SEALed Bride: A Bad Boy Romance (Includes bonus novel Jerked!) (45 page)

The hall up ahead opened into the large entrance foyer. I crept forward as softly as possible, ready for anything. I took a deep breath to steady myself. I was guessing he was just ahead, probably crouching near the stairs. Anticipating that, I stepped out from the hall.

Instead of being by the stairs, he was pressed flat against the wall, inches away from me. He came at me fast. With his free hand, he slapped the hand that held my gun down and away from him, and fired his own weapon. I reacted fast, but not fast enough, as I felt the bullet bite into my left shoulder. I brought my right hand up and fired back at him, missing as he ducked to one side.

I didn’t have time to think. We were in a point-blank firefight. I leapt after him, tackling him to the ground. I heard his gun go off two more times, but the shots fired uselessly behind me as I speared him down against the floor. My gun hand smashed onto the hard wood and I felt myself lose my grip and the weapon go spinning away.

I reared back as he held his pistol up at me. I smacked it away as another shot rang out and I grabbed his wrist. He hit me in the gut and the kidneys, but I twisted and wrenched his wrist. He screamed out in pain as I moved the bones in a way they weren’t meant to move, and he released his grip on the gun. It bounced twice, landing a few feet away.

I turned back toward him as he punched me in the gut again, turning his body and pushing me off of him. He scrambled for the gun, but I was on my feet and kicking it away before he could reach it. His face was a mask of anger and disbelief.

He turned on me, his fists up. He punched at me twice and I dodged back, out of his reach. He came at me, muscles tense and moving quickly, and I could feel pain lancing up my shoulder as warm blood slid from the wound. I put it out of my mind as he punched high and aimed a kick low. I blocked the punch and ate the kick.

Pain lanced through my shin as I counterattacked. I punched him once in the mouth and he blocked my second punch, trying to get a grip on my wrist. I twisted my arm, pulling him close. I could smell his aftershave, our arms intertwined and struggling for control. There was no doubt that it was Fabrizio. I would have recognized him from anywhere. I grinned and reared back my head.

His eyes went wide as I smashed my forehead into his nose. Pain jumped through my skull, but I did it again, and again, and again. I heard a crunch on the second shot and blood flowed freely from his broken nose. He released his grip and stumbled backward.

I didn’t give him time to collect himself. I came at him low and hard like a boxer, throwing him punishing gut shots. That made him drop his arms, and I stepped in for a vicious right hook. He stumbled backwards, and then fell.

I was on him in a second, my knife in my hand. I flicked open the blade and held it against his throat. His eyes were wide with terror and he held his hands up on either side of his head.

“You motherfucker, Fabrizio,” I growled.

He smiled. “Colin Blake.”

“You shouldn’t have come here.”

We were both bloodied and breathing heavy. My shoulder was aching like crazy.

“Where the fuck is she?” he asked.

“She’s nowhere near here.”

He spit blood, missing my face but hitting my chest. I pressed the knife even harder, drawing a thin bead of red along his skin.

“Do that again,” I said, “and I’ll cut your throat right here.”

He laughed. “You can’t kill me. You won’t start a war with my family.”

“You think your family has your back right now, after all this shit?”

I could see the moment of doubt in his eyes, and I knew I had him. I wasn’t about to tell him that he was absolutely right, that I shouldn’t kill him if I could avoid it. But it was better if he thought that I was on the verge of taking his life at any moment.

I adjusted my weight and stood up, hauling him up with me. I kept my knife inches from his throat.

“Walk,” I said. We marched into the kitchen. On the way, I crouched down and grabbed my gun, training it on him before he could make a move.

“In,” I said, motioning to the kitchen. He obeyed. I nodded at a chair and he sat.

I sat down in a chair inches away from him. I leaned forward on my knees, gun held level at his chest.

“Now we’re going to have a chat.”

“I have nothing to say to you, fucking dirty Irish. Go get my wife.”

“She isn’t yours anymore, or don’t you get that?”

“She married me. She’s mine until one of us is dead.”

I cocked back the hammer on my gun.

“I can make that happen.”

He blinked. “Fine, okay. What do you want to know?”

