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I rub the back of my neck. “I don’t know. I’m just playing a part. Once my part’s done, I’m out.”
She recoils. “What are you talking about?”
“Come on, Val. There’s no happy ever after for me. The cartel will find me. They always do.”
“Yeah, unless we get to them first. Why do you sound so defeatist?”
“Because I know the deal. Alek doesn’t want me in the way. I came out here to get the heat off my brother back in New York. Figured if they knew I took off, they’d come looking for me and leave Patty and his family alone.”
“El Azul is pretty unforgiving.”
“Yeah. I probably shouldn’t have sliced his throat in the middle of the afternoon.”
“Probably not.” Val places her hand over my fingers that are still caressing her face. A charge zaps my insides like an electric pinball at her touch. “What made you become such a rebel, anyway?”
I drop my hand because this topic just watered down the sparks of lust ready to flare up in my groin. Raking my hands through my hair, I stand up from the ledge and pace in front of it. “My family life became pretty fucked up after my mom died. It was a mess of betrayal. I had two brothers who were so power hungry they just took everything down around us. Dad and Heaven became estranged because he fucked her over and forced her to marry Matteo. He ended up promoting my oldest brother Conor to boss when it should have been Heaven all along. Then a few years later, Dad died of a heart attack after screwing over my brother, Patrick. Conor and my other brother Niall were fucking traitors and got themselves killed. If I’m being honest, I think I escaped pretty cleanly. But I guess I just decided to march to the beat of my own drum after all that.”
Out of the corner of my eye, the door we used to get onto the roof moves the slightest bit. I narrow my eyes, but the only real light comes from the Strip below.
Val blinks fast, like she’s trying to make sense of something. “Wait, did you just say your brother—?”
With one swift push, the door opens, slamming against the side of the building. Three guys dressed in black rush through, guns pointed straight at us.
“Val, get down,” I yell, reaching behind me.
She turns a blank look at the door, then dives to the ground near my feet, her hand on her gun. Shots fire, bullets exploding into the otherwise silent air. I squeeze off a couple of shots.
“Stay here,” I grunt before leaping over the ledge and rushing the guys.
I fire shot after shot. One guy goes down. I clip another one in the shoulder.
Just as I’m about to pull the trigger again, a searing pain erupts in my side. It shoots down the length of my torso, paralyzing me on the spot. I crash into the wall, crumpling to the ground. My head cracks against the concrete. I squint at the man leaning over me, his eyes dark as death.
“Any last words, Mulligan?” he growls, holding the gun against my forehead.
“Yeah, fuck you. Pass it on.”
The final crack of the bullet leaving his gun is the last thing I hear before my eyes droop closed.
Chapter21
Valentina
Holy fuck. He’s going to kill Quinn…
I stretch out on the ground behind the ledge, clench my teeth, and pull the trigger, just beating the guy by a hair of a second. The assailant’s hand explodes into pieces, his gun shooting up to the night sky before he stumbles backward into a concrete wall with his bloody stump hanging next to him.
A lump knots in my throat, blocking all of the things I want to scream out right now. Before the guy falls into the wall, I fire a few more shots until his head looks like his hand. Scrambling to my feet, I run for the third guy. He tears around a corner, jumping over pipes along the ground. I run after him, my calf muscles tensing and tightening with every leap in this goddamn obstacle course.
He ducks and darts around every shot, turning every few seconds to pop off a shot at me. There’s a door in the distance. If he gets out, we won’t know who the hell leaked our location. Reality pummels me. Whoever went after Aisling might have done it as a distraction to lure us out… or more specifically, Quinn.
Fuck, it really is his family that’s under fire.
They know we’re here. Hell, they probably tracked us to the honeymoon suite, just waiting to make their move.
My face twists into a grimace. He’s at the door now. Bullets explode from the barrel of my gun. Metal casings fly back at me, searing my exposed skin. I fire until my magazine is empty and then lunge for the motherfucker before he can pull open the door.
Please be locked… please be locked…
