Page 39 of Vicious Vows

“You have the shooters?” I tightened my jaw. “You’re sure?”

“My security team is verifying the shell casings against the weapons they recovered from the men, but I’m sure we have the right people.”

“That was fast,” Milo said.

“No one comes onto my property and takes shots at my guests.” Lorenzo glanced at Lissia. “This needs to be dealt with swiftly. I trust you can do that.”

“You’re going to let Milo and me do that?” This was his territory and his men apprehended them. “Not that I’m complaining.”

“I realize we don’t know who the target was, but your girl was caught in the crossfire.” Lorenzo clasped his hands. “I trust you’ll get as much information as you can before you eliminate the problem in the basement.”

I looked at Milo. “This is time sensitive.”

“I can take a few of our guys and handle things,” Milo said. “You should stay with Lissia.”

Milo was right. Lissia shouldn’t be alone, but if I didn’t address this myself, I wouldn’t be able to rest. I had to be the one to avenge the shooting. Even if the bullets weren’t meant for me, they were fired in my direction and Lissia got shot.

“I have to be there.” I ran my hand along my jaw and turned to the doctor. “How is she?”

“Very lucky,” he said. “The bullet grazed her. She’s not bleeding as much as she was. I’m going to clean and bandage the wound, and I’ll get her some antibiotics.”

“How long will she be out?” I stood over her, hating that she was in this position at all. When I found out who was responsible for this, there would be no mercy.

“A few hours,” he said. “She’s going to be fine, but I suggest you keep her out of the line of fire in the future.”

He went back to tending to Lissia with no regard for how he spoke to me. If I didn’t need him to help her, I would have put him in the line of fire for treating me with such disrespect.

“Ricardo will be here in a few hours.” Milo checked his phone. “The guys in the basement aren’t going anywhere. If you want to wait, we’ll wait.”

“No.”

As much as I didn’t want to leave her, time was of the essence. Whoever these men worked for needed to be discovered. They’d already had a big enough lead on a job they botched.

“We need to get answers,” I said. “We have to find out who those bullets were meant for and who ordered that hit. None of us are safe until we know.”

“I have to put out fires with the men I answer to,” Lorenzo said. “They’re going to want to know what happened here.”

“I understand.” I glanced at Lissia. Her breathing had calmed. The sooner I got this done, the sooner I could get back to her. “I want a full team outside that door.”

“All of my resources are at your disposal,” Lorenzo said. “I’m having the property swept again, and I’ll make sure your suites are secure.”

“Thank you.” I nodded. “Milo, let’s get this done.”

When we got down to the sub-basement of the building, the temperature dropped and the lighting dimmed. This was not the typical hotel basement. Lorenzo had used this dark, isolated space for other purposes.

The fact that this building even had a basement was impressive, with it being so close to the ocean. It reeked of mildew and old sea water.

I took in the low ceilings and damp corridor, searching for any potential problems. It wasn’t in our nature to trust people so quickly. We didn’t know much about Lorenzo, but the fact that Juan had put us in contact helped the vetting process.

“There are no cameras. That makes things easy.” Milo motioned for the security team behind us to keep up. “Whatever we uncover down here, we’re going to have to be rational and not jump the gun.”

“Seriously?” I sighed. “We were the fucking target.”

“I’m pretty sure of that too, which is why it’s imperative to keep calm and get as much information as we can before we take care of the shooters.”

“I’ll get the information.”

We reached the end of the hallway, and two of Lorenzo’s men opened the doors to a small room.

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