by Cala Riley
I watch as a blush covers her face.
“Are you on duty tonight?”
“For a little while at least. We are going to follow Sof home before I take you home okay?”
“Oh, that’s actually perfect. Here, Sof.” Mia hands me my purse. “Eddie said he doesn’t want to stay late tonight and told us we could go ahead and go.”
I look around and find that at some point Lou left.
“Okay. Sounds good.”
I lead the men out to the backdoor, which is the door the employees usually use. As we pass through the kitchen, I find Lou talking with Eddie.
‘Night Eddie. Thanks for closing up.”
“Anytime, Darling. You guys be safe getting home.”
“You too.”
I go to push open the back door, but Lorenzo pulls me back.
“You never go out a door first.”
I nod.
Matt walks out first and scans the area. Then Mia and I follow with Lorenzo in the back. Everything seems normal, but for some reason I have a feeling of dread in my stomach. I pull up my shirt and place my hand on my Beretta. It could be leftover feelings from earlier, but my intuition says we aren’t getting out of this alley without a fight. We walk closer to Lorenzo’s car he has parked. As we are about there, the man from earlier jumps out and shoots Matt. Mia drops to the ground without making a noise. I pull my Beretta while Lorenzo pulls his Sig. I don’t hesitate. I shoot several shots down the alley towards the man. Lorenzo takes off running towards him as I see Mia crawling towards Matt.
“We need to get him in the car, NOW!” I scream.
Lou and Eddie rush out the back door. Eddie rushes to us as Lou rushes down the alley.
I still have my gun pointed down the alley, but lower it as I realize Lorenzo and Lou walking back my way.
He unlocks the car and Eddie helps us get Matt into the back seat and Mia slides in next to him. I jump in the front as Lorenzo takes off, tires squealing, leaving Lou and Eddie behind. He pulls out his phone and is murmuring into to. I keep my eyes on the lookout as we drive through the streets. I glance back at Mia and see she has taken her shirt off and is holding pressure on Matt’s wound.
“Damn it.” She mutters.
“What?”
I yell back to her. My ears seem like they have cotton in them. I realize it is from the gun shots.
“I need another shirt or something to put on his back. It was a through and through so he’s bleeding back there too.”
I don’t even let her finish. I whip my shirt off and throw it to her before I pick my gun back up. I look over to Lorenzo and see he was in the middle of taking his shirt off as he drove, the phone no longer to his ear. I shrug and he smiles.
“You are one badass, Sofia Russo.”
I bask in his praise.
Chapter Eight
Bastiano
“I WANT TO KNOW WHO THE FUCK IT WAS!” I shout into the phone before slamming it onto the table. I watch as a crack forms on the screen.
I turn and start pacing. Ten minutes ago, I got the call from Lorenzo. I have been pacing in the meeting room while calling each and every one of my contacts. So far, no one knows who this man is.
I hear the front door open and see Lo helping Mia carry Matteo through the door. I gesture them into the meeting room without another word. Behind them, Sofia is slowing making her way with Gio by her side.
My eyes take in her mostly naked torso and I see red. I clench my fists as I take in the fact that Gio is leading her in with his hand between her shoulder blades. I snarl and they both stop. Sofia take a couple of tentative steps towards me. In my peripheral I can see that Gio has his hands up in surrender.
Sofia continues to walk towards me and I give her my entire focus. Getting past the lack of clothing, I take inventory of the rest of her body. There is blood on her, but I cannot tell where it is coming from. She is also still holding her gun in her hand loosely.
As she steps in front of me, I reach out and grab the gun while using my other arm to pull her tight against me. I slip the gun in the waistband of my pants before I wrap my other arm around her, cocooning her into my chest.
“In the meeting room. NOW.”
I hiss at Gio. He walks past us and keeps his eyes down.
“No. He needs to go get Iz. What if she’s not safe?”
Sofia looks up at me. She looks shaken, but not frightened.
