Page 119 of Tainted Ties

If he was spotted by us, that meant the others had spotted him, too.

Adrenaline coursed through my veins, expecting the chaos that would erupt soon.

“And there’s my uncle,” Roman pointed out.

He stood not too far from Angelo, his eyes tracking his every movement, waiting for the right time to attack.

A half-hour must have passed before the first piercing gunshot was fired by Stefano, aimed right at one of the men sitting next to Angelo.

Immediately, the screaming of civilians fleeing the premises broke out, their bodies shoving past me.

I homed in on Angelo, who tried to escape through one of the exits.

My body moved on autopilot, shoving my way through the crowd.

“Aurora!”

I kept moving.

There was no way I would let that heinous man escape once again.

A gasp escaped me when I was spun around abruptly by my arm.

The hand came down on my face faster than I could block, the force of it knocking me to the floor.

My right cheek throbbed from the impact of the hit.

“Fuck.” Roman was near, his voice sounding muffled to my ears.

“That was my boss, bitch. Wrong move.”

Scrambling off the floor, I watched as Ricardo held the man who must have hit me in a headlock.

In one swift motion, my husband’s head of security jerked his arm to the side, snapping the man’s neck and letting him fall to the ground.

“Three kills within a minute? Unbelievable,” he sighed in disappointment.

Ricardo was relentless.

Pressing down on my cheekbone, I winced when I touched the slightly risen skin.

If I was targeted, then we had been spotted.

“We’re going to have a long fucking talk about you not following orders when we get home.” Roman appeared in front of me, instantly grabbing my face between his hands, and assessing the damage.

It must have looked terrible because without breaking eye contact, he aimed his gun down and to the left before firing.

Turning my head slightly, I found a bullet lodged into the man’s throat, blood running down the column of it.

My lips parted in surprise. “He was already dead.”

“Not dead enough.”

The music stopped, creating an eerie tension in the room.

The space was almost empty, save for the lifeless bodies on the ground.

“Come on,” Luca shouted, running past us.

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