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“I feel like you’re trying to warn me about something, Nicky.” I took another swig. “Whatever it is will have to wait until I’ve showered, eaten a cheeseburger, and slept for at least a week.”
Brenna took that as her cue to move things along and help me get out of here. She pushed her gun into the back of Dario’s head hard enough to make it dip forward. “Drop it.”
“Make me,” Dario taunted.
I glanced at Nicoli and saw that he was watching them with an amused look on his face. He didn’t appear to want to intervene and if I was honest, I was curious to see how Brenna would handle Dario.
“Fine,” she said with a hint of irritation, and shoved the gun she had been pointing at Nicoli into one of the holsters that rested between her arm and ribs.
“Giving up already?” Dario continued to taunt.
Brenna smirked. “No.”
She kicked the back of his leg, making it buckle at the same time she grabbed the wrist of his gun hand and forced him to aim skyward. Cursing, he dropped to the carpet on one knee. Still holding his wrist, she kicked him again, but this time in his exposed ribs. He let out a grunt and tried to yank his wrist out of her hold. With the butt of her gun, she knocked his out of his hand. The moment it thumped to the carpet, she kicked it out of reach.
Dario cursed Brenna in Italian before he twisted his wrist in her grip, grabbed hold of hers, and pulled her closer until he could get his other arm around her waist. He yanked her off her feet and brought her to the floor. Dario rolled on top of her, quickly grabbed the hand she held the gun in, and pinned it above her head. Brenna twisted her other wrist free from his grasp and punched him. So close to him and pinned to the floor, she couldn’t hit him hard enough to do much damage. Still, Dario’s face was forced to the side with the hit. He looked back down at her slowly. Brenna smiled an evil little smile and went to hit him again. He caught her wrist and pinned it above her head, too.
Brenna didn’t struggle beneath him. In fact, she held still, waiting. I didn’t know if Dario or even Nicoli noticed, but Brenna wasn’t putting much effort into the fight. I’d watched her spar with Asher, Dean, Finn, and even Jamie and Louie. Brenna was a fast learner, almost a natural when it came to fighting, and had put both Dean and Finn on their asses back at the cabin before I’d been taken by Buck. The way she would calculate her opponents’ moves was extraordinary and the way she moved when she fought was almost like a dance. According to Asher, she would surpass what they could teach her a lot sooner than expected.
Brenna chuckled. “What now, Moretti? Are you going to use your mommy’s beads to strangle me?”
Dario glared down at her.
She gave him a haughty look. “Did I hit a nerve?”
Dario let go of one of her wrists to grab her throat. I had the urge to reach for my gun. But if he was squeezing tightly, Brenna didn’t let it show.
Dario snarled in Italian, “Mouthy little brat.”
Brenna reached down her side as she replied in Italian, “Would that be the mouth you can’t stop staring at, old man?”
Dario went tense and surprisingly, so did Nicoli. I peeked to the side to get a look at the don. His attention was completely captured by Brenna and his enforcer.
Dario switched back to speaking English. “Don’t flatter yourself, child.” Then he began squeezing her neck, forcing from her a small broken gasp.
Nicoli shot up from the couch. “Dario—”
Before Nicoli could say more, Brenna had a knife at Dario’s throat. She didn’t say anything. Neither did Dario. At least not with words. As they stared at each other, it was obvious they conveyed something.
“Enough,” I said.
“Yes, enough,” Nicoli agreed firmly.
Dario released Brenna’s neck and pushed off of her. Brenna sat up, smirking at him, and slid her knife into her boot. “Were you even trying? I didn’t even see spots.”
“Did you want me to kill you?” he seethed at her.
The gleam in her eye told me she had a witty retort. I cut her off before she could say it. “Stop toying with him, Brenna.”
She looked over at me and within an instant she became serious. “Probably for the best.” She climbed to her feet. “I’m pretty sure we’ll have company soon if we don’t get out of here.”
“You were followed?” I asked.
She shook her head as she made her way over to me, stepping right on Buck’s body as she did. “Tracked. Vincent called me as I was parking outside and told me Jameson was twenty minutes behind me.”
“Tracked how?” I asked.
Brenna locked eyes with Nicoli as she passed him to squat in front of me. “I’ll tell you in the car,” she said to me in a low voice. She noticed the sleeping baby in my arm and a flicker of sadness flashed in her eyes before she was able to mask it.
