“You can’t protect her,” he tells me in a hoarse voice.
My vision blurs. Instead of Nero, I suddenly see Antonio’s killer before me, telling me that I’m about to lose someone.
No. Not again.
My fingers tighten even more around Nero’s neck. He gasps.
“Cain!” Allie’s voice jolts me out of the haze of my anger. “Stop. The cops will be here soon.”
Reluctantly, I release Nero’s neck. Before he can catch his breath, I send my fist flying into his face as a parting gift, knocking him unconscious.
“Someone tie this guy up,” I say to the crowd after I get up. “You’ve got ropes, right?”
Then I turn to Allie. She wraps her arms around me.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes,” I answer.
At least she’s safe. If I’d been less attentive, she’d be dead by now. A corpse in a bathroom cubicle.
You can’t protect her.
I pull away. Allie isn’t out of danger yet. For all I know, there could be another shooter, another killer. In fact, there is another killer. I already saw him earlier. What if he’s after her, too?
I grab Allie’s arm. “Let’s get out of here.”
~
I check Allie’s hotel room to make sure it’s safe before I accompany her inside and bolt the door. I have my own room right next door, but I just can’t bring myself to leave her right now.
“Go on and rest,” I tell her. “I’ll just clean up.”
“You need to tend to those wounds,” Allie points out.
She looks at the gash on my arm.
Right. I may have won, but I didn’t come out unscathed.
I nod. “I’ll take care of them.”
I turn towards the bathroom but Allie holds on to my shirt. When I glance over my shoulder, I see the concern in her eyes as well as something else. Guilt?
“Let me do it,” she tells me. “I wasn’t able to do anything to help earlier.”
So that’s it. She’s feeling guilty because I was in a fight and she was just standing there.
I shake my head. “You didn’t have to do anything.”
“I’m your partner,” Allie reminds me. “I shouldn’t have left you.”
“It’s fine. It’s not your fault I got into a fight. That man…”
“Let me do this,” she interrupts me as she tugs on my shirt. “Please.”
I know what it’s like to feel helpless, so I nod. I sit on the edge of the bed as she goes to the bathroom to get the first aid kit.
“Do you want me to stitch this up?” she asks me. “I know how.”
She does? I guess it was part of her training.
I shrug. “Be my guest.”
Allie goes back to the bathroom and comes back with a sewing kit. Then she sits beside me and draws a deep breath.
When I feel the cold needle pierce my inflamed skin, I draw a breath of my own and clench my jaw. I’m not going to complain, because I’ve had worse, but I’m not going to pretend I don’t feel pain.
I look away while Allie works, not because I’m squeamish but because she seems nervous enough already. She works quietly, concentrating. I don’t say a word, either, so as not to distract her.
Finally, she’s done. I hear her let out a sigh of relief as she carefully applies ointment on my wound. Then she starts to bandage my arm.
“Where did you learn to fight like that?” she asks me. “In the army?”
“Yeah.”
Well, I did pick up some combat skills in the army, though it was someone else who taught me how to use a knife the way I did, with both hands.
“Maybe I should have joined the army instead,” Allie says.
I say nothing.
Allie draws a breath. “So, who was that guy? One of Bianchi’s men? He looked too young to be Sergio Bianchi himself.”
I look at her. Come to think of it, I haven’t told her what happened exactly. I was quiet the whole ride here. All I could think about was getting her to safety.
“He was the guy who tried to shoot you at your house,” I tell her.
Allie’s eyes grow wide.
“He calls himself Nero. I don’t know who he works for, though. He wouldn’t say.”
Allie nods slowly. “Wow. No wonder he seemed skilled. He’s a professional.”
Just like me. And he knew me. Just like Antonio’s killer knew me. I wonder if they know each other. Are they working together?
“Don’t worry,” Allie tells me. “I’ll look into it. I’ll find out what he knows.”
“What? Are you going to torture him?”
She grimaces. “No.”
Of course not. She’s not a monster like me.
“You think he’s going to talk just because you flash your badge and ask him nicely?”
“No,” she answers. “Who said I’m going to ask him nicely?”
Ah. She’s going to play bad cop, is she? I can’t say I’m not curious to see how that goes. I’m still not sure it’s going to work, though.
“Why don’t you just ask Taylor to dig up the dirt on Nero?” I suggest. “Isn’t he your go-to tech guy?”