Page 5 of The Killer Who Kept Me

Saros

I couldn’t tearmy gaze from the shorter man with the worried expression. Whether he was afraid of me or what happened I couldn’t determine, but this stranger had no doubt saved Benny’s life and mine.

He stepped back, turning to check out Benny, but the man was resting against the wall. I needed to get Benny medical help and make a call to get Marco’s body out of here and the rest cleaned up, but all I could do was stare at this angelic stranger.

“What’s your name?” I asked, and the man jumped. “I won’t hurt you; you saved my life. I would just like to think of you other than boy, man, or guy.” I smiled, hoping it would put him at ease.

“Oh…” He cleared his throat. “Em, my name…it’s Em.”

Em? Like Emmett or something? I figured this wasn’t the time to have a get-to-know-you.

“Thank you, Em.”

“Uh, you’re welcome. Honestly, I don’t know what I was thinking.” He ran his fingers through his light ash-brown hair. It was a little wavy, no gels or anything in it.

“Sometimes we just do things, and I’m grateful you did.”

He nodded and motioned toward Benny. “He needs help. I’d offer to call 9-1-1, but something tells me that would be a dumb idea.”

If a regular man or woman who worked a nine-to-five job, who was far removed from anything sinister, had stumbled upon what happened here they wouldn’t have helped, and they’d have already run and called the cops. Em here wasn’t regular. In the depths of his brown eyes there was a knowing glint. He was familiar with the darker side of things.

“I can get my man some help, and I’ll take care of everything here. But you, are you okay?”

“Me?” he squawked. “Yeah, fine, no big.”

“I’d like to properly thank you. Unfortunately, I need to handle this situation.” I removed my cell phone from my jacket. “Can I have your number?”

“My, like, phone number?”

I chuckled. “I mean, you could tell me your favorite number, but I can’t call you with that. I’d like to thank you, as I said, but time isn’t on my side right now.”

“No, no, please. I’m fine, really. No need to thank me.” He backed away, palms up.

If I didn’t know better. I’d think the offer of gratitude terrified Em more than what had just happened here.

“Boss,” Benny groaned. “We gotta get out of here. There’s no way someone didn’t hear all this.”

He was right. “Em, your number, please?”

He shook his head, darted his gaze between me and Benny, and then before I could say his name again, he was running down a narrow alley. Gone.

“It’s goingto be fine, Cosmo. Marco is plenty, go to your daughter’s recital,nothing will happen.” Cosmo stood beside the medical exam table, where Benny was getting stitched up by the house doctor, Paulo.

While Cosmo was being slightly disrespectful, he wasn’t wrong. I’d been lax about my security and as my number two, it was his job to make sure that didn’t happen, so I let his snark slide.

“We had the help of a stranger.” Benny hissed when Paulo slid the bandage over the stitches.

“Great, who? What do we know about the person? I’ll make sure to take care of it.”

I darted my eyes to Cosmo. “Did you miss the part where Benny said he helped us?”

“Still, witnesses aren’t good.”

“I don’t want him dead, but I do want him found.” I stabbed a finger at Cosmo. “Alive and unharmed. I’m fuckin’ serious, Cos. He’s not the enemy.”

“Then who is? Do you think it was Frazee?”

I shook my head. “He was getting what he wanted, and so was I. It was a solid deal.”

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