Warning [Part Three]

by A. D. Justice

  I had just found my way back to him. There was no way I could stand losing him again. In one swift motion, I flew out of my seat and into his arms. As if he had anticipated my move, he instantly pulled me off my feet and crushed me against him.

  “Promise me you’ll come back to me. Promise me you won’t get hurt. I want to hear you say the words, Damon.” My insistence had a purpose. Damon was a man of his word, and if he made me a promise, he’d move heaven and earth to keep it. “We have a wedding to plan, a life to live, and a family to raise. You can’t leave me here alone. Promise me. Now.”

  He squeezed me tighter. “I promise I’m coming home to you. There isn’t a man alive who can stop me. You’re never getting rid of me, doll.”

  “I love you, Damon.”

  “I love you too, Jillian.”

  He pressed his lips against mine, and I eagerly returned the kiss. When I felt his tongue swipe across my lip, I willingly gave him full access. With thorough and intentional movements, he made love to me with his kiss. His tongue repeatedly slid across mine, sending waves of goose bumps across my skin. With his full, firm lips, he lit a fire inside me that burned only for him.

  Then he lowered me back to the ground, placed one last kiss on my lips, and left with the others. As I stood there with my chin quivering and tears trying to pool in my eyes, I realized his sweatshirt wasn’t as thick as I originally thought it was. He was wearing a bulletproof vest underneath.

  That wasn’t as comforting as I thought it would be.

  Chapter Seven

  Jillian

  Mama Lina and I watched with bated breath when our men arrived at Leo’s house. When they first left us, I had no idea how they’d even get inside since Leo’s men were guarding the gate. More armed guards had to be inside too, waiting for Vincenzo to make a move against them. My advice to Leo, had I talked to him, would be if he planned to screw his family over, make sure he was the smartest member.

  The enormous home was inside a brick fence that lined the entire property. But Leo never considered his family was even more versed in the fence’s strengths and weaknesses than the owner. The estate had once been a horse farm, covering several acres of lush green grass and clumps of trees for shade. The brick fence along the back of the property was built to allow the water from a small stream to flow freely into the man-made pond. Instead of making a grand show of force at the front door, Damon and his men parked a half-mile away from the back fence line, removed the steel grate, and waded in the water until they were well inside the perimeter.

  From there, they sprinted in small groups from one point to the next, checking their surroundings and taking new cover with every move. Silent and meticulous, like a group of trained Special Forces warriors on the prowl, they advanced with precision and determination. Damon gave his mom and me a play-by-play through his Bluetooth earpiece. The low murmur of his voice coming over the speakerphone in the family’s command center was reassuring until they were within range of the cameras around the exterior of the house.

  Damon remained silent while Mama Lina and I relayed where Leo’s enforcers were every time the screen from the security feed changed. I watched, detached from all feelings, while limp bodies from both sides of the battle fell to the ground as they advanced. Damon was safe and he was on a mission to save his sister, so I convinced myself that her safety was all that mattered. Had I been capable of doing the same to save my mother, I’d like to think I would have done whatever it took without giving the evil deed a second thought.

  “Matteo, I’m at the house now. Walk me through how to install this transmitter so Mama and Jillian can see what’s going on inside.” Damon’s hushed voice came across the speaker without a trace of the exertion I’d just watched him expend.

  Matteo was just as good with computer hacking as he was with emergency medicine. He talked Damon through the process of connecting the transmitter to the security system, allowing the signal to broadcast the interior camera feed across the airwaves. Once we confirmed we had unimpeded access to the cameras inside, Matteo decided it was time for him to leave.

  “They’re safe from anyone watching the monitors inside. I set it so the security feed monitor inside the house is on a continuous loop to give Damon an advantage. I’m not staying for the rest of this—I’ve done enough as it is. Leo and Maria are my aunt and uncle too. But I left my number on the desk for you if you need me. I’m due at the hospital soon, and I have a feeling I’ll be treating at least a few of these guys tonight.”

