Page 5 of Under His Embrace

Shaking and silently crying in fear, I tuned out the fists banging on my door and the shouts of the two men trying to find me. Zoning out from their demands to open the door, I fervently wished that I could rectify the situation with my first love. The one person who’d truly loved me. The one man who’d ever cared. Reverting to the desperate thoughts in my mind, I numbed myself from reality, from the very real threat that I was trapped and cornered.

Franco wouldn’t ever forgive me, but as I accepted that I was at death’s door, that my life would be over as soon as those strong men broke into my room, I clung to the fantasy of fixing it all with him. Of apologizing for what I did. Of telling him that I loved him so badly that it ached.

I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Franco. For all I’ve done. I love?—

The door burst open, and I screamed at the blasts of gunfire.

3

FRANCO

“There’s the van.” I pointed out the A&J vehicle on the side of the road. It wasn’t evenoffthe road, like it broke down.

“We’ll go up there, then?” Liam furrowed his brow as he looked ahead to a dump of a motel. The long, lone strip of rooms didn’t look welcoming, but I supposed with the nonstop storms and rain last night, if this deli employee was seeking somewhere close to hide or stay, that dumpy lodging would be it.

“Yeah.” I got my gun out, more than ready to get some damn answers. Every time I neared the prospect of fighting, of venting through violence, I could appreciate the opportunity to not think. To act without conscious thought. Going after the Constella enemies and assholes who dared to attack us was my job. But it was also my pleasure. Because when I let my darkness overrule logic, when I gave in to the temptation to be a brutal fighting machine and killer, I didn’t have the energy to miss her. To think about her. To wallow in the pain of her rejection.

“Ready?” Liam asked as he parked my SUV further back, halfway between the motel and the A&J van. He grunted a laugh, noticing me prepared with my gun in hand. “Stupid question.”

“Look.” I pointed at the sturdy truck with tinted windows. It looked too nice and well-maintained to fit in at this motel. The only other vehicle parked in the lot was a station wagon from the seventies, with one wheel missing. It was propped up on a stack of bricks instead of a real jack, like it’d been left there to rust away forever.

“Yeah, that truck has got to be from the city,” Liam agreed as he shut off the SUV.

“I bet it’s the fuckers who shot up the deli and chased after the employee.” Sheldon provided surveillance footage of two trucks pursuing the A&J van. While I didn’t want to make assumptions, I was certain our attackers were here since the van was.

Before we exited the SUV, I took a picture of the truck in case it could be information to use later. The plates were smeared with mud and illegible, but Sheldon could try to run the vehicle registration and find an owner later.

“Let’s go,” I told Liam.

We reached for the door handles in sync, and like we’d been partners all our lives, we approached the rundown motel as two men in action who knew how to anticipate the other’s actions. He hung back, keeping a lookout for anything toward the east, while I walked ahead and scoped out the surroundings to the west. We’d parked from a distance so the scant tree line could serve as a block. This way, we didn’t have our backs completely exposed.

Two tall men stalked down the path. They rounded the corner of the long building, clearly looking for someone. Bulges at their ankles showed that they were packing. Both of them kept one hand beneath their jackets, indicating that they likely held on to a firearm. Between their hard scowls and tense expressions of being on the hunt, it was obvious we’d caught them actively on the hunt for this employee.

Why is it so important to eliminate the one witness to the shootout?

Are they trying to hide who ordered that attack?

It didn’t add up. Spending all this energy to track down one witness seemed excessive. If the goal was to attack and obliterate a Constella business, they’d achieved that. A&J Deli would no longer remain after the cleanup.

Liam nodded at me as we snuck up to the men. They moved from room number three to its neighbor, number four. Behind them, coming from the side, Liam and I moved stealthily.

We didn’t need to discuss a plan. It was a given that we’d split up, and in this even pairing, it’d be one of those fuckers for each of us to contain. Killing them was inevitable, but not until we got some answers.

“Open the door!” the shorter, bald one said.

“Someone has to be in there,” his taller friend said. “Two keys weren’t in the office and we’re down to the last two rooms.”

I tipped my chin at the taller one, indicating to Liam that I’d take him on. While we were too far to make out many details, I swore that tattoo up along his neck had to match the marking on one of the men we saw in the surveillance footage at A&J’s. The men who shot the place up wore masks, but I was confident it had to be one of the same men.

Liam nodded, holding his gun higher as we rushed at the men. At the last second, when the shorter, stockier guy kicked the flimsy door in, the taller man turned to glare at us. He likely heard our footsteps when we reached the cracked sidewalk of the path in front of the rooms. While we were quiet, we had to hurry before they busted into this room and removed the witness.

Between these two men or the surviving witness, wewouldhave our answers.

“Fuck. Go!” The tall man shoved his partner into the room at the same time he aimed his gun at us. We fired at the sametime, but in the process as the two men attempted to get into the room, Liam charged for the shorter guy and I targeted the other.

We split up, both ducking from fire. I tucked behind a column holding up the leaking and cracked roof that hung over this path. Waiting until he ceased firing, I glanced at the window of room four. The curtains remained shut, but if the employee was in there, Liam would get it under control.

Rapid footsteps led away from me, and I took that as my cue to chase down the tall man who’d shot at me. He abandoned his partner, and running toward the parking lot, he skidded and slipped on the still-slick surface from last night’s rains.

---