He couldn’t point fingers just yet.
When he got inside the building, Nico took the stairs two at a time. On the twelfth floor, he opened the door where he expected the shooter to be. The door creaked open, and he heard the gunshot before seeing it. Nico pulled his gun from his back and shot in the direction the bullet came from.
Nico heard the curse, then moved around one of the bare walls. “You mind telling me why you were shooting at my girlfriend?” Is that what Autumn was to him? Sex didn’t equate to a relationship, but he felt a fierce protectiveness towards the woman.
A gunshot in the plaster by the side of his head answered his question.
“Fair enough,” he muttered. Nico glanced around the corner he hid behind. He saw the open doorway. Whoever it was leaned against the opposite side of the bed. Nico could see the top of the guy’s head.
Nico extended his arm. “I’m giving you one warning shot.” Closing one eye, he squinted, then shot above the asshole’s head.
The shooter ducked down and cursed in an unfamiliar language. Nico could shoot his gun hand because the assassin held the weapon on top of the bed, aiming it at Nico. Before the shooter got the chance, Nico aimed at his wrist. The shooter’s high-pitched scream could have woken the dead.
Nico got up from his hiding place, went through the doorway, and into the bedroom. He walked to the open window where the assassin had set up the semiautomatic sniper’s rifle.
“You had quite the view,” Nico muttered. He looked into the scope of the rifle. It was aimed directly through the back passenger window. The asshole could have shot Autumn directly in the back of her head. It would have either paralyzed or killed her. Something must have distracted the assassin and the bullet hit the back passenger window instead.
Nico drifted away from the window and saw police cruisers lining up across the street. There was also an unmarked car. Nico grunted as he watched Ben Hererra get out, a cell phone to his ear.
No doubt cops would swarm the building within the next five minutes.
At least Autumn listened to him and called the cops.
Walking to the opposite side of the shooter's bed, Nico peered down at the man. Whoever it was, Nico didn’t know him. The guy had muscles upon muscles and sported a swastika on his upper arm. He had German or Russian Nordic features, with ice-cold blue eyes and blonde hair.
The man cradled his wrist to his chest as he glared at Nico.
Getting closer, Nico grabbed the smooth steel handgun. He turned it around, then looked at the other side. “Nice piece of metal.”
The guy, definitely German, spoke guttural and Nico detected a curse in the jumble of words.
“Yeah, I don’t know what you’re saying, buddy, but you better answer in English before I shoot you in the head.” Nico looked down the gun barrel, then cocked back the hammer and pointed it between the shooter’s eyes. “Who−Sent−You.”
In a thick accent, the shooter sneered and answered, “You Italians think you're tough shit.”
“You’re not telling me who sent you, dick.” Nico smoothed his index finger on the trigger.
The shooter eyed the gun and then looked him in the eye. “Someone wants her dead, badly. A little desperately, I might add.” He shrugged a shoulder, “I nearly had her, but you were in the way.”
Nico narrowed his gaze, “Who sent you.”
The shooter shrugged. “I don’t give away names. I just do the job.”
“Was it Casale?”
“I know the name, but that kingpin?” The shooter made a face and spat on the ground. “No, it was a woman.”
The hairs on Nico’s nape stood on end. “What woman?”
“She refused to give a name.”
It couldn’t have been Luna. The woman didn’t know who Autumn exactly was unless Mario said something to her within the past couple of hours.
Are you one of her spies, Mario?
Nico put the gun underneath the shooter’s chin. The man’s eyes brightened as he stared back at Nico. “I gave you what you wanted, no?”
“You didn’t give me shit.” Grabbing the man by the throat, Nico clenched his fingers around the thick neck. “And you’re not getting the chance to kill her again.”