“First thing’s first. Why chase her?”

He laughed. “You don’t get it, do you? She married me. That means she’s mine. I couldn’t just let her get away. I would rather die than let people think I’m weak.”

I nodded. That confirmed it, for me at least. Fabrizio wasn’t working for the Italians or motivated by anything more than sheer insanity. I had wondered if maybe whoever was behind Fabrizio might be trying to start some kind of coup in order to take over the Mob, but Fabrizio didn’t know anything about that if it were true. He was probably just a stupid pawn in the whole thing.

“Next question. And this is the important one. If you lie to me, or refuse to answer, I’m going to start cutting.” I held up my knife.

He shrugged and looked away.

“Who told you about this place?”

He laughed. “I can’t tell you that.”

“Wrong answer.”

Before he could react, I grabbed his face and ran my knife down his right cheek. He screamed and tried to push me away, but the damage was already done. I sat back down as he touched his bleeding face.

“That’ll be one nice scar,” I said.

“You fucking psycho.”

“I told you what would happen if you refuse to answer.”

“Jesus, my fucking face.”

“Lie again, and I cut off part of your ear.”

“Okay, fuck. Davin, your fucking guy. Davin was feeding me information the whole time.”

There was a creak by the doorway.

“Davin?”

I looked up, surprised by the voice. I stared at Brenna standing nearby, her face a mask of outrage.

I stood up. “You shouldn’t be here, Bren.”

“Ah, there she is. My wife. You look perfect.”

I hit Fabrizio in the face with the butt of my gun. It probably knocked a tooth loose.

“Speak to her again and I’ll shoot you.”

He sneered at me but kept silent. I looked back at her.

“Please, this isn’t something you need to see.”

She shook her head, stepping into the room.

“No, I need to be here for this.”

I sighed. “Bren. Really. There’s no shame in you leaving.”

She shook her head, coming closer. “You don’t get it. This psycho had me living in fear for a long time. And now I want revenge.”

She walked right up to him and stared into his eyes. He smiled back at her, but didn’t speak.

“You are nothing anymore, Vince. You are a disgusting pig. I would die before I went back to you. I hope your people kill you, but if they don’t, at least they all know how pathetic you are.”

“Fuck you, little Brenna. You’re mine and always—“

He was cut off by the bullet I put in his thigh. He screamed in pain. Bren jumped away from him, her hands covering her ears.

“I fucking told you I was going to do that,” I said.

Bren opened her mouth, clearly surprised.

“Are you okay?” I said to her.

She nodded. “He deserved that.”

“Yeah, he did.”

“What do we do now?”

I shrugged. “Go get some rope. There should be some downstairs. If not, tear up some sheets. We’ll take him back to your dad.”

She nodded. “Okay. Okay. Are you okay?”

I shrugged. “Fine. Actually, grab me a strip of sheets first.”

She noticed the wound for the first time.

“Oh fuck, Colin, you’re shot.”

“I’m fine. Seriously. It’s just my shoulder. We’ll bandage it up and head back into the city.”

“You need a doctor.”

“There’s a doctor in the city.”

“But—“

“The longer you argue, the more I stand here bleeding.”

She nodded and headed off. I looked back at Fabrizio, who had fallen out of the chair and was rolling side to side, holding his wounded leg. I walked over and stood looking down at him.

“You’re lucky she’s here. I planned on cutting one of your ears off, regardless of what you said.” He groaned in response. I crouched down next to him. “If I ever so much as smell you in my city again, if you ever even think of Bren again, I will end your life. You know I’m more than capable of it. Nod if you understand.”

He nodded, his face contorted in pain.

“Good. We’ll take you back now. Don’t struggle. The longer it takes to get into the city, the more likely you are to lose that leg.”

He let out a long moan as I stood up, grinning.
Serves that fuck right
, I thought.

Bren returned with some rope and a sheet. She helped me clean and dress my wound. I was lucky that the bullet went clean through, which meant I probably wouldn’t need surgery. We tied Fabrizio up, and Bren tied a rag around his wound to keep him from bleeding to death in my car. He wasn’t as lucky as me, since the bullet was still in his leg, and he was probably in for some more pain in the near future.

