Page 73 of Under His Watch

I shook my head, nervous when the guards crept up behind us, forcing us to walk forward.

Holding my arm out around Nina, I kept her close. Her back was to mine, and we paired up in facing them off.

Another SUV was parked behind the one we rode over here in. The backseat door was opened by one of the Giovanni guards, and he gestured for us to get in.

“Now, bitch. Let’s go. Both of you,” Stefan ordered.

“I don’t think so.”

Stefan aimed his gun lower, likely planning to hit me somewhere that wouldn’t kill me quickly. Before he could have a chance to shoot, I brought my gun up and aimed at him.

“Run!” I shoved Nina to make a dash for it as I fired at Stefan and his men. I dropped as I fired, a trick I’d learned from the soldier who sparred with me and Max at the shooting range.

Gunfire filled the air, and with my chest squeezing tight with anxiety, I could barely drag in a breath to stay steady on my feet and keep my head clear.

Shouts rang out around the shots. Tires squealed on the pavement. Pedestrians and others near the store shouted and cried out in terror.

I stayed low to the ground, hoping no one would aim at me with the dusk setting shadows over us. Fear claimed me, but the rush of adrenaline kept me as focused as possible. I couldn’t give up now. I had this. I could fight. I could shoot. And as soon as I got back on my feet, I would aim again and again.

Sheer luck had to be on my side because no wounds stung my skin or warranted a fall to the ground. I didn’t know if I’d hit anyone, but I wanted to cling to the fortune that no one had hit me.

“Get her!”

I tensed as I scrambled back on my feet. Slamming my hand to the bumper of another car that I’d crawled to, I stood and searched through the smoky darkness and commotion for Nina.

They had to mean her. They said they wanted Nina, as an officially declared Constella as Dante’s fiancée, pregnant with his child.

But they hadn’t forgotten about me. A firm set of fingers wrapped around my wrist. Manacled by one of the Giovanni men, I lurched backward as he pulled me toward him.

“Take her and go!” Stefan yelled.

Car doors slammed shut. More tires burned rubber and squealed on the pavement. All through the chaotic sounds drowning out my thoughts, I punched and kicked at the man who tried to drag me away.

My fear evaporated. Instead, red-hot rage took over me. This guard’s hold on me was eerily similar to how those three rapists had overtaken me in the alley. The muscle memory of being captured sliced through my panic.

And I lashed out, striking at the guards and refusing to be a victim of anything, ever again.

29

ROMEO

“Carlos said there’s three more Giovannis,” Franco said as he slammed to a stop in the parking lot.

The driver who’d brought Tessa and Nina to the store was shot, but he was alive to call us. I’d just met up with Franco to tell him about the meeting with Elliot when Carlos contacted us about Stefan trying to take Tessa and Nina.

Carlos was alive but unable to move his left arm to get out of the car. His neck was bleeding fast, he said. Yet he pressed the button to call on the dashboard. The Giovannis had left him and the other soldier, Yuri, as dead. Yuri was breathing, but unconscious in the passenger seat, according to Carlos.

Without either men able to help Tessa and Nina, it was an emergency.

Franco sped us over, and even though I knew my father would be furious that we didn’t contact him immediately, there wasn’t any time. This was a matter of life or death. I wouldneverforgive myself if Tessa was wounded. And he would never forgive me if Nina was hurt.

I ran out into the fight, shooting at the Giovannis, so easy to make out with their suits in the darkness of the evening. Flashes of white were revealed when they ran, their suits flapping open and showing their button-downs.

Franco ran out with me, and behind us were more Constella soldiers alerted to the situation.

How the fuck Tess and Nina were out with only two men was ridiculous, but it was an error they’d need to address later.

“She’s back there!” Nina crouched low near another car in the lot. She must have run to safety. In the split second that I looked at her, I spotted no blood, but Franco found her and covered her as he rushed her to the car we’d arrived in.

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