Page 30 of Dangerous Secrets

"I need your help," she says, her voice barely above a whisper. She speaks in a harsh tone too, as if she's disguising her voice. As I step forward, she steps away, keeping her face in the darkness, hair tucked into her hoodie. There is no way for me to tell who this woman is except the outfit and the perfume.

I lower my gun slightly, but I'm still cautious. "Why should I help you?"

"Because if you don't, we'll both be dead by morning." I don't like the sound of that. I motion for her to come closer, keeping my gun trained on her the entire time, but she steps behind a shelf, vanishing from view. This is some twisted game, a way for her to manipulate me into letting my guard down but it won't work.

"Who's after you?" I ask.

"You... They're after you." Her voice has a warm tone to it, melodic even. But it's not her natural voice. She is purposely speaking at a much lower pitch, as if she were a man. It's not a good sign. In fact, it's a red flag. Why would L'ombra need to disguise her voice? We know she's a woman.

I step forward, creeping slowly toward the end of the row of shelves with my gun still pointed in front of me. "Show me your face," I demand. Everything within me screams to know who this woman is, to prove that it isn't Bianca, that she isn't the one I'm hunting. I near the end of the shelf and turn the corner to clear my path and something comes down on my arm hard. My gun fires, discharging a round into the wall, and then I drop it.

"What the hell!" I wince and grab my arm, seeing a metal pipe in her hand. She tosses it and rushes back into the darkness, and in the split second it takes her to conceal herself somewhere within this store, I hear her gun chamber a round. I clamber for my weapon, now ready to fight. "Come out here and show yourself."

Searching the floor, I find my gun and stand up, pressing myself against a wall.

"You have to stop now! They are going to kill you. I'm here to warn you that you and your brothers are all in danger." The way she talks makes it impossible to discern who she is. I can barely understand her. I creep down the next row and move closer to where I hear heavy breathing.

"Why would you warn me? You're L'ombra. You're the assassin they hired." I roll my foot from heel to toe, then put the next one down and do the same. This place is an echo chamber, magnifying every sound. Her breathing is so heavy it’s giving her away but she’s not moving, not trying to get away. But she doesn’t speak again either, so I continue toward the end of the row.

It's so dark in here I can’t see a damn thing. I have to rely solely on my sense of hearing but with the way sounds bounce around between the metal shelves and the hard cement floor, I feel turned around. I squint, trying to get my eyes to adjust and focus, but I’ve been staring at that damn computer screen for hours now. It might take another ten minutes for my vision to adjust and I don’t have that time. I know that the instant I round the end of the shelving unit and feel the cool steel of a gun barrel pointed at my temple.

“Drop the gun, Rome.”

My heart sinks the instant she speaks. I recognize the voice and it makes me pause a moment too long. She pushes her gun harder into my temple and raises her other hand to take my gun right from my grip. “Let go,” she orders and I have no choice but to comply. L’ombra is a cold-blooded killer—one I won’t test. I’ve seen her in action; she has no mercy, except perhaps with me. Which is why I straighten and raise both hands in surrender.

“What do you want?”

She lifts her hand slowly, pulling back her hood to reveal her face in the dim light that streams through the small window just above her head. It’s not much, but I can see the curve of her nose, the plumpness of her lips, and the thick waves of her hair that are almost imperceptible in the blackness they fade into.

“Mickey will kill you, Rome.” Her voice is no longer disguised at all, and neither is the emotion in it. It’s hurting her to do this, but I don’t doubt for a second she will pull that trigger if I scare her.

“Why, Bianca? Why lead me on? Why this…?” I start to turn my head to look at her but she nudges the gun and I purse my lips, keeping my eyes fixed on the window. “Why did you shoot my brother?”

She sniffles and I know she’s crying. Fuck, this is so messed up. We’ve been hunting each other? They hired her to kill me?

“I didn’t shoot your brother, but I know who did.” She clears her throat and continues. “You have seen my work. I don’t use guns at all.”

“Then what’s this?” Waving my hand I gesture at the gun she has pointed at me.

“This is your only warning. I have to leave town because I have to get away from them. But don’t think for a second they won’t still come after you. They plan to take your entire family out, maybe even at your father’s funeral.”

The bell chimes and I hear, “Rome… I’m here. We have to talk.”

“Bianca—” I start but she cuts me off.

“Goodbye, Rome. I have to go.”

Before I can react the butt of the gun comes down hard on my head and I wince in pain, dropping to my knees before falling forward as the room goes black again. I don’t know how long I lie there but Dominic awakens me with a hard slap to the face. It takes me a few seconds to realize where I am and what happened. The lights are on; he has my gun in hand. His concern is only evident in the scowl of disapproval on his face.

“What the hell happened?” He backs away and I sit up slowly, rubbing my head. She left a nice-sized lump on the top of my head that will hurt for a few days. Fuck if I’m not enraged to know I’ve been blindsided by her, deceived this entire fucking time.

“She was here…” I stand and reach for my gun but Dominic glares at me and takes a step back.

“It’s that woman you’ve been seeing, isn’t it? Dad told me he was suspicious of her, but I thought you’d be more careful.” Dom is pissed. He thrusts my gun into my gut and walks past me. “We’ve been on this for months, Rome. How could you not see past all her lies?”

“You don’t know that it’s her.” I put my safety on then holster my gun and follow him. I can’t just out her or he’ll go straight to wherever he thinks she is, and when he finds her he will kill her himself. I can’t let that happen. Not until I talk with her and find out what the fuck is going on. “And the assassin didn’t shoot Matty, but she knows who did. I can find out.”

Dominic stops by the front counter and spins around to stare at me. “We’ve lost dozens of men to this assassin, and you think the fact that she didn’t shoot our brother means something? Your orders were to kill her. So help me, Rome, if you’ve known it was that singer this whole time and you said nothing, you’ll—”

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