  “Thank you for helping with this, Matteo. I know you try to stay out of taking sides on anything to do with family squabbles, but I can’t imagine not being able to see Damon while this is going down. That would drive me crazy.” I rose from my seat to hug him goodbye.

  “Try not to get too involved with any of this, Jillian. You’ll get sucked in before you know what’s happening. This life will change you in ways you’d never believe.” Matteo kissed me on the cheek before he left, leaving me reeling with his almost prophetic warning.

  Seated back in front of the monitors, I focused on my task of keeping Damon alive and unharmed while he entered the lion’s den. There were too many men in that house who would want to be the one to take out the next Boss. The notoriety from that act alone certainly would be enough to set someone up for life in Leo’s eyes.

  “Damon, there’s a huge man just inside the door in front of you. He doesn’t seem to know you’re there yet.” Even though no one around him could hear me, I found myself whispering into the speakerphone anyway.

  I held my breath when Damon turned the knob, slowly and silently, and stole up behind the enormous goon waiting inside. Damon motioned to his men to keep going before he put the other man in a choke hold from behind, but the plan to subdue his opponent didn’t work. Damon’s hold was broken, and the two men faced each other, watching and waiting for the next move.

  If I expected the big guy to go down easy, I’d never been so wrong.

  “Damon Marchetti. I knew you’d be stupid enough to show up here. I’ll be sure to send flowers for your funeral.”

  “Raul, there will be a lot of funerals after today, but mine won’t be one of them.”

  The two men dove at each other, their fists flying and making contact with the other. They rolled around on the floor, taking turns being on top and beating the shit out of each other. On one flip, Raul jumped to his feet and began backing away. But Damon was undeterred and quickly followed him in hot pursuit. His arm jutted out, making contact with Raul’s battered face again.

  The thud of fists pounding against flesh echoed through the office, making Mama Lina reach over and grab my hand in hers. We both squeezed as we watched helplessly. Blood streamed out of Damon’s mouth from Raul’s jab. Damon wiped it away and his eyes hardened. I saw the cold-blooded killer inside him emerge on the vibrant screen in front of me.

  After an uppercut to Raul’s chin that stunned him, Damon drew his gun from the holster, leveled it at Raul, and pulled the trigger. In no more than a full second, Damon made the decision to kill the man rather than continue fighting him. He showed no sign of hesitation—or regret. When Raul’s knees buckled beneath him and his large body crumpled lifelessly to the floor, Damon stepped over him and continued walking without a backward glance.

  “Do you see Carrie and Lorenzo on the feed?”

  Damon’s calm voice felt odd after watching him murder someone up close. The other men outside who were shot were farther away from the cameras. In my mind, I could rationalize it away by pretending I was watching a realistic movie and compartmentalizing my thoughts and feelings. Then the distinctive sound of gunfire in distant rooms rang out in the room, stealing my breath from my lungs.

  “Jillian?” His voice hinted at his inward aggravation from having to ask twice in that situation. But I still couldn’t speak.

  “Damon
, they’re in the media room downstairs.” Mama Lina pressed her lips together and inclined her head toward me. Understanding of what I was trying to come to grips with shone in her eyes. She hit the mute button while Damon made his way through the enormous house, his men having cleared the way ahead of him. “It’s okay, Jillian. Let’s just help them get through this, and we’ll talk about what’s happened, yes?”

  “Okay.” I inhaled the deepest breath I could and released it slowly, calming my frayed nerves and refocusing my attention on the people we were helping keep alive.

  Damon wound his way through the mansion, through doorways and hallways, until he approached the door to the basement. I quickly flipped through the interior camera views, watching his every move, until the stairway down to the basement filled the screen. In the split second I saw his hand touch the doorknob on one screen, something on the other screen caught my eye. It was small, barely visible in the lower corner of the screen.

  “Damon, wait!”

  But I was too late to stop him.