I didn’t feel bad for him.

I half carried, half dragged him out to the car, and pushed him into the back seat. I followed him in, gun trained on him the whole time. Bren got up front, and we were off.

We were silent on the ride back to the city. I had Fabrizio, which meant that the nightmare for Bren was over. Relief flooded through my body for that, at least.

But the fight wasn’t done. Not yet, at least.

Davin had still betrayed us and put the boss’s daughter in danger. No, he had betrayed me, and put the woman I had fallen in love with in danger. He was going to pay for that. Fabrizio got off easy compared to what I had in store for that traitorous fuck Davin.

T
he roof deck felt empty and strange after everything that had happened at my dad’s farmhouse. I looked out across the city that I had so desperately wanted to remain in and felt only confusion.

How had Davin betrayed us? And what was Colin up to? As we climbed out of the car outside of my dad’s pub, Colin had made me promise not to mention anything about Davin to anyone, not even to my dad. I didn’t know why we needed to keep it from him, but I nodded and promised him that I wouldn’t say anything.

Because I owed him that much. After all, he had saved my life over and over again. Not to mention, he gave me the best orgasms of my life, but it probably wasn’t the time to be thinking about that. Still, I couldn’t help myself. Despite the stepbrother issue still hanging over our heads, Colin was the only thing on my mind. From the first moment I saw him walk out from the shower all those weeks ago, to the moment I rode him in his car, I knew I was slowly falling in love all over again.

It wasn’t the same way I felt with Vince. Back then, Vince was so exciting and fun. He took me to all the best restaurants and showed me a side of New York that I would never have seen without him. But I realized that I was never in love with Vince. I was just in love with the kind of lifestyle I thought he could provide me. I was stupid and young and naïve.

But I was learning.

I looked up as the door opened and Colin stepped out onto the deck, his arm in a white sling. I stood up.

“Hey, are you okay?”

He grinned. “Been better. Doctor said I’ll be fine.”

I ran over to him and threw my arms around his neck. I could feel him flinch, but he didn’t pull away from me. Instead, he wrapped his one good arm around my back and pulled me tighter.

“It’s over now, Bren. It’s all over.”

I kissed his neck and his cheek and his lips, drinking him in. He pulled away after a second.

“What’s wrong?”

I shook my head. How could I explain?

“What are they going to do with Vince?” I asked.

“Your dad has him right now. Probably running him through the wringer. We’ll hand him over to the Italians tomorrow, and that’ll be that.”

“What about that other issue?”

He frowned and led me back over to the chairs, sitting down with a sigh.

“You haven’t mentioned it to anyone, right?”

I nodded.

“Good. Davin has little spies all over the fucking place.”

“Does Dad know?”

He nodded. “Yeah. I told him as soon as I could.”

I was silent for a second. I couldn’t imagine how my dad was feeling at that moment. Davin had been around our family for so long that he felt almost like a distant uncle or something. He had been around when my mom died and had helped to take care of me. And yet, he had purposefully put me in danger for whatever insane reason. I couldn’t even imagine what he was thinking.

“How did he take it?” I asked.

“Not good. He didn’t believe me at first.”

“I can talk to him.”

“No need. I convinced him.”

I nodded. “Why would Davin do this?”

Colin sighed and leaned back in his chair.

“He was never happy when I got picked to be second in command over him, you know. Pretty fucking pissed actually. He did anything he could to get back to me.”

I nodded. “But why would he do this to me?”

“My guess is, he probably wanted to make me look bad. He probably wanted to keep Fabrizio floating around, make your dad doubt me, and eventually get himself put in charge of you. Then, as soon as Davin was in charge of your safety, I bet Fabrizio would have been caught.”

“That’s insane.”

“Yeah, maybe it is.”

“So then why would he send Vince into the house? That doesn’t make sense.”

He shook his head. “I’m guessing Davin told him not to do anything too direct, and he didn’t listen. Probably got cocky from evading us for so long.”

“So, that’s it? His plan failed because Vince didn’t listen?”

“His plan failed because he’s a snake motherfucker, and I’m the better man. His plan failed because he didn’t think I’d be able to take on Fabrizio.”