“We can’t stay here and wait for campus security. They’ll just get killed,” Lor said. “We have to go.”
“Yeah, I agree. Can you run? Do you think you need a hospital?”
“Shot, Dr. Mifflin. I was shot. Probably!” He turned as if he was going to try to sprint, but his eyes rolled up in his head. He collapsed into my arms, his floppy hair covering part of his face, and I groaned as wetness seeped down the side of his MCU hoodie. Whether or not campus security would be helpful, it looked like I would be stuck with them.
“Call an ambulance,” I said to one of the men from the gathering crowd who’d ventured closer. “He’s been shot.”
The man stared at me, then Lor, clutched his blue tie, then fainted dead away.
Sighing, I stared at the fellow on the ground. Was I ever that bad? I laid Lor down and decided all I could do was wait this out and hope for the best. About ten minutes after the ambulance arrived, I was stepping up onto the back to ride with Lor when someone grabbed my elbow. A silver-and-blue badge dangled around his neck on a lanyard. I gasped, but vaguely recognized the bulky man when he spun me around to face him.
“I need to ask you some questions, Dr. Mifflin.” The man searched my face as if he was studying it for clues, and I wilted under the close inspection, my stomach shrinking to a pea.
“Who are you?”
“Detective Cummins. Remember we met when you were in the hospital?”
“Hmm. Not really.”
He narrowed his eyes on me and I got a bad feeling about this.
8
ASPEN
RelaxInc. was a massage parlor owned by the Folliero family, but behind closed doors they disguised their version of a whorehouse. Unlike the Exotic Virtue, the brothel owned by Sloan in a nice brownstone, Relax Inc. was about getting in, getting off, and getting out in record time. There was no finesse in the way it operated, which was the only reason Sloan let it exist as competition to the Virtue and his other whorehouses in the first place. They had different customer types. The higher-ups with fancy jobs who required privacy contracts preferred ours, while the cheating middle-class husbands chose Relax Inc.
I’d enjoyed a time or two at Relax Inc., which was why a few of theemployeesrecognized me when Cillian, Rowen, and I entered the establishment. Payson, one of my favorite professionals, stood behind the sales counter with Willow, the manager of the business. He reminded me of an elf—short and slim with big blue eyes and pale blond hair. Willow, on the other hand, was a strong woman with more muscles than most of the guys who worked at the Killough Company. Nonetheless she had class and always wore a fancy suit jacket and pencil skirt that made her look like a serious manager.
They stared intently at us as we entered with our automatic rifles clutched tightly in our hands, and I didn’t miss the fear in their eyes. The Giordanos had attacked Elio’s home, as well as several of his other businesses, and Elio assumed Relax Inc. was the next target. Willow and Payson had the right to be scared because if Elio was right, bullets were about to fly.
Sloan and some of our men—including Jamie and Corbin—were already here, and so were Elio and his Italians, all carrying guns.
“Nice of you to join us,” Sloan drawled when we entered. He stood in the corner of the room with Jamie and Corbin on either side of him. It made sense that he chose that part of the shop because he didn’t have to trust anyone else to have his back. He was smart like that, and while he usually sent other men to carry out his dirty work, sometimes he got involved, too.
Elio had a lot more men than we did, and they filled up most of the room. There were at least twenty of them, and the Italian boss was standing close to Sloan, his mouth pinched in a pensive expression.
Cillian nodded at Sloan as we moved over to him. He wore gloves like the rest of us. The last thing we wanted to do was put our fingerprints on anything. “Ye all right, Boss?”
Sloan smirked. “I can take care of my own affairs, Cillian.”
“Are you saying I can’t?” Elio snapped in a way I’d never heard from him. I’d met the Italian boss a few times and always suspected he was too young and inexperienced to be in charge. He was a nice guy—cute—but seriously innocent when it came to mob life. From what I’d heard his father had tried to prepare him the best he could and put Elio’s current second-in-command on the job to keep an eye on him. But I’d also heard Matteo Scotti was hurt in the attack at the Folliero mansion, and now he wasn’t here to give Elio advice. Maybe that was another reason why he was so frustrated. I didn’t know what was going on between Elio and Matteo, but something hot sizzled between them. I’d never seen a second-in-command so protective of his boss, and it appeared to go well past his job.
Sloan raised his eyebrows at Elio. “Calm yourself.”
“I am calm,” Elio spat. His attitude said he was anything but. As always, he was a handsome man, with well-kept brown hair, dark eyes, and a perfect suit, but his gaze was wild and unsettled, and he couldn’t stand still, as though his nerves had him dancing on the spot. His jaw was so tight I was surprised he hadn’t shattered his teeth.
Sloan stared at him for a long moment, and silent tension hung over the room as Elio gave it back to him. Finally Sloan sighed and grabbed Elio’s arm. The Italians moved and so did we, blocking their way to Sloan. They stopped when Elio held up his palm to them, and Sloan dragged him a little farther away.
“I need you to have your head on straight, boyo. This doesn’t just affect you, but us, too. I understand you’re as helpless as a baby sucking on his mother’s tit without your boy toy—”
Elio tensed and rage slid across his face.
“But he’s alive, and I need you to concentrate and do your fucking job, or I’ll take you out and instate someone else in your position.” Sloan’s smirk turned deadly.
To my surprise, Elio didn’t back down, instead his spine straightened so he could level his stare on Sloan. “Don’t threaten me, Killough. We may be allies, but I’m not a patsy. This is my territory and businesses they are targeting. The Giordanos are killing my men. I’m lucky that asshole they had scoping out my businesses was rude to Willow because she’s the one who caught on to him first. She’s sharp.And I am in charge,” he hissed, clearly not meaning for anyone other than the boss to hear that last part.
“Then act like a man,” Sloan said bluntly. “This is just the beginning. The Giordanos will do everything in their power to take your place in the Five Families of New York City. Show them you mean business. If you give them weakness they will decimateyou.”