  Even through the speakerphone, the blast was so loud we both winced in pain. The bright flash of light blinded our view through the cameras momentarily. When the light dissipated, my heart skipped a beat before it started racing, pounding in my chest so hard I could feel my shirt moving over my heart. Damon was knocked to the floor by the blast. He tried to stand up, only to fall over and hit the floor repeatedly. Several times in a row, he held his arms out in front of him, feeling for his surroundings, while trying to right himself again.

  I hit the mute button so Damon wouldn’t hear the fear in my voice.

  “Mama Lina, is he…is he blind?”

  When she didn’t answer, I quickly glanced over at her. She shook her head back and forth, tears streamed down her face, and her hand covered her gaping mouth. Not wanting Damon to feel alone, I hit the button again and tried to calmly talk to him through my panic.

  “Damon, talk to me. What’s happening?”

  No reply.

  “Damon!” I yelled, panic rising in my chest.

  “He won’t be able to hear you for a while, bella. That must have been a concussion grenade. I remember Vin and Leo talking about using them. His vision should start returning any second now, but he won’t be able to hear anything for several more minutes at least. He’ll be disoriented and unsteady on his feet for quite a while.”

  “So…he’s helpless. Inside Leo’s house.”

  “Yes.” Her voice broke on the simple, one-syllable reply.

  Then we heard loud voices and angry shouts coming from the stairwell in front of Damon. Several men came rushing out, and I recognized Leo, standing in the middle of them. They flanked him, covering him on all sides. The sneer of disgust on his face as he neared Damon made my stomach turn. When Leo reached Damon, he swung his leg back and kicked Damon in the stomach with all his might.

  I watched, helplessly and with tears streaming down my face, as he repeatedly kicked and stomped Damon all over his body. Damon’s sight returned and he tried to dodge the blows, but after being disoriented by the grenade, he couldn’t move fast enough. His body suffered damaging jolt after jolt, until he completely passed out. Witnessing that brutality triggered something in me. I’d never felt so helpless, so heartbroken, or so furious before in my life.

  Watching him made me realize something I’d never wanted to face. Had I known what was happening with my mom and rushed in to try to save her, I wouldn’t have been able to handle the brutality. I wouldn’t have been strong enough to stop them. I wouldn’t have had the mental capacity to handle seeing anything they did to her in person. I was barely functioning watching the scene with Damon play out on a monitor in front of me.

  Witnessing men like Leo hurt my frail mother would’ve been too much.

  I wanted to believe I was an inner badass, but too many mirrors had been shoved in front of my face since the first day I entered Damon’s world.

  More shots were fired and more masculine voices called out, out of view from the camera I had trained on Damon. Part of me wanted to change the view, to see who approached them, but I couldn’t stand the thought of losing sight of him. His chest was still moving, although slowly, but at least he was still breathing. That screen was the only string of hope I had to hold on to.

  “It’s Vincenzo and Marco! Thank God they made it through the front gate.” Mama Lina jumped up, pacing back and forth behind our chairs but keeping her eyes glued to her unconscious son.

  Vincenzo’s men surrounded Leo and his guys before disarming them. Marco looked down at his brother’s battered body, and the same murderous rage I saw in Damon’s expression blanketed Marco’s eyes. Just as Marco lunged at Leo, Vincenzo grabbed Marco’s arm and held him back.

  “Not yet.” Vincenzo spoke to Marco, but his stare never veered from Leo. “Help your brother first.”

  Marco knelt beside Damon. “Hold on, bro. We’re going to get you fixed up. Jillian, if you can hear me, call Doc and tell him we’re on our way so he’ll be ready for us.”

  With shaking fingers, I dialed Matteo’s cell and waited impatiently for the call to connect. When I heard his voice on the other end, I barely gave him time to say hello before I started pouring out the details at him.

  “Calm down, Jillian. The trauma team will be on standby in thirty seconds. Just get him here.”

  Marco called Mama Lina after he’d loaded Damon in the car. They wouldn’t wait around at Leo’s for the police or ambulance to show up. She and I flew out of the house, heading straight for the emergency room where Matteo worked.

