Page 4 of Merciless Attraction

“You tell me, doc,” I reply with a small smile, grip the back of his head and pull him down for a kiss. My tongue slides into his mouth easily. Warm passes of his lips over mine make everyone else in the room disappear, but the moment ends just as quickly as it begins.

He whispers against my mouth. “I should never have let you leave my sight.”

Somewhere in the words unspoken, I know he means more than just letting me leave him at the bar.

Chapter 2: Antonio

Five years, four months, and eight days.

The last time I remember seeing Gemma Marzano clashes with a moment in my life I hate. Leaving New York again because I have to do what’s best forThe Family.My heartbroke because I’d fallen for someone I knew I couldn’t have. The lingering memory is a stolen kiss after her graduation dinner.

Now we’re on the opposite side of the country with her lips brushing against mine once again. Her tongue swirls in my mouth and I have plans of never letting us go back to familiar strangers.

The deliriously devilish ideas swirling in my mind of every way I can have Gemma, own Gemma, own her orgasms, have plagued me in the past. When the Marzano brothers arrived in San Francisco a few months ago, I had no idea she came with them. My selfish prick is ecstatic over the idea of her being so close I can touch her.

And now?

Now, she feels small in my arms. I pull back from our kiss and Gemma’s eyes roll to the back of her head before she collapses against me.

“You’re going to pay for this, Verducci,” I warn the newest Don of the Dacosta Family. The fat bastard took over after Vito Dacosta’s untimely incarceration.

I flex my fingers in and out, letting the pain course through my hand. There’s a tightness in my chest. The iron-tainted scent of fresh blood excites me in a way I hate to admit. Blood on my hands from pummeling some asshole to the ground feels different from treating a patient. Wielding the power of life and death outside of my job has me flying high.

Verducci holds his hands up in surrender, saying, “Let’s not be brash, Doc. Take your girl and go. Make sure you explain to Bash—”

“Don Marzano to you,” I snarl, scooping Gemma into my arms. I won’t let a stranger disrespect the hard-earned title of my best friend.

“My apologies. TellDonMarzano thatDonVerducci extends his apologies. We will take care of this matter ourselves.” Verducci’s words don't assure me of anything other than letting me know I’ll be back to take care of that sniveling little shit, Frankie, myself. In the meantime, I have to get Gemma to the clinic.

Just outside the door, people wait in line for the bathroom as if nothing’s happening. To the average clubgoer, nothingishappening. It looks like another girl who can’t hold her liquor being carried out.

Ronan Cannella, one my closest friends and colleague, is sweet talking some woman at the bar when he sees me hauling ass out of the club with Gemma in my arms and her friend on my heels.

“Did you drive?” I ask Gemma’s friend.

“No, we didn’t. We’re responsible drunks. Who are you? How do you know Gemma?” She asks. It lets me know that she’s new. At least, a friend of hers from the last five years. No one from her childhood would have to ask.

“I’m Antonio Calisi, friend of the family. And you are?” I ask, with a peek over my shoulder. I don’t trust Verducci not to follow us.

“My name is Natalie. What’s going on? Is she going to be alright?” she asks right as Ronan pulls the car up to us. People are beginning to file out of the club. I nudge my chin for Natalie to get into the front seat while I slide into the back with Gemma still in my arms.

Ronan knows his way to the clinic. It makes it easier to treat Gemma in the back seat. I tap the side of her cheeks lightly, trying to get her eyes to open. Beautiful gray eyes peek at me from behind their heavy lids. She moans, rolls her eyes and shuts them again.

“Come on, Gem. Open those gorgeous eyes, love.” I beg of her as I reach under Ronan’s seat to pull out his medical kit. There’s always at least two in his car at any time. As ER doctors, we never go out without them.

After checking her pulse, I gently hold her eyelids open. One at a time, I check her pupils with a small flashlight. Her heart rate is too slow. Every breath sounds hard for her, and I know we have to work fast.

“Narcan?” I shout to the front seat as I rub the top of her lip with my thumb as firmly as I can without hurting her. Normally, I’d use my knuckles, but Frankie’s blood is mixing with mine across them. She moans, moving her head slowly with annoyance.

“Stop, just let me sleep.” Gemma whispers.

Ronan slams his fist on the steering wheel. “No. Meant to restock at the hospital earlier. We'll be at the clinic in two minutes.”

“Do you have any idea what that asshole gave her?” I ask Natalie, who’s facing the wrong direction in her seat to watch my every move.

She shakes her head from side-to-side as we pull up to the clinic. Ronan grabs the doors as I rush Gemma inside the Cannella Medical Group Health Clinic. Ronan’s family, him and his sisters to be exact, run the place. I step in from time to time when I need to get away from the hospital shifts.

The silence of the empty clinic is haunting, but we rush inside to one of the exam rooms. Soft beige walls are soothing under the emergency lighting. Hardwood floors have the same shade of light brown with white cabinets against the wall. White countertops run along the bottom cabinets with jars and trays of his sister’s supplies.

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