“She is safe. We have a guard on her. We need to talk.”
I guide her through the archway we were poised in and close the door. As soon as it is shut, I peel my shirt off my back and pull it over Sofia’s head. She grunts at the surprise action.
“You looked cold.” Is my only response.
I reach down and grab her hand as I lead her over to the table.
“What’s it looking like?” I phrase the question to Lorenzo, but he is not who answers.
“The bullet went straight through. As far as I can tell, there is no internal bleeding. I need a first aid kit. Please tell me you have something I can use to stitch this up with.”
Mia looks up at me with complete determination in her eyes. I notice she is also naked and I see her shirt, along with Sofia’s soaked in blood on the table. That eases some of the anger I felt from before.
“Gio.”
That’s all I say. He knows what I need.
Matteo grunts as Mia probes his wound.
“The doctor will be here soon. She can stitch him up.”
Mia throws a glare my way.
“I am not waiting. I can stitch him up.”
I grit my teeth.
“I don’t need you to cause more problems. Better to have a trained professional.”
She stands up straight and accepts the bag that Gio gives her.
“I will have you know that my mother used to treat all kinds of gangsters in our kitchen every other night. I started assisting her when I was seven. I did my first stitch when I was twelve. I am probably even more qualified than your precious doctor. If you are done, I have work to do.”
I am shocked. We compiled a dossier on each girl, but that didn’t come up in our research. I suppose her former clients took their omerta seriously.
She sets the bag on the table and starts digging through it.
“I need a lighter and a bottle of whatever alcohol you have.”
Gio goes to the liquor cabinet kept in this room and grabs a bottle of bourbon and takes it over to Mia. He then pulls a lighter out of his pocket and hands it to her.
“Thanks. I need you and Lorenzo to hold him still. This is going to hurt like hell.” She holds the bourbon out to Lorenzo. “He needs to drink as much of this as possible while I sterilize the needle.”
I look to Matteo and see him grimace in pain, but he is holding together well. I make a mental reminder to give him a bonus.
“Is he going to be okay?”
I look down and find tears in Sofia’s eyes. My sweet, strong Sofia. She didn’t cry when she was being shot at, but now she is crying for Matteo. This woman has more layers than I could imagine.
“He will be fine. It went through his shoulder. He will need some recovery time, but he will be okay.”
I wipe the tears from her face.
“Let’s go sit in the den while they finish up. Lo, you are in charge. Find out who the fuck did this and report back.”
He glances back and nods his head. As we as just closing the door, we hear the first scream rip from Matteo’s throat. Sofia whimpers, but the scream is cut off when the door is completely shut.
“Come on, Tesoro. Let’s wait over here.”
I pull her into the den and without giving her a choice, I sit in the chair in front of the fire and I pull her into my lap. The only light in the room is coming from the fire. Sofia doesn’t fight me. Instead she curls up into my lap and lets her tears fall.
“He is hurt because of me. If he hadn’t gone out first, he wouldn’t be shot right now. If I hadn’t called him in
, the guy might not have even aimed for him.”
“Shhhsh Tesoro. It is not your fault.” I stroke her hair. “Matteo knows the job he signed up for. He knew there would be a possibility of getting hurt. Hell, in our life it is more like an inevitability. He will be fine.”
“You think that guy was trying to kill me?”
I feel the calmness I was gaining from holding her evaporate.
“I don’t know, Tesoro. Lo was only able to give me a quick rundown of what was happening. We can’t be sure if he was aiming towards you or the others. Let’s not worry about that now. You are safe here with me. Let’s just try to relax while we wait for them to finish up.”
“Okay.”
Her tense body takes a while, but eventually she relaxes completely into my embrace.
I continue stroking her hair as I stare at the fire.
