Page 33 of Mob Bride

“Kaja. She goes for a run here. Where is she?”

“I don’t know who you’re talking about, and I haven’t seen anybody else. That’s why Jacek picked here to attack me. There’s nobody around, and neither of us could have seen anybody because nobody’s gone past.”

I know he’s going to have questions, wondering who Kaja is, and he’ll come to me to see if I know. Fucking hell. The sirens get louder as police approach. Somebody must have called it in. There aren’t too many homes nearby, but that also means sound carries with little to absorb it.

“Make up your mind soon.”

Shane calls out to them as he continues to text one-handed. He still has his gun pointed at Tymoteusz, but his eyes must dart between his phone and the now seven men who all have weapons pointed at him. It’d be a fucking firing squad.

It tempts me to come out of hiding and stand alongside him, but that would only spur Tymoteusz and his men to shoot. They won’t wait to see who’s coming, and they definitely wouldn’t waitto find out why it’s me. I just have to bide my time, and it might drive me crazy.

“Come on. We’ve got a few seconds left. It’s your men or my men. What’s it gonna be? Decide.”

Tymoteusz scowls but concedes. “Yours.”

“You want his body?” Shane speaks of Jacek as though he’s the last piece of pizza, not a human being.

Then again, that is a stretch, considering he’s acted more like a beast than a person. I know I certainly won’t miss him. I wonder how Bartlomiej will feel about this. He cares about his brother because they’re brothers, but I know he doesn’t like Jacek as a person. However, he relies on him as a second-in-command. This will elevate Tymoteusz if Jacek dies—nobody’s checked on him, which says something. The assumption is he’s already dead.

That makes me focus on the body for a moment. Double fuck me in the ass with a pogo stick. Even from here, I can see blood is still flowing from him. Dead bodies don’t pump blood. Blood drains like a vacuum into the body’s cavity. It doesn’t continue to geyser. That means Jacek is still alive. That means there’s a chance they could get him to the hospital.

It still makes me wonder why none of them have checked on him, even if they assume he’s dead. They would still check, wouldn’t they? Do they want him to bleed out? Did Tymoteusz give the order not to? Or are none of them motivated on their own to do it? That leaves so many questions without answers right now.

“Yeah, we’ll take him.” Tymoteusz sounds about as thrilled to do that as he would if he were getting a colonoscopy.

“All right, cleaners are on the way. They’ll be here, but we have to move the police to somewhere else.”

His right shoulder drops ever so slightly and pulls back just a fraction of an inch as though he’s giving me a sign to fallback farther. Somehow, he knows I’m still here. I’m certain he didn’t see me. He must have a sixth sense about it.

“All right, how do you want to play this? I’m all for me running, you chasing me, guns drawn.”

“The hell we are. No suicide by cop today.” No surprise Tymoteusz isn’t down for that idea.

“Then you have to shoot in a different place. Draw them away and make them think whatever this is moved on. It would mean people are alive to keep shooting at each other. Do you really want my name connected to your name?”

Even from here, I can see how Tymoteusz’s scowl darkens. There’s simmering rage now close to boiling over. He knows Shane’s right and doesn’t want his name connected to them. It’ll spread, and once people know Jacek is dead, they’ll deduce it was an O’Rourke who did it. It’ll only build Shane’s reputation in the underworld.

It might lead law enforcement to have another charge against him. But knowing he took down the Polish second-in-command would certainly make many people think twice before crossing the O’Rourkes. They could eliminate more than just Jacek as an enemy.

I wonder if Shane’ll say thank you. I’ve been told I have a dry wit. I don’t know how funny that was.

Tymoteusz’s still pointing his weapon at Shane as he takes a step back, then another. “Don’t fucking shoot me in the back.”

I suspect Shane is laughing from the way he sounds when he responds. “Obviously, I’d shoot you looking straight at you. That’s what I did to Jacek. Why would I shoot you in the back? I don’t fear you.”

“Fuck off, motherfucker.”

“By all means, you go your way. I’ll go mine.”

Shane takes several steps backward until he can move into the curve of the trail where he’s not exposed. We both watch Tymoteusz’s men hurry forward and grab Jacek. There’s a soft groan. It makes me want to echo it.

Fuck me, he’s not dead. That means I am.

I barely made it home before Bartlomiej comes pounding on my door. My hair’s wet from my shower, and I’m still naked. I know it’s him because he’s calling out to me. He’s going to wake the entire building. I hurry to grab my robe with my hair wrapped in a towel. I open the door, but I leave the chain latched as I peek around the door to see Bartlomiej and two of his most trusted men standing behind him.

“It’s me, Kaja. Let me in, or I’ll kick this door down, so move back.”

I know he isn’t exaggerating right now. “All right, hang on.”

---