* * *
Dante
The bullets stop,and I jump up with a gun in my hand and kill the gunman before he takes two steps. I step through the debris and take off to look for my doll. I holster my gun and check on Vincenzo, who is unconscious on the ground. He’s alive, but I need to get to McKenna.
I hear sounds of a struggle and try to pinpoint the location. Running through the back alleys, I come on two men as they kick and beat a figure on the ground. I catch a glimpse of white and that’s all it takes. The knife at my back is in my hand as I walk up behind the first man and slice his throat. The second man turns in shock, and I throw the knife, embedding it in his throat. It missed his jugular and carotid, but it won’t be long before he’s dead too. I need to ask him some questions first. Someone will pay for this tonight. I need to find out who put the hit out on me and why. Why they came after an innocent too.
I lean over him, wanting to take my time but worried about McKenna. I take a moment to look at her and see she is bleeding, but her chest is moving slowly.
“Who are you?” I ask as I focus on the man again.
“Kill me,Consigliere,” he begs. He knows who I am, but that doesn’t explain why he was beating on McKenna; she isn’t a part of the family. She is innocent in all this. But she is mine, which is even worse.
“I’m worse than theConsigliereright now. I’m the nightmares that haunt you. Do you know who that woman is to me?” When his eyes flash wide with recognition, I grab the hilt of my knife and hold it. “Tell me.” I wiggle it. “She is mine and you touched her. Why?”
“We were only hired to kill the girl. Not you. They didn’t tell us she was yours.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. There was a hit put out on her.” His words garble as blood starts to fill his throat. I push the blade to the side and cut his carotid. Blood sprays me and I almost laugh as he dies. Fucker thought he could touch what is mine. I’ll bathe in his blood for touching her.
McKenna whimpers, and I move to her body. She is a bloody mess. Gently, I lift her into my arms and carry her from the alley. As I move past the dead men, I kick them both, wishing I could inflict more pain on them.
More of my guards have shown up and rush toward us.
“Car, now.” I move as fast but as carefully as I can to the edge of the island, where I can put her in a boat to take her where we can get in a car and her to help.
“Go to her hotel and collect her things,” I tell one of the other guards. He races off, and I pray I can get her the help she needs quickly. Her breathing sounds shallower the more I move her around.
As soon as we pull up to the private residence of a physician hired by the family, I climb out with her still in my arms. Her blood has mixed with her attackers on my body. She’s bleeding from everywhere, and I’m having a hard time controlling my anger. I’ve used my shirt to mop up some of it so I can see her beautiful face that is now bruised and bloody.
“Consigliere,I’ll take care of her. Set her down right here.” He points to a table. I gently lay her down and she cries out.
“McKenna, I got you.” She looks at me, but her eyes are so swollen she can’t see me. “The doctor is going to help you.” She fights us. Her words come out as garbled noises. The doctor moves to her side with a needle and injects it into her arm. She stills a moment later and he proceeds to examine her.
I stay with her through it all. I even helped when he had to strip her down. She’s lying under the covers naked, and I saw the scars on her back from previous beatings. I’ll make them pay for what they did to her.
She has a broken wrist and a couple of broken ribs. Her jaw is bruised badly, as well as more bones in her face. Her beautiful, cute nose is broken too. The doctor has her sedated. He is concerned she could have a concussion because of the bruising on her head. But we won’t know until the pain meds wear off and she wakes up. He doesn’t have the equipment here to see if she has any brain swelling. So we have made the decision to have her taken to the hospital and will list her as a Jane Doe so that she can’t be found. I don’t know who attacked her, but they won’t come after her. I’ll do everything to protect her.
“Sir.”
I open my eyes. I tried to get some sleep, but images of the bruises that mark her body flashed across my mind as I rested. The rule is innocents don’t get hurt. Wives and daughters are not to be targeted. That was the last treaty we had with the others in the area. But her attacker said they didn’t know she was mine. They were just after her. I can’t figure out what the end game is because she is not from here. Maybe an enemy followed her to Italy.
“Yes?” I look over to see the guard I had sent to her hotel room standing in the doorway.
“Her stuff was all gone. The clerk says no one under her name was ever there.”
“What the fuck?” I try not to yell, but I raise my voice.
A whimper from the bed causes me to turn and look at her. She’s still out but must have heard me.
“La mia piccolo bambola.” I take her hand not in the cast. She settles and goes back to sleep. Even unconscious, I settle her.
ChapterFour
Dante
She sleeps for a couple of days. The scan showed some swelling, and she slowly heals as she sleeps. I don’t leave her side. I sent Vincenzo to the hotel, and he found out the clerk was paid to say she wasn’t there. Her stuff was taken. The clerk doesn’t know by whom. The purse she was carrying when we went to dinner wasn’t with her when I got to her. Someone else must have been in the alley and taken it. She doesn’t have her passport. Or money.