Page 4 of Corrupted Heir (Mafia Kings: Corrupted 1)

The dog whined as I moved behind the car. Good, the thing was still alive, but the way its blood was soaking my hand meant it wasn’t going to stay that way for long.

“I’m taking Bullet to the vet. Get to the warehouse, Leo,” I said. “The Porsche is inside. Take it, and get back to the house. Let them know what happened.”

Leo nodded as I turned to lay down cover fire. He didn’t look any more ruffled than he had when we’d first arrived. He was more ready for this than I’d thought.

“Drive fast, and don’t look back,fratellino,” I called as his footsteps sounded at a steady thud toward the building’s side door.

“You know I drive fast no matter the occasion,” he called back. “Vivere, brother.”

Only two men were left standing amid the Cadillacs, and one was spending an awful lot of time eyeing his driver’s side door. The second I heard the warehouse door slam shut behind Leo, I headed for the driver’s side of the McLaren, ignoring for the moment the holes and dents in the car because if I focused on what they’d done to my baby, I might have just torn them apart limb from limb.

With Bullet tucked beneath my arm, I slid into the driver’s seat and revved the engine. A smooth purr despite the damage. The dog whimpered and whined while his small body trembled against me. I kept him on my lap as I shoved the car in reverse and sped out of the parking lot. Outside of a flesh wound, I’d made it out unscathed, but if the dog died, my father was going to skin me and Leo alive.

Chapter Two

Fallon

The pint-size Pomeranian stared up at me with tired eyes, tilting his head from one side to the other.

“You’re gaining your strength again, aren’t you?” I cooed, stroking the fur between his eyes over and over again.

He pressed his tiny head harder against my fingers and closed his eyes. It could have been the comforting stroke of my fingers that helped him settle and drift off, but I liked to believe it was something deeper. Like the animals I tended knew they were in good hands. Or maybe it was so similar to the way my mother used to stroke my brow after a nightmare, the animals couldn’t help but feel the warm comfort that radiated from my memories.

“Pretty soon, you’re going to be good as new. You’ll be as strong as Maggie,” I whispered to him, nodding to the two-year-old Rottweiler two cages over.

With the Pomeranian fully on his way to dreamland, I closed the cage door quietly and massaged the back of my neck. It had been a long day. Two broken bones, two surgeries, and four routine checkups; it had definitely been a long day. But all of my patients made it through, so I counted it as a good day. One more check through the rest of my patients, and I’d be on my way home.

“Don’t you ever sleep?” Corinne teased as she grabbed the broom from behind the door and got to work sweeping up the floor. Corinne was a godsend. Not an angel, exactly—not with an arm covered in witchy tattoos and a glint in her eye that said she was always ready for a little mischief. But she’d been my own personal savior on more than one occasion.

“I slept last week, remember?” I teased back while I dried and put away the tools I’d sterilized. “Call it a night, Corinne. If I don’t sleep tonight, I might need you at your best tomorrow.”

She finished sweeping the floor, returned the broom behind the door, then leaned against it, eyeing me. “If I go home, you’re not going to stay here all night, are you?”

It would save some time. If I could curl up on one of the exam tables, I’d be able to skip the travel time and sneak in an extra hour’s sleep. But no, I wasn’t quite ready to sink that low. “I’ll go home, I promise. I’m just going to finish tidying up, and I’ll be out of here.”

Corinne nodded. “All right, but if I find you here in the morning, I’m going to kick your ass.”

“Got it.”

She nodded and left the room, but she hadn’t made it two steps when she swung around. “By the way, what happened to that hunky guy with the black Lab?”

Ugh, not this again. “Nothing happened.”

“You can’t be serious, Fallon,” she said, swinging her arms out in exasperation. “That guy was giving you major bedroom eyes, and you just let him walk out of here?”

“Goodnight, Corinne.” I sighed and turned to focus on something… anything else.

“You do know you need the company of humans too, right?” She cocked an eyebrow at me.

I huffed and crossed my arms over my chest. I’d heard this lecture a million times before. “I have you, and I have Dad, I guess. What more do I need?”

“Unless you’ve got some funky relationship going on with your dad that I don’t want to know about, what you need is some… human connection. A little human touch,” she said, waggling her eyebrows at me as she unclasped her hair, setting her auburn locks free. They bounced into place just below her shoulders.

“Goodnight, Corinne,” I replied, rolling my eyes. “Don’t you have a date waiting for you?”

“All right, all right,” she conceded. “I’ll go. And I’ll share all the juicy details with you tomorrow. Maybe that’ll give you something to keep you company on those long, lonely nights.”

“What would I do without you, Corinne?”

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