Page 18 of Dangerous Secrets

There is nothing more shameful to a man than to be seen as weak, so I leave Dom’s office before I see that in him. I know he needs space to process, just like me. We have a few new lives joining our family soon. Leo’s gal will pop any time and Nanette just announced she’s expecting too. We’ll raise the next generation of Gusev men to take our place and one day we’ll all die too. Dominic has a lot to think about, all of us who he will lead and protect, and how he will do it without the wisdom of our father to guide him.

My shoulders feel heavy as I get in the car and wish I’d have taken him up on that drink. I could use it right about now. I have to stop a few places to get more intel on my shadow friend, and one of those places is Bianca’s dressing room again. We got interrupted by her brother yet again, and I had to sneak out. If Dad is right and she’s part of the Italian family, it only makes sense that she may have heard something about L'ombra. If so, I know she will tell me.

Still, I head to the bar for a drink. I need to loosen up a bit and put my priorities in order. They should be: my target, Dad, Bianca, but when I’m on edge I always put her first. That’s gotten me into some trouble by delaying my research at times, and it has to stop. She is more important to me than anything, but if I can’t protect my family from this risk, I won’t ever be able to protect her from future risks, and I plan to make her my wife—enemy or not. She might be Italian now, but what we have can’t be denied by anyone.

By the time I sit at the bar and order my first beer, I’m feeling a little more relaxed. Dad’s death is going to rip through our family and upset a lot of people, but us five brothers are prepared. We are so close to the epicenter we’re already prepared. We’ve done as much mourning as anyone can do before someone they love dies. Now we are just waiting for it to happen and trying to make Dad’s last days as memorable as possible.

I slurp my beer and watch the news, numbing myself. As images of the crime scene where I gunned down that guy in cold blood flash across the screen, I feel my chest tightening. It’s a sob story about his wife and unborn child, one at home too. They bought a new home and were just moving in. I am an utter asshole for taking him out but why the hell did he run? It only makes me think he was a dirty cop in bed with someone he shouldn’t have been, even if it wasn’t the Italians.

“Another?” the keep asks, and I nod, pushing the empty bottle toward him.

Four beers later and a good buzz going, I drop a few twenties on the bar and stand. I haven’t eaten all day and I’m tired. The alcohol hit me and made me feel a little dizzy but not bad. I have a bit of work to do before I can head to the nightclub to visit Bianca and finish our conversation. I head toward my car to find it’s not there. It’s been stolen or moved, or maybe I’m disoriented.

I suddenly feel weaker, like I’ve drunk twice as much as I know I had. I press my hand to my temple and feel a tickle on my wrist. My hand slides down the side of my face and I feel something soft protruding from the end of something hard—a dart. Fuck…

I pluck it from my neck and look at it as my vision begins to blur. I’m dizzy, so much so that all I can do is lean against a light post. The dart has red feathers just like the one I pulled out of Dimitri’s chest. I hold it to my nose and inhale the same scent of saffron and sage too. It’s a match to the one that killed him, which makes me feel sick to my stomach.

My legs are weak. I cling to the light post and hear footsteps behind me. I whip around and reach for my gun which I instantly realize is not on my hip. It’s in my car where I left it when I visited Dominic. “Who are you? What do you want?” I know it’s The Shadow. And I believe I know what he wants.

Something dark flashes in front of me and I try to follow the movement. I push off the light post and try to stand but a boot connects to the side of my face, making me reel around. I collapse to my hands and knees, coughing and dry heaving. The attacker says nothing, and I feel powerless to defend myself. Isn’t it bad enough they’ve shot me with a poison dart? They have to beat me too? I wonder how quickly the poison will set in. How fast I’ll die.

“Stop… They’ll come for you,” I try to protest but another blow to my side forces the air out of my lungs. I feel a sharp pain in my rib and shout in pain, sweeping my arm out to connect to the attacker’s leg. They drop to the ground and I hear a sharp exhale. “Bastard,” I yell, bringing my hand up to strike them, but they kick out and knock my hand away. So using all my focus, I roll to the side, landing on my shoulder, and use my foot to provide a hard blow. I’m not sure where I hit them but I hear a gasp and a grunt of pain.

