Page 234 of Syndicate of Sin Bundle

This was more than the average mafia. Not many people were this accurate, especially not when it was dark, the car was hidden behind thick brush, it was raining, and they didn’t even leave their car.

I wanted to scream out in terror as two bullets whizzed right past us and hit me in the calf. But Alessandro curled his arm tighter around my waist and pressed his hand against my mouth.

“Quiet.”

More bullets raced through the air, close to hitting us again. My leg felt like it was on fire, an intense pain shooting up my thigh. The blood gushed out of it, and I squeezed my eyes closed.

“Shh, shh, shh, reginetta.”

Someone opened the car door, and I could hear the faintest footsteps coming in our direction.

Alessandro moved me beside him, resting me against the car, and said, “Stay here.”

I stared at him, wanting to do nothing more than help because I felt useless like this, but I couldn’t move. With every passing moment, all I felt was more and more pain. Searing fucking pain.

How the fuck was I going to explain this to Tommy?

Alessandro grabbed my gun and crouched beside me. Two men came into view, guns pointed at the ground near us. But before they could shoot, Alessandro shot them both right in the head, killing them instantly.

He grabbed my arm, pulled me to my feet, picked me up, and hurried toward their car. Then he threw me into the backseat, started the car, and hit the gas, getting out of there as quickly as he could.

I stared at him in the rearview mirror, watching him gaze into the rearview mirror every now and then to make sure nobody was following us. He peered at me for a quick moment and clenched his jaw.

I frowned at him and said the first thing that came to mind. “Thank you.”

18

chiara

Alessandro drove for fifteen minutes on the back roads. Rain beat down hard on the windshield, and I tried so desperately to stop the blood from gushing out of my bullet wound. But the pain was quickly spreading through my leg, making it worse. He looked in the rearview mirror to make sure we weren’t being followed, then pulled into the old, abandoned junkyard.

He drove by a woman sitting in a running car and held his hand up to say hello, and then he parked this car toward the back. I stared through the window at the woman, my brows furrowed. As he parked, I took off my shirt and tied it around my wound so I wouldn’t bleed to death.

After Alessandro got out of the car, he opened my door and raised a brow at me being almost naked. “If you want me to fuck you, reginetta, all you have to do is ask.”

I tried to move around to face him, but the pain shot up my leg again.

“Fuck,” I cursed, taking deep breaths through my nose.

Calm yourself, Chiara. It doesn’t hurt that bad.

I used all my strength to pull myself out of the car and land on my one good leg. Then, I tried hard to hobble out of the car to the woman’s SUV—because I guessed we were just trusting random people to pick us up now.

But when I placed my foot on the ground, I almost collapsed.

Alessandro crossed his arms over his chest, the rain hitting him right on his perfect fucking face. “Does the princess need help?”

I tried not to let him get under my skin and stared over at him. “Don’t push it,” I said through clenched teeth. His smirk widened, and he stepped back, about to make another snarky remark that I didn’t want to deal with so I said, “Please.”

I hated how desperate I sounded. I hated the smug look on his face when the word tumbled out of my mouth. I hated how I felt when he leaned down and picked me right up into the air with his chest so close to mine, his hands touching my skin.

He placed me into the backseat of the woman’s car, and I rested my leg on the seat next to me. The blonde woman hummed from the front seat, a big smile stretched across her face as she looked back and forth between us. Her makeup was done, hair pulled back into a high ponytail. I pressed my red-colored lips together and tried to forget the stupid smile she had given Alessandro when he got into the passenger seat.

Who was she? And why the hell was she picking us up again?

“Bring us to my place,” Alessandro said.

“I am not going to your place.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “I want to go home.” So I could meet Ray and get my wound patched up. It was hurting like fucking hell, and Alessandro wanted to take me back to his place?

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