Page 71 of His Juliet

I locked eyes with the Butcher, standing fifteen feet away on the forest path.

The Butcher, who was supposed to bein fucking Albania.

He smiled at me through the trees like we were sharing some private inside joke. Hatred boiled my insides as my darkness rose to the surface. My gun was in my hand, but I hesitated. The gunshot would signal to the other Albanians where we were, and I wasn’t sure I could single-handedly hold them off without risking Sienna.

The Butcher’s gun was in his relaxed grip, inexplicably pointed down at the ground in confirmation that he wasn’t here to kill us. Did he think taking us as hostages would give him leverage over the Don?

A shout in the distance, followed by a flurry of gunshots from the road, told me our men had arrived. I used the split-second of distraction to take a shot at the Butcher. It went wide as he dove to the side with a bark of laughter.

“Stay here,” I said to Sienna as I jumped out from behind the tree and ran towards the trail.

A flash of black fabric ahead was my only warning that the Butcher was running away. Warning alarms blared in my head—why wasn’t he shooting at me? Was he leading me into a trap?

“Are you too much of a coward to face me?” I shouted.

He spun around with a snarl. There were still too many trees between us to get a clear shot, but I took it anyway. He let out a roar and cradled his hand, blood dripping from it.

“Romeo!”

Sienna’s scream had me turning just in time to see a man point his gun at me. I dove to the ground, but a searing burn in my arm told me I’d been hit. I hoped it was just a graze, but I didn’t have time to stop and check. I rolled over and pushed up to my feet, aiming my gun in the direction of my attacker, but he was already on the ground. Sienna emerged from behind a tree, her hands shaking as she looked down at the man she’d shot. I whirled around, looking for the Butcher, but he was gone. Instead, I saw two of my men, Elio and Gianni, running down the trail towards us.

“Gianni, stay with Sienna. Elio, with me. The Butcher is here somewhere.” I pointed up the trail where I’d last seen him, and Elio took off down the path. I followed, trying to keep my arm as still as possible as I sprinted through the trees.

But after fifteen minutes of searching, he was nowhere to be found.

“Cazzo!” I cursed as I came to a stop.

“Where the fuck could he have gone?” Elio asked.

I scrubbed my hand down my face. I had no clue. I’d been looking for drops of blood on the forest floor to see if we could track him that way, but nothing.

“Let’s get back to Sienna, but stay on your guard,” I said.

We headed back to the road where Sienna, Gianni, and Antonio were waiting for us. I opened my arms to Sienna for a hug, pulling her close.

“You’re a badass,” I said. “You doing okay? Any other injuries?” She’d cleaned the blood off her face.

“No, I’m fine. I just want to go home.”

“I talked to the Don about cleanup,” Gianni said. “We moved all the bodies into the Albanians’ cars and our cleanup team is on the way. Antonio and I will stay here to meet them. Elio will return to the city with you and Sienna in our SUV.”

“Does the Don know about the Butcher?” Elio asked.

Antonio’s eyes widened. “The Butcher?”

My jaw tightened. “He was here. I’ll call Matteo once we’re on the road. Scan my car for trackers before you get rid of it.”

Sienna bit her lip. “You think we’re being tracked?”

“They found our location somehow.”

The men and I carefully checked over the armored SUV they’d driven from the warehouse for trackers, finding nothing. I would have waited for the cleanup crew to ensure everything got taken care of, but I wanted to get Sienna back as quickly as possible, and Matteo and I needed to plan our retaliation.

37

ROMEO

“You saidhe’d fucking left the country! That multiple cameras picked him up in Albania, and our on-the-ground informant confirmed he was there this morning! So how the fuck is the Butcher still inmycity?”

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