I wasn’t completely honest with her. The man was there for her, we just don’t know why. It could have been because of her new connection to me. We haven’t had an attempted hit in Brooklyn in a decade, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t happen. It’s not like we have men at the boarders stopping people from coming through. It has been more of a mutual understanding with the commission that unless it was for legitimate business, we would not venture into each other’s neighborhoods.
Something in my gut told me that wasn’t the case though. Matteo called and told me about how the man reacted at the restaurant. He dressed in a way to mimic us, but he didn’t pull it off well. That screams someone posing as mafia, but what does it mean? I have a feeling it is tired to that piece of shit ex of Sofia’s.
I squeeze her a little tight at the thought and she sighs into my neck.
After our little discussion at the club, I had my men do a thorough background check on Ryan Lafayette. I knew everything about the man, including his favorite place to shit. I also became aware that Sofia wasn’t the first woman he abused. It started in his teens and continued until Sofia. Unfortunately, it probably didn’t end with her. My sources say that while he was actively searching for Sofia, he had taken on another woman.
What concerns me most is the fact that none of the accusations were ever taken seriously. My men spoke to most of the women and each one said that they attempted to report the abuse, but the police wouldn’t take the report. One said they took the report, but then just gave it to him.
There were two who we couldn’t contact. One died under suspicious circumstances while the other vanished in thin air. Her family is still searching for her.
I lean down and kiss Sofia on the head. Ryan is a dangerous man with a badge. He thinks he is invincible. He just better hope he doesn’t end up here. I have no qualms about making him disappear.
A while later, Lorenzo comes out. He is covered in blood and he looks like someone put him through the wringer.
Sofia fell asleep earlier. I feel her steady heartbeat and even breaths. I glance up to Lo.
“Let me take her up to my room, then we can talk.”
He nods.
I gently scoot forward on the chair and life Sofia in my arms. I take her to my room and lie her down under my comforter. She turns and looks at me with puffy red eyes.
“Go back to sleep, Tesoro. I will be right here.”
She gives me a small smile then burrows into the bed. I wait for her breaths to even back out before I slip from the room. I head downstairs and still find everyone in the meeting room. Mia has found a shirt that looks suspiciously like one of Lorenzo’s. I go to greet our family doctor.
“Dr. Fields. Sorry to call you out so late.”
She shakes my hand.
“No problem, although I don’t think you needed me. This young lady did an amazing job stitching him up. She was right. There doesn’t seem to be any internal bleeding. I gave him an IV with fluids and antibiotics to starve off any infections. Once he leaves, he can take one every eight hours.” She shoves a bottle of pills into my hand. “They are for pain so if he doesn’t need it, he shouldn’t take it. He will need some rehab that you can do here at home and his wound will need to be monitored closely. Mia said she could do it. If you have any other problems call me.”
“Thank you.”
Gio steps up and hands the woman an envelope. She nods then leaves. Gio then turns and goes to pick Matteo up, who is knocked out.
“I am going to go get him settled in a guest room.”
“I will go with you.”
Mia walks over and grabs the pills from my hands as she follows Gio out of the room. I shut the door behind her and turn to Lo.
“What in the fuck happened, Lo?”
I run my hands through my hair.
“I don’t know, Bash. The guy wasn’t aiming towards Sof. He specifically aimed and shot at Matteo then he attempted to shoot at me. I think he got hit though. I found blood at the end of the alley. I pressed my pocket silk to it and Tyler is going to come get it to test it and see if he comes up in any systems.”
“So, you shot him and didn’t kill him?”
“Fuck no. Sofia shot him! You should have seen her in that alley. Your woman is badass! She had her gun out even before I did. She isn’t a very good shot, but she did hit him. I didn’t start shooting until I got in front of her. By then, she had already hit him so he was already around the corner.”
The pride in his voice is evident. Sofia has impressed him and gained his trust and loyalty. I understood that feeling of pride. I was feeling it myself. She took care of herself like she said she could. Would he have targeted her without my guys there? Am I putting her in more danger?
I pull her gun out of my waistband.