  To say I was waiting on pins and needles for Marco to arrive at the hospital with Damon was a gross understatement. Every tick of the second hand on the clock was more excruciating than the last. The screeching tires outside the emergency room could only signal the arrival of one person.

  Chapter Eight

  Damon

  “I said I’m fine. I’m not staying here.”

  My busted lip and swollen jaw somewhat muffled my words, but I still got my point across. I’d been in the ER for hours already. I’d been poked, prodded, evaluated, scanned, X-rayed, and otherwise violated in every medical fashion I could imagine. If anything life-threatening were wrong with me, they would’ve found it by then. Since I was able to sit up on the hard gurney, going home only made sense to me.

  But if Matteo saw how much it hurt to move any muscle in my body, he’d call Dad and I’d lose the argument before it even began. As long as I held my breath and didn’t flinch, I was certain I could convince him not to admit me.

  “Damon. You look like you’ve gone twelve rounds with Mike Tyson while your hands were tied behind your back. Come on, man. You don’t want to miss what goes down next, I get it, but you really need to stay for a couple of days.” Matteo stared at me, refusing to be the one to back down.

  “I’ll be fine. Jillian will take good care of me. Won’t you, doll?”

  “No.” She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at me. “I thought they killed you, Damon. You need to look in a mirror, then you wouldn’t be so impatient to leave. There are cuts, bruises, sprains, and broken bones all over you.”

  “Plus a concussion—from the grenade and from the beating you took afterward. This kind of shit doesn’t happen to just anyone, Damon.” Matteo shook his head, exasperated with me.

  “I feel much better now. Finish patching me up and send me home, Doc.”

  “Just so we’re clear, Damon, I am not agreeing to this. If you leave, you’ll be leaving against medical advice, not with my consent.”

  “Understood. You’ve done enough for me. I’ll sign whatever you need me to sign so it covers your ass.”

  “You’ll have a hard time signing anything with broken fingers.” Jillian gestured toward the cast on my right hand. My fiancée was sorely displeased with me. />
  “I’ll hold the pen with my teeth. It’ll be fine.” I winked at her and immediately regretted it.

  She saw the bolt of pain run through me from the simple movement, and her mouth dropped open in shock and anger. The swelling around my eye rendered the X-rays inconclusive, but I couldn’t deny the area hurt enough to say my occipital bone was at least cracked. Though they didn’t know for sure, the ophthalmologist on call insisted we treat it as though it were broken. Extra precautions, extra medications, extra time to heal. All of that could be done at home, though.

  “Are you always going to be this stubborn?” Both her eyes and the tone of her voice challenged me, daring me to give her anything but the truth. Any other time, her feisty, fiery side would’ve been a complete fucking turn-on.

  “Yes, you know I will be, doll. Almost as much as you.”

  “Jillian, come with me. I need to go over the medical protocol with you for each of his multiple injuries. If you see any of the warning signs, call an ambulance immediately. Don’t wait for Damon to agree. You hear me, cuz?”

  “I hear you, Doc. If it comes to that, Jillian will have the final say. I won’t argue with her.”

  “You have a significant concussion, Damon. You may not even realize you’re being combative with her if it gets to that point.” Matteo arched his eyebrow, asking me one last time to stay in the hospital. But I couldn’t. Bad timing was an understatement.

  “We’ll stay at my parents’ house for a while so we’ll both have help. Send a home health nurse with me—a big, burly man if you think that’s best. I can’t stay here any longer, though.”

  Understanding, despite his hesitancy, dawned in his eyes. I wasn’t only being stubborn, that time anyway. There were legitimate reasons that prevented me from kicking back in an uncomfortable hospital bed and watching TV all day while I waited to be discharged with a clean bill of health. Family business that was still unfinished. Business that couldn’t—wouldn’t—wait for a few days while I recuperated. With any luck, I’d have time to recover when all the craziness settled down.