I quickened my pace and stepped into the living room.
The first thing I saw were the two men hovering over Cini, her feet kicking out as they tried to catch her limbs. They hadsomehow managed to get a dark cloth bag over her head and I could hear her ragged breathing even underneath the material.
Anger filled me so potently that I wished I could rip them limb from limb with my bare hands. Shooting them seemed almost too kind a fate for these bastards.
My gun came up and before the two men could react, twin blasts of gunfire filled the living room and they both slumped to the side.
“Jesus,” Ranieri said as he held his own smoking gun. “What the fuck were they doing.”
“It had to be an order from Amante,” I growled as I pulled a shaking Cini into my arms and pulled the bag off of her head.
Her blonde hair was a mess and her eyes were filled with tears as she stared up at me.
‘I couldn’t see,’she signed with wobbling fingers.‘Why did they do that?’
I shook my head before enveloping her in a crushing hug.
Then Ranieri’s cell rang, nearly making both of us jump out of our skin.
“Elio? Yeah. No, yeah we’ve had our own issues here. Yeah, these bodyguards suck ass…”
Ranieri trailed off as he listened to whatever Elio had to say. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. Yeah, okay, we’ll do that. Get back here fast. Yeah, I’ll call him.”
He hung up the phone and turned to me. “Elio says they’ve got a tail. Chances are they aren’t the only guys heading in this direction.”
“What the fuck happened over there?” I asked as I stood, Cini curled in one arm and my gun in the other.
Ranieri followed me back into the bedroom. “Dunno, but whatever it was, this place is about to turn into a warzone and they have the only vehicle.”
Cursing in my head, I deposited Cini on the bed for a moment as I dug around underneath it, pulling out cases and creating a space for her.
‘What’s going on?’she asked, looking less peaked than she had a minute ago.
‘Bad things,’I signed to her before I helped her get onto the floor.‘Stay under here. Do not come out until I come to get you.’
Cini’s eyes were wide as she glanced between me and Ranieri. She had never seen violence like this before. It was one of the few benefits of her being trapped at the Amante estate. But I knew that, before all of this was truly over, this also wouldn’t be the last time she saw it.
“Dante,” Ranieri said from the other side of the bed as he slipped his bullet-proof vest over his head. “We need to hurry.”
I nodded my understanding and gestured for Cini to get under the bed.
Her pink lips twisted as she shot me a conflicted look before she moved in a flash, her fingers curling into the front of my shirt as she pulled me in for a surprise kiss.
Her sweet honeydew scent filled my nose, causing a growl of desire to bubble up in my throat as she pulled away.
If this were any other moment in time, then I would have dragged her back to me and demanded a deeper kiss than the chaste one she’d just given me.
At my questioning look, Cini’s smile was sheepish.‘Just in case. Don’t die.’
Then she was sliding underneath the bed and I was pushing the cases after her to better camouflage her hiding space.
When I got to my feet, I found Ranieri staring at me with an odd expression.
“What?” I asked as I pulled my own bullet proof vest on. “Jealous?”
Ranieri’s brows lifted, and if I didn’t know any better and it wasn’t so damned dark in the room, then I would think he was blushing.
Then he rolled his eyes. “I’m not dignifying that with a response, asshole, let’s go.”
