I think about Amelia, and a sense of annoyance overcomes me. This is the reason I didn’t want to be with her again. This marriage was a bad idea. I tried to keep her out of danger, and it was the reason I had broken up with her in the first. There is no place for emotions in our type of family business, and that’s all Amelia gives me. Emotions. I can’t think straight when I’m with her. I can’t even think straight when I’m not. It’s a constant battle to think about anything but her, her lips, her eyes, her hair… everything about her drives me absolutely insane.
I have never really had an interest in dating women aside from her. I am dedicated to the family, the business, and my brothers. I was taught my place in this world, and it wasn’t to be an emotional wreck because of a woman. Women have no place getting mixed up in family business at all.
All my problems started when I bumped into her at La Club that night. If she had just stayed away, I wouldn’t have gotten involved.
A tiny voice inside me points out that she may have ended up dead if it hadn’t been for me, but that wouldn’t have affected me as much, would it?
Feeling so intensely, I know this is love. I know I want to love and cherish her and protect her from any harm, but how do I do that when I come from one of the biggest crime families in the States? I’ve always had to look over my shoulder, and now, because we’re married, she’ll have to do the same.
But I can’t let her go. I can’t let her go off anywhere because I do love her. I know that now. There can be no doubt in my mind that I want to spend the rest of my life loving Amelia. I want us to become a proper family. I want us to have everything my parents had. My parents made it work. Surely we can as well.
My phone goes off. Rob, my look-alike, has sent a text that they were followed. I breathe a sigh of relief—at least they’re going for the wrong people. I text him and tell him to be safe at all costs. I don’t want this to cost him his life, though he and I both know it may come to that.
I text Amelia’s guard, Johnny, and ask him how things are going. I wait for his response, everything is good, and I sigh again.
“Everything okay, boss?” Joel asks from next to me.
I shake my head. “I can’t shake this feeling that something is going to happen.”
Joel looks at me skeptically as I continue, “Rob is being followed. I’m waiting for an update on Heather, and Amelia is safely on the bus.”
Joel takes out his phone. “I’ll phone Caleb and check on Heather.”
I look out the window, and then something just tells me to look back. I turn around in my seat and look at the cars behind us. I recognize the car positioned two lanes across. It’s been behind us since not long after we left.
“We’re definitely being followed,” I say loudly, turning back. “Black Audi behind us.”
My driver Ricardo looks in the rearview mirror. “I’ll shake them.”
“Don’t do anything to draw attention,” I say sharply, but I could have saved my breath. The Audi cuts across the lanes and drives into the back of us, propelling us forward, so I say, “Change of plan, speed up.”
Ricardo changes lanes and speeds up, diving in and out of traffic, even driving on the wrong side of the road. The Audi keeps up, bumping into us every now and again.
I hear the shots, but they miss the car at first. Luckily, the glass is bulletproof. Before I can be grateful for that fact, a crack appears where one bullet hits.
“Faster, Ricardo,” I shout, taking out my own gun. I roll down the window and start firing back, Joel shifting beside me. He opens his window and climbs out of it, sitting half in and half out. He starts firing on the Audi as well, which is not bulletproof.
“Aim for the tires or engine,” I shout, aiming for the front tire.
I move back and forth, dodging bullets and trying to get my own in, when the Audi swerves hard into us. I shoot the thug in the passenger seat in the back of the head. I then turn my attention to trying to hit the driver, who is the closest to me. He’s got one hand on the steering wheel and one with a gun trying to shoot us, but it’s a toss-up between looking where to shoot and trying not to crash as we both weave in and out of traffic. Cars hoot or stop, and some speed off or pull to the side of the road. I hear a siren start and know the cops are on to us.
Joel slides back into the window as Hank, my guard in the front seat, gets a bullet in the neck and gurgles slowly to death.
I growl, shifting my position. Holding my gun with both hands, I aim and wait for the Audi to drive closer to us. I fire a shot, hitting the driver in the head and causing his vehicle to swerve to the right and off the road.
We speed off so fast that the cops are having difficulty following us through the traffic, and we soon lose them. I sit back, staring at the back of Hank’s head with anger.
“They’re going to pay for this,” I say angrily, then realize that both Rob and I were followed, which means that Heather and Amelia may have been followed too.
They had more men available at the hotel than we had suspected, and now we were all in danger. I search my pockets, but I can’t find my phone.
“What’s wrong?” Joel asks, looking at me frantically, feeling around the floor.
“I need my phone,” I bark. “I need to warn Johnny they may have been followed.”
Joel helps me search for my phone that had fallen under the front seat, and I dial Johnny’s number, but the call doesn’t connect. “Dammit.”
Joel tries to phone Johnny’s partner, Evander. “They must not have a signal.”