Page 125 of Forbidden Romeo

Bang.He goes down. But the responding fire is aggressive, and I turn back to Aimee to cover her body with mine.

There must be at least ten more men out there, and we only have two bullets left.

“We need to find more ammo,” Aimee says, panic starting to leak into her tone.

“We’re pinned down,” I say evenly. “I might be able to run back down, but there’s not enough consistent cover.”

Aimee shakes her head. “You’ll be full of holes in seconds.”

She’s not wrong.

I pull my phone out desperately. No one has responded to my SOS.

No one is coming to save us.

“Aimee…” I begin to say.

“Don’t,” she hisses. “This is not how we die.”

I kiss her hard as another barrage of bullets barely skims over us. If we’re going to die, this is how I’m leaving this godforsaken world. Her tears merge with the dirt on our faces, but I don’t care. All I need is her.

“Aimee, I do-”

A motorbike screeches down the alleyway behind us, revving its engine as it pulls back onto one wheel. Charging head first at our attackers.

Three more bikes appear behind it and follow suit, and we hear the yells of the men in black as several more arrive behind them. The spatter of gunfire is quickly redirected, but when I finally glance around our cover, the bikes are quite literally running rings around them.

In less than a minute, the remaining men in black are either retreating or on the ground. The biker gang whoops and cheers at their success.

I pick myself up just as one of the bikers approaches. A giant of a man made entirely of muscle and leather, with a sly grin I haven’t seen in years.

“You’re not too good in an alleyway, are you, Batman?” he booms by way of greeting.

“Brute,” I say after the shock wears off. “The hell are you doing here?”

“Saving your ass, apparently,” the leader of theOld Dogsreplies easily, giving us a once-over. “Although, to be fair, we’ve been tracking these so-called ‘black coats’ for a few days.”

I glance over at the carnage left behind. “They had a fucking helicopter. Who are these guys?”

Brute shrugs. “We’re not sure. Don’t seem to be hailing from any particular family. Italians are just as stumped.”

There’s a rustle next to me, and I turn to help Aimee up.

“I’m fine; I can stand,” she says testily as she wobbles to her feet. But when I silently offer her my arm, she takes it.

Brute watches her. “And you must be the infamous Roisin Maguire. Jacky-boy clearly needs to keep a better eye on you, eh?”

Aimee bristles a little. “I can take care of myself.”

“All the more reason,” Brute says with a mischievous grin.

I don’t like that look. “Why would they attackus?”

“I don’t know; got any enemies?”

Aimee and I exchange a glance. Too many. Could this be Connor’s handiwork? Padraic’s? There could be any number of people in the mob who’d rather we weren’t around.

“People have been hearing rumors about a Maguire/Duffy alliance,” Brute says slowly after thinking about it a moment.

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