Page 40 of The Leader

She scooted over to Tommie, who was lying on his back, and grabbed his hand. “Hey, there, warrior smurf. Please hold on, okay?”

Hector grabbed some towels and pressed them onto Tommie’s wound. “Keep this here. I’m going to check on thecabrón.”

Tommie grunted. “Scars are sexy, right?”

Jazzy used both her hands to apply pressure to Tommie’s shoulder. She watched her sister, who was still on her knees, staring at Franco’s lifeless body.

“Carmen?”

No reaction.

“Carmen!”

Still no reaction.

Tommie tried to get up and look, but Jazzy held him down. “Don’t you move. We’re going to sit here and wait for the ambulance.”

However, it wasn’t just an ambulance that showed up. Gio accompanied them.

She got up and moved aside to make room for the EMT’s.

Gio didn’t say a word. His face was an unreadable mask, unlike his fists and locked jaw that told a story on their own.

Jazzy knew she was in trouble. She also knew that now that he was here, everything was going to be okay. It was silly, really, but it felt as if his presence alone was a guarantee that no one was going to die.

No longer able to stand the distance between them, she launched herself into his arms. It was as if a dam burst. When he held her tight, she couldn’t keep in her tears anymore.

CHAPTER 20

GIO

His wife was trembling in his arms. If it weren’t for the all-consuming rage inside him, he might have trembled too. Out of fear. Sheer fucking fear that something had happened to her. When he got the message from Hector, he’d been on the way over to Caruso’s house. He hadn’t liked her being there, and apparently his instincts about this place had been right.

Speaking of Caruso, he was lying in a pool of his own blood, his head to the side, panting. The fucker was still alive.

When the paramedics he’d brought with him went for Caruso, Gio stepped in. “Not him.” He had other plans for the bastard.

The paramedics took a few quick vitals before placing Tommie on a stretcher. Carmen was the next one they wheeled away.

Caruso managed to put a hand underneath him and push himself up.

Hector kicked Caruso in the head, effectively putting him down again. Then he dragged him away.

Jazzy lifted her head from his shirt. She wiped away her tears and blinked when she saw the kitchen was all but empty, except for them.

“Wait. What hospital did they take them to? We have to follow—”

Gio cupped her cheek. Her beautiful hazel eyes looked at him pleadingly. He wished he could have spared her this. The distraught look in her gaze pulled at something inside him he thought was long dead.

“Do you trust me to take care of this?”

Silence for a beat. “I do.”

She sounded surprised, which pissed him off. But that was a conversation for another time. Right now, he had to take care of this mess of a situation.

“Good. They will receive the medical care they need. Tell me what happened.”

When she finished, he could see the defiance in her eyes. “It was self-defense. Carmen didn’t mean to do it. I’m not going to let her go to jail. It was self-defense.”

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