Page 60 of The Gambler

“Move.” Jamie pushed her forward through the hallway toward a back door.

To her, it seemed like it would take ages to get to their escape route. And she was right, ‘cause the second they turned the corner, they came face to face with Brian. They were surrounded, and she couldn’t see this ending well for them.

“I try not to kill on a Sunday,” Brian said. “But I’ll make an exception for you.”

The back door slammed open and another group of armed men in black fatigues, much larger than either Brian’s or Jamie’s, strode in.

Her heart did a happy dance when she saw who was leading them.

“Put away your gun, Brian,” Luca warned.

She barely recognized him in army fatigues and black boots. There was something absolutely panty-melting about a man in a semi-uniform.

Her belly warmed as she locked eyes with him. There was no hate or revulsion in them. All she saw was worry. The same expression she spotted on her pops. What was he doing here? Speaking of unlikely saviors, what was up with the twins flanking Luca?

“Detta,” Brian said, his weapon still aimed at Jamie. “You come as a friend or foe?”

“Neither. I’ve come to collect my woman. What you do afterward, I don’t care.”

She could feel Jamie’s heavy breath on her neck. The man was panicking, probably feeling desperate since he ended up in a Mexican standoff as the weakest party.

“You should let me go,” she whispered to him. “If you don’t, you will have two bloodhounds chasing you, instead of one.”

He must be thinking the same thing, because he removed the iron grip he had on her.

The atmosphere in the room was boiling with tension, ready like a barrel of gunpowder set to blow any second. Then Brian made a move and his men lowered their guns.

Tess ran toward Luca. Just as she was about to fall into his arms, she heard Jamie curse behind her back.

“Fuck this shit.”

The next moment, she got tackled. Luca’s big body covered her while bullets flew everywhere.

He dragged her with him into a corner, where they took refuge underneath a table. The shooting stopped exactly five seconds later, she’d counted them. Her head peeked above the table and what she saw made her stomach churn. As she’d expected, Jamie and his men had been slaughtered. Damon was chatting it up with Brian, who had Angel of Wrath written all over him.

She took a deep breath and tried not to gag.

Luca gave her an odd look. “Really? You get sick at the sight of blood?”

“It’s called vasovagal syncope and is an acknowledged medical condition, thank you very much.”

He pulled her close and gave her a hard kiss. “I missed your sass, unicorn. Even your big mouth.”

She slumped against his chest. “You don’t hate me anymore?”

He sighed. “Never did. I was pissed that you kept the truth from me. I’m still pissed, but I do understand.”

“I never meant for you to go to jail. When I found out what happened, I tried everything to get you out.”

“I know you did. What happened wasn’t your fault.” He tensed. “We both know who framed me.”

Maybe this wasn’t the right time to tell him about Onyx’s true identity.

“So, what about Cruz? You’re still going to go after him?” She had to know. “If you do, I will support you all the way. But I can’t be there if you want to kill him. When I learned about that guard dying, I hardly slept for weeks. Being responsible for someone’s death, whether directly or not, is a terrible thing. I feel like there’s a permanent dark smudge on my soul. One that, no matter how often I’ve tried to wash it off by doing good, will never really get clean.”

He picked her up and carried her outside. “I know what you’re trying to tell me. What you tried to tell me all along. I’ve thought about this long and hard. How I need to start over fresh. A wise man once said that he who lives in the past can’t have a future.” He set her on the hood of a car and gave her a kiss. “Do you want to be my future, Tess Gibson? Share my good days and the bad ones? Wake up next to me every morning? Battle me over a bacon and pancakes breakfast, argue I eat too much dark chocolate, and try to get me used to your disgusting green tea?”

She deepened their kiss. “There’s nothing I’d like more than to put you on a vegetarian diet, stop you from getting an early heart attack, and get you on a steady supply of green tea.”

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