Page 34 of Her Keeper
Shit.
I ducked and turned, gun swinging around in front of me, to see Tony Caruso come barreling through the door with a gun in his hand. He bowled Joseph over with his bulk, pulled up, aimed, and shot.
I threw myself to the side and got a shot off myself, hitting him right in the shoulder. He fell backward, shouting for his men, and Joseph rushed toward me.
“Got to get out of here,” he huffed, sliding his arm under mine and yanking me up.
I was about to ask him why the fuck we were running when we both had guns when I felt it.
My left leg wasn’t working right. In fact, it was burning, and when I looked down at it, it covered with blood. There was also a hole in my jeans. Directly over my left quad.
I’d been shot.
The moment I had the thought, I felt the pain to go with it.
“That bastard,” I breathed.
“Right. We’ll kill him later. Right now, we need to get out of here before his men arrive. Because we might be able to take them, but not when you’re hobbling around on one leg,” Joseph said tensely. “Let’s go, brother.”
I didn’t argue with him. I wanted to. I wanted to shoot the place up and force Monica to tell me what she knew. But the world was starting to go a little fuzzy around the edges and even I wasn’t stupid enough to think I’d be able to back Joseph up in this state.
I nodded and allowed him to lead me toward the door. I hated running. Hated failing at getting Monica again.
But I grabbed her laptop on the way out the door, and thinking that I had something of hers—maybe even the entire article she’d been writing—made me feel a little bit better about having failed Penny.
Again.
15
PENNY
Ifinally forced myself to sit down by the window, where I could see the street outside. Michael had been gone for hours, leaving me here on my own—with nothing to do—and I was about to go crazy with the waiting.
I was also really, really mad.
What the fuck had he been doing, just rushing out of the house like that? He hadn’t given me any idea what was going on—or where he was going—and he certainly hadn’t given me a time range. I knew what we were up against and I knew how dangerous this was for both of us. Hell, I’d been surprised we stayed all night in this house and actuallyslept. And then for him to just take off and leave me behind like he was going to the market and he’d be back in a little or something?
The more I thought about it, the angrier I got.
And the longer it took, the more I worried.
I went through what I knew again, trying to get it all organized in my head so I could do something about some sort of plan. Maybe something that included calling Brooks and Sloane to get me the hell out of town.
Michael knew what I’d done, but seemed to be mostly okay with it—partially, I thought, because he knew Monica had forced me into it—and I thought Joseph was also on my side. Jimmy Rossi, on the other hand, wanted me dead.
And he didn’t seem all that willing to negotiate.
He’d sent a team after me—teams?—and whoever they were, I was guessing they weren’t going to take Michael’s word into account. I’d thought Michael and Joseph had a say in all Rossi business, but this turn of events told me I’d been wrong.
Fat Jimmy was still the one in charge. And things were going very, very wrong for Michael right now.
Which brought me back to the worry about where he was. I’d always cared for him, sure, but over the last week, that had grown and morphed into something a whole lot bigger. And no, since you’re asking, it wasn’t just the sex. It was the way he looked at me when he thought I didn’t see him. The way he laughed now, more freely, like he didn’t have to protect himself from me.
It was the way he’d jumped to protect me the moment he realized I might be in danger from anyone other than him.
I didn’t want to think about it any further than that. I couldn’t make it more than it was. He was very high up in one of the top mafia families in the city—in the country!—and I was…
A girl who was in over her head. I had to admit that much. A girl who had never been meant for this world.
