Honestly, I didn’t give it any thought.
I just turned to look out the other end of the alley.
Then I ran.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Venezio
“Just a purse-snatch—” I started as I turned back toward the middle of the alley where I’d left Stephanie.
The plastic crates she’d been sitting on, though, were empty.
My stomach dropped out as my mind raced, thinking the bastard had rushed in, slapped a hand over her mouth, and carried her off.
But no.
No.
My mind flashed back to her face as I’d confessed to working behind her back. I could see the hurt in her eyes that she didn’t believe me about not getting involved with her for the job. Of course she didn’t.
“Steph!” I called, tucking my gun away as I fucking darted down the alley, knowing she couldn’t have gotten far.
Not in those heels.
But betrayal could really fuel a person.
I knew a thing or two about that in my past, even if I knew my lifestyle was primed for it. I knew how deep that shit cut. And I’d never been screwed over by someone I’d slept with.
I burst out of the mouth of the alley, where my jacket was now tossed to the ground.
“Fuck,” I hissed, my head on a swivel.
She wasn’t hard to find in her wine-red dress.
But even as I spotted her, she was sliding into the back of a cab.
Then she was off.
And the traffic was light, so there was no catching up with her.
But it didn’t matter.
I knew where she was going.
I just—
A flash at my side had my head whipping over.
Then there he was again.
Like a fucking scent hound.
If we were on my home turf, I would know where to lead him that would allow me to put an end to this once and for all.
But we were far from my stomping ground.
And this wasn’t the Golden Age of the mob, where you could get away with a shooting on a busy street.
