Page 40 of The Disputed Legacy
I’d been so excited about seeing her again after talking to my father about settling down. After our conversation about being content and happy, I had been eager to see her.
Did I check my surroundings as I walked here?
Was I aware of anyone tailing me?
Had I been so distracted with my eye on the prize, thinking of spending time with Willow again, that I’d lowered my guard and hadn’t noticed anyone tracking me here?
My brothers would have guards with them always. Their wives would never be without security. Their children, too. ButI’d found that I moved easier on my own. I could call for backup when I wanted it, and sometimes, depending on the situation and location, I did. I wasn’t naïve or foolish. But my treks here, the short walk between where I’d parked to the diner, those were journeys I had been making on my own. I hadn’t needed constant security on this side quest to watch Willow.
Now, with the sinking suspicion that those shooters had likely only come here with guns blazing because ofme, I hated the possibility that I could’ve been the reason Willow and Oscar were in the line of fire.
“Saul.” Willow cringed more, showing deeper lines on her expressive face as she reached out to me. Keeping her arm latched around Oscar, she extended her hand toward me. “You’re bleeding,” she whispered, panic clear in her eyes.
I shook my head.
She narrowed her eyes. “Youare,” she insisted, worried and stubborn about it.
I wasn’t arguing with her. I was only telling her that it couldn’t matter.
Her safety was paramount. Making sure she and Oscar were all right was all that I could concentrate on.
I’d been shot before.
I wasn’t immortal, but I had a good gauge on when I should bother to be worried.
I would be fine. It hurt like a sonofabitch, but I would live. After the crap I’d endured so far in my life, I knew I would make it out of this just fine.
“Are you hurt?” I asked, ignoring her concern and plowing forward to check onthem.
“Saul, you’re bleeding,” Oscar commented in a shaky voice.
I hated that he was scared.
I loathed myself for ever bringing danger here.
I couldn’t know yet if I was the reason those masked men came here and shot up the place, but I would be finding out the truth of this matter—after I got them to safety.
“Willow!” Margo shouted.
The cook, the tall, burly-looking guy who didn’t seem to speak English, shouted the other employees’ names.
Everyone else was slowly getting out from where they’d sought cover. Not too many customers had been in here, but as I carefully stood and remained in between the rest of the open space and Willow with Oscar, I saw that no one had been killed.
The angle of the windows and the tables had likely protected them all. Without anyone showing signs of injuries from behind the counter, it seemed like the employees had hidden out of the line of fire or had been too far back to have been hit.
Two of the six large windows had been broken, but with the confetti of glass shards on the floor, it seemed like a whole factory of window panes had been destroyed.
Stepping out further from the table, I gritted my teeth at the pain in my arm. As I moved, I held out my hand to help Willow and Oscar slip out from under the table.
They couldn’t stay there. Or, I supposed,Icouldn’t stay here with them. The cops would be crawling around her at any second, and I didn’t want to be involved. After the suspicion Hugo and I shared, that the Romanos were paying cops off, I didn’t want to be on their radar at all.
I needed to get home and investigate this matter with my men. I’d use the Ivanov resources to look into this, but I couldn’t walk away and leave Willow to cope on her own.
Maybe she’d push me away, independent to the core.
Perhaps she’d get testy and ask too many questions, things I wasn’t ready to tell her yet.
If I came clean and told her I was one of the top men in the Ivanov Syndicate now, she’d want nothing to do with me if it implied that I’d bring danger to her and her son.
