a knack for guns, but not me. I hated the things. If I kept one, it was because Dad begged me to do it for my own protection.
“Oh, fuck.” My heartbeat spiked as soon as Ronan’s face came into view near the kitchen door that led to the back yard.
“It’s them.” Kay stuffed her gun back in its place and took off.
I did the same, taking in big gulps of air. I needed to still my trembling hands. In the kitchen, I followed the trail of blood. Weirdly enough, the sight calmed me down. I set my gun on the counter and went straight to the sink to wash my hands. Nursing school had been Mom’s idea. She was a registered nurse—something that came in handy more than once while I was growing up. In the mob, the thing about playing with guns was that someone always got shot.
By the time I walked into the living room, Dad was already resting on one of the cots I had set up for this very purpose. “What’s the damage?”
“Three wounded.” Ronan nodded once and stepped aside to let me get to Dad. “Connor and Sean didn’t make it.”
“Jesus.” I cut open Dad’s shirt. “Where are they?”
“Two of our guys stayed behind to get them back.” He pursed his lips, exchanging a meaningful look with Dad.
I furrowed my brows, putting pressure on Dad’s shoulder wound. Something had happened between them. Did they fight on the way here? “What did you do?” I glared at Ronan.
“Nothing.”
“Don’t give me that. I know that look.” I rinsed Dad’s shoulder wound and took the time to assess the damage. The lump in my throat bobbed, and I swallowed to keep the tears from coming. Dad was wearing a bulletproof vest and had a dish shaped bullet lodged in it. “You’re gonna need X-rays to be sure there’s no internal damage.” I used my nurse voice because, right now, I couldn’t be his daughter. I would fall apart and that would help no one. “Help me with the vest.”
I stood and let Ronan lift Dad so I could work the straps off the garment that saved his life tonight. As expected, the area was already turning purple and spreading below his rib cage. Dad was built like an ox, but he wasn’t young anymore. “You can’t keep doing this, Dad.”
“Tell that to the Italians,” he mumbled in his smoky voice and waved Ronan away.
“Bring the other two. Why are they not inside? They need to be triaged.”
Ronan nodded toward the back of the room, and our wounded magically appeared. They had stayed out of sight so I would work on Dad first. It wasn’t fair. All life was valuable. But they needed Dad alive. When I met their gaze, they blurted out their injuries. We’d done this more than once in the past few months.
“Blade to my side. It feels squishy.”
“Dog bite. Don’t ask.”
“Lie down,” I ordered, looking at the two of them. “Let me have a look. You too, Ronan. That eye looks nasty.”
“We were ambushed, Luce.” Ronan stepped into my line of sight.
“Ronan.” Dad practically barked his name.
“The Italians never had any intention of calling a truce.” He clenched his jaw and swallowed. “They were there for Dad and me.”
Dad closed his eyes and dug his head into the flat pillow. I couldn’t tell if he was tired from the night he’d had or if he was just done with all this bullshit with the Italians. At this rate, our crew would be decimated before winter was over. Our people and everyone I grew up with would have to live under the threat of the Italians, running drugs for them, paying for protection and…I stopped my train of thought because I didn’t want to think about how bad things would get if our crew didn’t exist.
