Page 123 of Forbidden Romeo

I gape after her. “You brought a gun to our date?”

“I didn’t know how well it was going to go!” she shouts back up, and I have to jog to keep up.

“You were going to shoot me?”

She scoffs as we round the final corner. “You brought your gun too!”

“People like trying to kill me.”

“Me too, apparently!”

We come to a stop when we reach the bottom floor. The door to the alley is closed in front of us.

I gesture toward it. “I’ll go first. There’s a third exit out the alley if they have both ends cut off.”

She nods and expertly counts her bullets, so I do the same. Seven left. Better make them count.

“On my signal,” I continue. “You run to the other side and take cover. Got it?”

Her gun makes a satisfyingsnapnoise as she reloads it. “Got it.”

Fuck, if that doesn’t turn me on.

I reach forward and grab her neck, guiding her mouth up to mine. She responds eagerly for a moment before biting down hard on my freshly healed lip..

“Focus, Duffy,” she says, albeit a little breathlessly.

With a grunt, I pull myself away from her to lean against the door. It’s quiet on the other side, but that means very little. I gesture for Aimee to stand to the side before I wrench the door open.

Nothing. I step out tentatively, gun out and darting my aim between both entrances. It’s clear.

“Okay, you can-”

Bang. Bang. Bang.

I drop to the floor, narrowly avoiding being hit by a cascade of bullets from above.

“Fuck!” I yell.

But suddenly, Aimee is there, standing over me and aiming high.

Bang.A guy falls out of the window one story up. Fuck, that was our third exit.

She runs to the other side of the alley and takes cover as instructed. We glance at each other, and I point toward the far end of the alley. It’s 50/50 at this point which side might be surrounded, but at least that exit is closer to our car.

We move in sync, staying low, ducking behind cover, and slowly making our way down. I take a tentative glance behind us.

Four men have entered the alley on the other side. I fire off a warning shot.

They duck out of the way, and I gesture for Aimee to keep running. I follow just behind.

Bang.I hit one of the men square in the head as he moves out from cover.

The other three immediately go on the offensive, and I find myself speeding to catch up with Aimee.

Instead, I almost crash straight into her. We’ve reached the end of the alley… to find that the entire exit is surrounded.Bastards have been herding us.

I push her to the floor just as a burst of automatic fire flies over our heads. We roll in separate directions, Aimee squeezing herself into a doorway, whereas I manage to block line of sight with an industrial-sized garbage can.

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