Page 51 of The Last Dance You Saved
His teeth ground together before he uttered, “There’s a list.”
My mind flashed immediately to Rafe and Lorenzo on Monday in his café. The barely leashed fury that had vibrated through him and the disgust he’d sent my way when he’d thought I was working for a man who may or may not be my cousin. Those thoughts were followed by the image of the long scar traversing his body.
I touched my forehead to his, bringing our mouths so close our breaths mingled, but it also forced him to meet my gaze straight on. “Is that how you got that scar? Someone hates you enough to try to kill you? Why?”
I could see the debate warring within him.
“I’ll show you mine if you show me yours,” he said in a deep, guttural voice that told me, more than anything, he had no desire to tell me what had happened.
But I wanted to gather yet another piece of him, another one he didn’t share with many others, so I gave him my past in order to have a chance at receiving his. “My brother Maddox is our county sheriff, and the leader of the local motorcycle club wanted him under his thumb. Chainsaw tried to kidnap my niece to use her as leverage, and I just happened to get in the way.”
Anger flashed over his face, and his hand tightened reflexively on my waist. I let his touch ground me enough to continue the story I despised telling. “I didn’t even know he was at the ranch at first. One minute, Mila and I had parked and were getting out of the car, and the next, Chainsaw had my ponytail in his hand and a gun at my temple. He demanded Mila come to him or he’d hurt me. I slid my boot down his shin and used his loosened grip to kick him in the balls. When he let me go, I screamed at Mila to run. She headed for the creek, and I followed, but he was faster than both of us. He tackled me, shouting for my niece to come back or he’d kill me. I tried to give her time to keep running by fighting him off, but he was too strong. Too angry.” My palms grew sweaty, feeling again the hopelessness and terror I’d felt then. I’d known I was going to die, but I’d just wanted to give my five-year-old niece a chance to live.
Rafe stroked my cheek. A gentle hand that almost undid me.
“Instead of running away…” Chills ran up my spine as I remember seeing Mila stopping, seeing her head back toward us. “While he was ranting about Mila’s mom stealing his money, she came back, and just as he pulled the trigger, she launched herself at his arm.” I inhaled sharply. “She’s why I ended up with a hole in my leg instead of my heart.”
Rafe’s scowl grew. “She’s okay?”
I nodded. “When he turned to go after her, I grabbed his ankle, and he fell. I was able to hold on long enough for her to get a good head start. I tried to get up, tried to go after them, but I lost consciousness. Thankfully, my sister had found my car abandoned with all the doors open, my purse and phone on the ground, and had called Maddox. When he got to the ranch, he had his girlfriend, McKenna, with him. She’s an emergency room doctor, and she worked on me while Maddox went after Mila and Chainsaw.”
“Give me his real name, Tennessee, and I’ll make sure he’s destroyed if he ever happens to get out of prison.”
His voice held a deadly promise. It sent a thrill up my spine I couldn’t explain. More of those ancient Homo sapien instincts resurfacing—a woman attracted to a man beating his chest and fighting off anyone who threatens something that was his.
Except, I wasn’t Rafe’s.
“He’s dead,” I said, and my voice was shaky from the dozens of conflicting emotions slinging their way through me.
“Your brother shot him.”
I nodded. “He didn’t die at first. He made it to the hospital but not through surgery and recovery.”
“Good.” Not a hint of regret or remorse existed in that single syllable.
And then he kissed me, long and slow, with a bevy of emotions flying behind the flame and lust that normally flickered between us that had nothing to do with sex. I pulled back enough to whisper, “Good distraction, Slick.” A hint of a smile lifted the corners of his lips, but it disappeared as I said, “But now it’s your turn.”
“I don’t talk about it, Sadie. My family…” He shook his head. “They think it was a mugging gone bad.” I tried to soothe him as he’d tried to do for me while reliving the worst day of my life. I ran my palm along the bristles of his clipped beard before resting my forehead against his once more. He inhaled, closing his eyelids briefly before opening them and saying, “I stumbled into some things when I first went to Las Vegas. I was working for Puzo and had no idea the mob still had a hand in almost every dark corner of the city. I thought it was ancient history.”
My entire body stilled at Lorenzo’s name, Gia’s warning coming back to me as Rafe’s focus turned inward and backward in time. “I collected and turned over evidence against some of his men. Racketeering. Money laundering. Drugs. The district attorney was hoping they could get one of the men to flip on Puzo, but it didn’t work out that way. They all went to prison with their lips sealed, much more afraid of him than anything that would happen to them behind bars. Two of them got ten years, and the leader of their crew got life.
“No one was supposed to know it was me who’d turned over the evidence, but in Vegas, you can find out just about anything you want for the right price. I was one of the secrets offered up, and it resulted in my being attacked in an alley by three people. The only reason I got out of it alive was because Jim Steele was running security for a casino nearby and saved my ass.”
“It was Lorenzo?” I asked. It stabbed at me, knowing a part of my family might have struck out at Rafe. “He sent his men after you?”
“No one could prove it. They’d all been wearing masks and gloves. No fingerprints. No DNA. No camera catching them in the act,” Rafe said. “But yes, everyone knew who’d done it.”
“If it was him, why hasn’t he come after you since then?” I asked and then paled when he looked behind me at the bed. “Have these sorts of things been happening all along?”
“No. At first, with the police watching, he backed off. It allowed me to hire Steele and get security measures in place. Then, I started building clubs, growing Marquess Enterprises, and the more I became a part of the Las Vegas community, the harder it was for him to come at me without revealing himself.”
Our stories proved there was a lifetime of differences between Rafe and me, but somehow, revealing our darkest moments had narrowed the gap. We were no longer strangers merely having sex. When I kissed him this time, it wasn’t in an offer of a momentary escape. It could never be that simple between us again. In giving each other these intimate pieces of ourselves, in sharing trauma that no one could truly understand until they’d had death standing at their door, we’d handed each other a piece of our souls. We’d staked a claim on one another that was much more than two bodies connecting with neurons and electrons flashing.
Those thoughts shook me to my core, and I pulled back to give myself a chance to recover from them.
“Is this why you’ve kept Fallon away from you?” I asked. “Because you’re afraid she’ll be a target?”
His nostrils flared as if I’d asked an off-limit question. “Yes and no. Like I’ve told you before, what happened with Spence and Lauren and me…it’s complicated. But this added to it.”
