Page 37 of Claimed By Him

The knife slotted right into his neck, at the base of his skull. Immediately he was lights out, and the thump of his body hitting the pavement was the last sound I heard. The neighborhood was quiet then. People around here knew that you didn’t run toward gunshots—you stayed the fuck away.

I groaned and clamped my hand over the bullet wound in my left upper arm. Obviously, the guy was using an old ass gun and possibly even older ammo because I could feel that the bullet hadn’t lodged too deeply. It was just a flesh wound. Before I could stand up, I heard footsteps behind me.

Shit. I had another knife in my boot, and I reached for it, but when I turned around and threatened to throw it, I recognized the guy. It was Gio. I sighed in relief.

“Ey, man. I saw you heading down here, and then I heard the shots.” He looked at the body. “Is he down?”

I sank back against the wall behind me, looking over. “Yeah.” I frowned at him. “You were watching Fi?”

“Yeah.” He squatted in front of me and checked my arm.

“It’s not too bad.”

“You’re losing too much blood though.” He flattened his mouth grimly and looked from around. “Someone’s bound to show up; you’d better get outta here.”

He walked to my gun and picked it up, flicked the safety back on, then came back to me again, holding his hand out. I let him help me up and took my gun from him, struggling to stuff it back into my pants. We looked at the body together.

“Okay, I’ll handle the body, you—”

“No.” I cut him off, feeling out of breath. “Leave the body. Just get me my knife.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah. He’s part of a group we’re trying to run out of town. I don’t know who the leader is yet, and I’m trying to draw him out by littering the streets with his men.”

Gio was a Moretti soldier, they didn’t deal drugs at all on their side of town. Yet, he wasn’t averse to the methods of a drug war, so he nodded with understanding.

“You go to Fiona. She’ll help you. I’ll hide in the shadows here and keep an eye.”

“Call Ace,” I told him. “He’ll relieve you… are you sure about me going to Fiona right now?” I didn’t want to force her into this situation if I could avoid it.

But then I pulled my face as a strong wave of pain shot up my arm.

“Yes. She’s done this before. She won’t like it, but you can’t go to a clinic around here; you’ll make it too easy for the cops to know you did it. They won’t be able to turn a blind eye if everyone knows.”

“Fair enough.”

He walked over to the body and pulled my knife out of the guy's head, then wiped it on the dead guy’s pants before handing it to me.

“Get outta here.”

“Gio…” He stopped and looked at me. “Thank you,fratu.”

He nodded and pointed down the back alley that ran between the buildings. I turned and headed for Fiona’s building, clutching my arm to stop the blood from dripping and creating a trail. When I found the right building, I made sure to be quiet as I walked up the stairs and knocked on her door.

I heard her stumble out of bed and saw the light flick on. Even with the pain and my blood seeping out between my fingers, all I could think about was seeing her again and feeling worried that she’d only shove me back down the stairs.

But when she opened the door wearing only a T-shirt and tiny booty shorts, her tired, angry scowl turned into a worried look of horror.

16

Fiona

“Oh my God!”

I gasped with fright, and my heart clenched painfully. Tony was standing outside my door, looking pale as hell, and clutching his arm with blood running down his fingers.

“Fi…”

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