Page 26 of Curse

His eyes widen as I flip the desk out of the way and throw him into the wall. Grabbing his shirt with both hands, I slam my knee into his gut, doubling him over. His breath comes in gasps, but I haul him upright, forcing him to meet my eyes.

“Boss, we got the Erase order!” AJ blurts, his voice cracking. “I was just doing my job!”

The Erase order. It’s code for “erase it from existence,” Aurelio’s signature move: remove the location from the earth along with everyone and everything inside. No witnesses, no evidence.

I shove AJ to the ground and jam my elbow into his spine.

“She’s my target,” I hiss. “Your order is never to fuck with what’s mine.”

I stand, bringing him with me, and knee him hard enough in the face that some of his teeth fly out of his mouth and bounce off Franco’s leg. Franco’s eyes widen as I throw AJ into him. “I’ll deal with you two later.”

Bending down, I place my hand on Siena’s shoulder as gently as I can. She jerks away from me, throwing my hand off her, and hits her head on the wall behind her. When she looks up at me, there is terror in her eyes, her chest pumping with short, rapid breaths.

She’s not just scared. She’s scared ofme.

Good. If she’d just done what I fucking told her to do, she wouldn’t be hog-tied and bleeding on the floor right now.

Casting a glance over my shoulder to scout our path out of this shit hole, I see an overturned tissue box and pull a tissue out.

I point at it with a raised eyebrow, and reach in slowly to dab at the blood on her face and hold it to her nose. The blood soaks it almost instantly, and I drop it.

She turns away from me as best she can, and I notice blood on the wall behind her where she banged her head. No way she did that to herself just now, and I realize with a start that she probably has a lot of injuries that I can’t see. She needs medical care, and she needs it now.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” I murmur, my voice softer than I thought possible.

She doesn’t believe me. Even tied up and terrified, Siena shoots daggers at me with her eyes, her muffled protests sharp behind the gag. I almost smile at her defiance. Little brat to the end.

Sliding my knife from my pocket, I crouch to cut the ties binding her wrists and ankles. “Hold still,” I snap as she fights against me, keeping my movements slow and deliberate to avoid cutting her.

When I’ve freed her, I flip her over and slide one hand underneath her knees, the other around her back. I expect her to fight me, but as I stand with her, her eyes roll back in her head, and she heaves like she’s about to throw up. Dipping my head down, I bite the edge of the tape holding the gag in her mouth, rip it off, and spit it out. She turns her head and vomits, the fabric shoved in her mouth coming out with it.

Franco finally speaks. “Uh… Matti?”

“Shut up,” I snarl, my patience for him long gone.

The fact that he’s Siena’s brother is the only reason he’s not on the floor next to AJ. But their connection is also not something I want publicized.

Siena curls into my body and presses her face into my shirt. Her forehead hits the pendant on my necklace, indenting my skin.

It’s a Saint Michael the Archangel pendant, the patron saint of protection and peace in battle. My mother gave it to me when I was a kid, and Siena pressing the pendant into the skin over my heart feels like a message from beyond:Protect this woman.

Siena is covered in blood, which quickly seeps into my clothes. I pick up my pace, but Dante “The Blade” Ruggerio steps in front of me, blocking my path. His jeans are bloody, and he cracks his knuckles loudly.

“No witnesses,” he says flatly. “Boss’s orders.”

“Move, Dante,” I warn.

He shakes his head. “Orders are orders.”

I meet his glare, my voice low and deadly. “She doesn’t have the fucking flash drive. If she did, she would have brought it here. Better tell your guys to start looking for it and stop fucking the place up.”

He holds up his hand in warning.

I grit my teeth. “Touch her, Dante, and I’ll give the cops one more body to clean up.”

Dante grits his teeth and steps closer to me. “You can’t talk to me like that. I’m acapo,too, mother fucker.”

I don’t speak. I don’t have to. My face tells him everything he needs to know. Dante hesitates before stepping aside. He’s ruthless, not suicidal.

---