Page 24 of Bluff

We pull up just as Paddy and JJ arrive. JJ—Jimmy Junior—is tall, built like a brick wall, and has dirty blond hair. I can see similar features between him and Ainsley.

We take off toward the entrance. Dmitri charges ahead with the ram and slams it into the door, forcing it open. I’m right behind him, weapon drawn and ready to fire. I spot Johnny Duncan with a crowbar in his hand, standing over Ainsley. I take in her bloody and beaten state. A roar tears from my throat, raw and feral, as I raise my gun to shoot.

“No,” JJ shouts beside me and fires before I can get a shot off. His bullet hits his brother in the shoulder, sending the crowbar to fall next to Ainsley’s body.

I run for my wife and slide to my knees. Praying she’s not dead. That I didn’t lose her too. I push her hair back from her face and see where he must have punched her. I want to touch her more, pull her into my body, but I’m afraid of hurting her.

I press my fingers to her neck, searching for a pulse. Relief floods me when I find it. It’s steady and strong. It settles me, but only slightly. Until she opens those beautiful eyes and her sweet lips fire off some sass, I won’t calm.

“I’ll kill you,” I growl and look up to see JJ has a gun pointed at his brother’s head. “She’s alive.”

“What about Jordon?” JJ’s voice is full of pain as Paddy checks him for a pulse.

“Yes,” Paddy says, and I can’t take it anymore. I grab the crowbar and stand up.

“Watch her,” I tell Andrei, and he nods. I move to stand in front of Johnny. “You like beating on people. Take this.” I swing with everything I have and hit him in the chest. He screams and starts crying like a little bitch. I drop the crowbar when I hear a noise and look at my wife.

“Mikhail.” Her voice is so quiet, so full of pain, it’s almost unbearable.

I drop to my knees beside her. Someone calls for an ambulance, and two soldiers lead Johnny from the building.

“I love you,” she says before falling unconscious.

“No.” I cry out as I lean over her. My hands carefully skate over her body, cataloging her many injuries.

I’m about to take back my word and kill Johnny when a commotion at the entrance gains everyone’s attention. I look up to see the two soldiers covered in blood and Johnny lying on the ground, his head blown apart from a bullet.

“Sniper,” soldiers from both sides yell and take cover. A few moments later, my phone buzzes with a text message.

Blocked number: One shot. One kill. Died for her.

Whoever it is sends another message—an image of Aphrodite rising from the sea.

I read the text over and over before Andrei snatches my phone away. “It’s safe. The sniper is gone. They got their kill.”

Two ambulances arrive, and both Jordon and Ainsley are loaded up and taken to the hospital.

Chapter Nine

MIKHAIL

I sit beside the bed, watching the monitors and holding her hand. She has a broken leg, hip, several ribs, and a shattered arm. A bullet tore through her shoulder—the same arm that’s broken. She’s already had one surgery to save her life, and the doctors are waiting for the swelling in her brain to go down. If it doesn’t, they’ll have to take her back in. Her eyes are blackened from the pressure, and her lip is cracked. They were worried about facial fractures, but she’s lucky. Somehow, there aren’t any.

“May I come in and sit with you?” A soft, feminine voice says from the door.

I stand from my chair when I realize who she is, giving her the respect she deserves. She’s the daughter and sister of two former bosses, and an aunt to the current mob boss, Paddy.

“Mrs. Duncan,” I greet her.

She’s also Jimmy Duncan’s widow and the mother to the boys. She looks down at the bed at Ainsley.

“I knew about her and her sister. I should have told my boys to treat them with respect, but I assumed it didn’t need to be said.” She looks up at me. “This shouldn’t have happened. I’m very sorry for my son’s actions.”

“Mrs. Duncan, you didn’t do this. Your son made his own decision.”

“Jonathon was always a bit headstrong and jealous of Jimmy Jr’s place in the family. He had a lot of his father’s attitude of needing more power.”

“How is Jordon doing?”

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