I had my own pressure to apply.
I shoved Jeremy down onto the floor and handcuffed him after kicking the gun away. Once I was sure he was secured, I hit my comm unit again. “We need paramedics to the warehouse now.”
“Copy that, Lieutenant,” Clarke replied.
I glanced at Vinnie, who was trying to assist Lany. “You need to get out of here, Vinnie. It’s going to be hard enough explaining the rest of this without throwing you into the mix, especially if you want to keep your secret.”
Although, with all the people in the room, I was pretty sure that cat had gotten out of the bag.
“How are you going to explain all of this?” Vinnie asked.
Good question.
“I have no fucking clue.”
Chapter Sixteen
Lany
“You’re going to tell them that after I was attacked at the art gallery, you suspected it might have been a mob hit. After talking to Vinnie and being questioned by the police because of the shooting, I called you. That will show up on any cell phone LUDs. You were on your way home when you were kidnapped and brought here. You were able to get a call out to your team before you were grabbed. Once here, Jeremy and Freddie proceeded to torture you for information on Eddie’s location.”
I glanced over to where Freddie was standing between two of Carlos’s guards. I wanted to bash the man’s face in, but I suspected that would never happen, and bad things would happen if I pulled my gun.
“Mr. Gambino was checking on his warehouse, because he does own it, when he and his men heard noise coming from inside. When they went to investigate, they found Jeremy and Freddie here, playing their little torture game.”
I pulled off the SWAT vest I was wearing and tossed it aside so I could get to my shirt. After pulling that off over my head, I wadded it up into a ball and then pressed it against Carlos’s chest.
“That doesn’t explain how Carlos got shot, Lany,” Sal said.
“Yes, it does. Jeremy obviously knows whose son Eddie is. When he saw Carlos and his men coming to your rescue, he flipped out. Carlos was shot.” I smiled, but it wasn’t a happy smile. “Just think of the good press he’ll get for saving the life of a SWAT officer.”
When silence surrounded me, I glanced up. Sal was staring at me with his mouth hanging open. “What?”
“Damn,caro. It’s a good thing you don’t work for the bad guys.”
I shrugged and went back to trying to keep Carlos alive. Eddie would be devastated if anything happened to his father.
Oh, now I wanted to talk to my father.
“Hey, Carlos,” I said as I looked down into the man’s pain-filled eyes. “You just hold on there, okay? Help is on the way.”
The man gave me a slow nod, but didn’t say anything. It probably took more effort than he had at the moment. All of his concentration was on staying alive.
I hoped.
“You’d better go, Vinnie,” Sal said.
“How are you going to get everyone else to go along with your story?” Vinnie asked as he stood.
I rolled my eyes as I glanced up. Did I have to explain everything? “Well, who are they going to believe? A decorated SWAT officer and the personal assistant to the police chief, or a freaked-out twink with obvious mental problems and his lover?”
Vinnie just stared at me.
“I’m sure Carlos and his men will back up our story.”
I got an affirmative nod from one of Carlos’s men.
I smirked. “See?”