“Get rid of this. She will need a new gun. If she hit him, we can’t have any trace of this gun linked to her.”
He nods.
“What are we going to do about her security detail?”
I sigh. I had thought of this, but I am not sure what the right move is. For once, I hesitate before making a decision.
“For now, nothing. I need to talk to Sofia in the morning. Either you or Gio need to sit with Matteo tonight. Come get me if you need me.”
I clap him on the shoulder.
“Thank you for tonight. For protecting her.”
“Of course, Bash.”
I turn to leave but pause at the door.
“Out of curiosity, how did both women end up shirtless?”
He chuckles. “They are fearless, that’s how. Neither one was worried about themselves. They did what they had to protect Matteo. To protect OUR family.”
I smile, but he can’t see it.
“That makes them family then.”
Sofia
I snuggle into the warmth of my bed. I cannot believe how comfy it feels this morning. Usually I can feel the spring digging into my back. I also usually feel more exhausted than when I went to sleep. The hazards of being a beggar instead of a chooser.
I have a feeling that I had a bad dream last night, but I shake it off. I often have nightmares and I usually try not to think about them much once I wake up.
An arm around my waist squeezes and my eyes shoot open. This time I recognize the room I am in. For the second day in a row, I awake in Bash’s bed, only this time he is behind me being a big spoon.
I think about pulling away, but then memories from last night flood into my memory. That bad dream I had? Yeah that was real. I jump up and look back to Bash. He lies there looking every bit of tired as I am sure he feels.
“I need to check on Matt.”
I turn to leave, but he calls out to me.
“Tesoro, you might want to put on some pants.”
I look down and see that I am in the shirt he pulled over my head, but that I am indeed not wearing any pants.
“How dare you take advantage of me?”
I go to the dresser drawer that I found yesterday holds pajama’s and pull on the first pair I find. They don’t fit me quite right, but they will have to do. I roll up the bottoms and tie them tight, so they w
on’t fall down. I look under my shirt and see that my bra is also absent. I notice some dried blood on me, but I don’t stop to think about it.
I spot the bra at the end of the bed along with my pants. I turn and find Bash chuckling.
“You asshole. Did you get a good feel?” I growl at him.
“Tesoro, I didn’t touch you. You stood up in the middle of the night and peeled off your pants. Then you pulled your bra up and threw them at the end of the bed. I had nothing to do with it.”
I see the enjoyment in his eyes as he grins at me.
Shit.
He probably is telling the truth. Ever since I left Ryan I have woken to find myself naked. I think it is because he always made me wear the heaviest pajamas to bed which overheated me. Now whenever I feel warm, I peel off clothes. I am surprised that I am still wearing panties and a shirt.
“Sorry.” I shrug. “I need to see Matt.”
I see a flash of jealousy pass over his face before he jumps up. I mentally berate myself for not enjoying his naked torso more while I had the chance, but shake the thoughts away. I shouldn’t be thinking about that. I need to check on my body guard who I almost got killed.
I watch as Bash crosses to my side of the bed and reaches into a different drawer and pulls out a t-shirt. He pulls it over his head then walks out the door. He pokes his head back in when I don’t follow.
“You coming?”
I hurry out the door after him as he turns and begins to walk again. Four doors down, he stops.
“He might be sleeping. Dr. Fields gave him some medicine to help him relax. He is going to need some rehab for the arm, but he is going to be okay.”
I nod as he opens the door. I am surprised to find Mia and Lorenzo cuddled on a loveseat sleeping. My eyes trail to the bed where Matt is resting as well. I see the rise and fall of his chest, telling me he is breathing.
I let out a breath I didn’t realize I was holding. Lorenzo’s eyes pop open. He moves gently, but there is no point. Moments later, Mia is also awake.
“Morning, Sof. Are you doing okay?” She asks as she goes over and grabs Matt’s wrist and looks at her watch.
“I’m fine. Are you okay?”