Worried.
I absorbed that and turned my back on him. Whatever plan he’d arrived with, he didn’t like it. He didn’t likethis, and it was all I could bank on as I faced the Sambinis alone.
Hardening my glare, I found the gaze of the one who’d marked Saint for certain death. Lorenzo Sambini—the same cunt who’d come here searching for his cousin. “Speak,” I growled. “You’re on Rebel property.”
Lorenzo laughed. Again. “Not for long. Look around you, O’Brian. You’re barely standing and your brothers are dead.”
“They ain’t dead.”Not all of them.“And neither am I, so I’m warning you now, tell me what the fuck you want before I rip your head from your shoulders.”
“How are you going to do that with a bullet in you?”
“I’ll manage. I already killed your hitman.”
“He wasn’t ours. Your secretary hired him.”
“Either way, he’s dead and I ain’t. What makes you think I can’t end you?”
“Logic. I have five men with guns, plus the hired help.” Lorenzo gestured behind me to the wavering Crows. “You are alone with a carving knife, so let me tellyouwhat is going to happen here. I am going to shoot you, properly this time. Then I am going to collect the man that took Gianni and take him to my uncle. Your other brothers can live, but your business here is done. Razed. What becomes of them is not my concern. Is there any part of that you don’t understand?”
“I understand it all, but you’re wrong.”
“About which part?”
“The part where you kill me here and Sambini is happy about it. My brother didn’t touch your prince. It was me. I put a bullet in his head when I buried Frank Crow and Drummer.”
Lorenzo blinked. Then he smiled, as if I’d played into a trap even he hadn’t been aware of. “Even better.” He darted a glance to the man standing next to him. A man who looked more like Alexei than a man of Mediterranean descent. “But all it means is that your brother dies now instead of you. We don’t have time for the inconvenience he would wreak on us if he survived your death.”
He nodded to someone I couldn’t see and the Sambinis separated, half advancing on me while the others darted to where Saint lay prone on the ground behind me, still vibrating with the effort to wake up.
I spun around as they raised their weapons, a silenced gun in the hands of each man. Rocco St John charged forward, but whatever his motives, he wasn’t going to get there in time, and neither was I.
They were going to kill Saint. They were going to shoot him in the dirt like a rabid dog and there was nothing I could do to stop them.
Cold hands closed around me, wrestling me to the ground. I fought them like a wild animal, thrashing and stabbing air with the knives in my hands.
Booted feet kicked them away, dislocating one of my thumbs. I growled at the fresh pain and used all my strength to throw my assailants off me, but the respite was brief. The muzzle of a gun touched my temple at the same moment the rest of Sambini’s crew reached Saint.
It was over. I’d failed, and the first man I’d ever loved was going to die.
“I would not do that if I were you.”
The new voice was close, and my skin broke out in goosebumps before the familiarity of the answering rush registered. That hypnotic wave. The addicting heat. Even broken and defeated on the concrete, my body felt it.
Alexei.
My eyes fluttered, struggling for focus. To stay conscious. Fuck, maybe I wasn’t conscious. Maybe I was already gone and dreaming of him, like I did every day he wasn’t with me.
The gun disappeared.
“Cam.”
No. Don’t say my name like that.
“Cam.” Smooth hands grasped my wrists and slid up my forearms. “Get up. There is work to do before I can treat your wounds. Stay with me. It’ll be okay, I promise.”
He let go and only the desperate need to touch him again kept me from falling back to the ground.
I lurched upright. Alexei was already ten feet from me, striding towards where Mateo and Nash lay on the ground.