I’m weak, so weak I can’t even move now. My energy is spent. The toxin is sucking the life out of me. I feel darkness creeping in. I’m in no pain though; it feels like a pleasant sleep sneaking up on me like a Sunday afternoon nap after a large meal with family.

Then I smell the perfume again, sweet saffron and sage. It’s a woman’s perfume. My attacker is female. That’s why I got the dart. She can’t overpower me physically; she needed some help in the form of chemicals. I lie there at her mercy, praying this isn’t the end of me because now I can’t even move.

I pry my eyes open, seeing the blurry outline of a petite figure dressed in all black. Fingers push my hair out of my eyes and touch my face gently. She stoops, her perfume strong as her lips brush my ear. “Stop hunting me, Roman, or you and your brothers die. Do you understand me? L’ombra is off-limits to you. Find someone else to hunt. I’d hate to have to kill you all.”

Her whispers tickle my ear the way Bianca’s breath does. I close my eyes again, forcing myself to memorize every hint of that scent. I hear footsteps retreat from where I’m lying on the sidewalk—she’s limping. It was a warning, nothing more. Whatever she dosed me with won’t kill me. If it was going to, she wouldn’t have given me the warning for my brothers to back off too. She was sending a message and it is received loud and clear.

Except, she has no idea who she’s up against. I know now that L’ombra is not a man; she’s a very intelligent woman. She knows how to dose someone twice or three times her size to make them weak so she can fight. She knows how to mix toxins to kill instantly. And she is now injured, at least slightly. That limp tells me she’ll be in pain for a while, and when I catch up to her I’ll be ready for her.

I let my body relax. I have no clue how long it will take for the toxin to wear off, but someone will stumble upon me here and help. If not, I’ll wake and message one of my brothers to come get me. Then, we’ll start the search for the assassin with a new parameter in mind.

L’ombra is a woman, and even though I frown at killing women, I won’t hesitate to slit that bitch’s throat.

12

BIANCA

Ihurry away from where Rome lays in a puddle of blood. He won’t die. I made sure to cut him enough to leave a mark but not enough to really harm him. It’s the tranquilizer that has him knocked out. Me, however, I’m hurt, and bad. I feel my stomach cramping and tensing and the blood on my side from where I fell on my own fucking knife isn’t a good sign.

Dragging one leg, I make it around the corner into the alley. Pain radiates down my side as I lift my shirt and see the cut. It’s deep; I need stitches, though I probably won’t bleed out as long as I get somewhere quickly. Roman really did a number on me even half-drunk and tranquilized. I knew he was strong, but I hoped the dose I gave him was enough.

I can’t stay here though, because even if no one comes for him, I can’t call my family in for help with him so close. They will assume I’ve failed because of him and they will go after him. Seeing as how near he is to me, I need to put space between us before I get help. So I limp on, four blocks, then another few. When I feel faint, like I’m going to pass out if I don’t stop, I lean against a building and pull my phone from my pocket with my bloody hand and dial Soren’s number.

When he picks up I hear loud music and a woman making horrid sex noises in the background. It’s disgusting, but I have no choice. I know he’s the closest to where I am. “What? You’re sort of interrupting.” He sounds angry, but this is the exact reason we have a rule in place that no call goes unanswered.

“I’m hurt,” I grunt, sliding down the brick wall. I don’t know if I’ll be conscious when they get here, but they can ping my location if they need to. “Get help.”

“Fuck, Bee… You had to go and get yourself hurt?” Soren sounds upset but understanding. “Where are you?”

“Hey!” I hear the woman in the background who is now quiet and sounds upset. I can always count on my brothers to be there for me.

“I’m not sure. You’ll—” I wince as my hips hit the ground and pain shoots through my side. “You’ll have to ping my phone. Please…. I’m bleeding bad.”

“Stay with me,” he says and I hear shuffling in the background but I can’t stay with him. I’m so lightheaded the darkness takes me and I drop my phone.

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