She was one of Morelli’s people. Even if she was oblivious to what manner of creature her employer was, she still existed under the wing of his protection. One death on his turf was an unfortunate mystery. Killing another would cause inquiry. With the newly forged alliance, I didn’t dare risk taking out another one of his. It didn’t matter if this alliance had been forced on us, that it benefitted the Morellis more than us. Whatever we decided to do with this Italian mob had to be given extra thought and attention.
By the time I rushed forward, took the same turn, she was nowhere to be seen. The street was empty. The old train depot stood to the left. There wasn’t anywhere to hide there. And as I jogged down the street, I didn’t see any small shapes hunkered in the alleys.
The street rounded into a residential area with old, well-worn houses.
Fuck. She could be anywhere.
I sagged against a tree. Maybe it was for the best that I hadn’t ended her. Those keen brown eyes had the power to haunt me, even though I’d only seen them once. I raked a hand through my hair, tearing the strings of the mask in frustration. Fresh air washed over my hideous face.
Tonight, the maiden escaped the fiend. What a lucky girl.
Fly away, little bird.Fly away, and thank whatever god you pray to that you escaped me.
The dumbbell crashed against the rubber mat with a sickening thud. I cursed, pausing at the back door of the gym. I hadn’t worked out with any of the lads since the explosion. Hell, I wasn’t technically cleared for strenuous physical activity. That didn’t stop me from fighting in the streets, running the operations our businesses demanded, and it certainly wasn’t going to stop me from keeping my muscles toned and hard.
I peered into the gym, noticing a buzzed shock of sandy blond hair. The monster pumping irons to make his traps pop was an enforcer of sorts, the guy we called whenever things needed fixing, and also the one I kept closest. A friend, if such a thing existed in the underworld.
Come on, you can face him.
Connor was the brother my mother never gave me.
And yet the thought of him seeing me struggle made my legs shake.
I was a grown ass man! A cold-blooded killer. My legs weren’t supposed to vibrate like leaves in a gale. Yet…they were.
Connor’s the best of us.
He’d visited me in the hospital, the only other soul besides my father when the bomb our rivals planted nearly sent me on a one-way trip to the pearly gates.
Still, Connor seeing me laid up in a hospital bed was bad enough. I didn’t want him to see me fight over the simplest movements to regain my strength.
“You going to quit skulking and join me?” Connor smirked, tossing me a wink in the mirror as he hefted the forty-fives in the air.
“The gym’s closed,” I barked. “I gave strict instructions to McLure to lock it up from midnight to two.”
Connor whistled and dropped the weights. “Which was exactly why I popped over.”
Scowling, I stalked into the gym. I went to the open area, away from his direct line of sight, and plucked a jump rope from the ground. The fucking mask was in my bag. There was no hiding the ugly, gnarled red side of my face. At least my body was covered. I wore a tightly fitted rash guard that hugged my body like a second skin. Before the attack, I only wore these things when I put on a jiu jitsu gi. Now they’d become my standard athletic wear. Itchy. Hot.Tight.The clothing irritated the hell out of my healing skin.
Connor gave me space, let me warm my muscles. When my legs screamed at me to stop, I made the rope whip through the air at a quicker pace. Only then did he saunter over.
“Congratulations are in order, I hear,” he drawled and stopped to throw a few half-hearted jabs at the speed bag.
I grunted.
My impending marriage was not up for discussion. If I had my way, we wouldn’t be bothering with the Italians at all. But theslippery little fuckers manipulated recent events so that we owed them. Big time. The Morelli organization was a small outfit. Their don didn’t have aspirations to grow large. He contented himself with profitable black-market transactions. He ran some small scams with the government officials down at the ports and kept some docks available for other organizations to rent at a hefty cost.
It was laughable how small they were to us.
We could have crushed them if they were worth the time. They never had been, and now we couldn’t.
I dropped the rope and marched to the heavy bag. Flexing my fingers, I took a swing at the sack dangling from a chain in the ceiling.
“Whoa-hoe! Is that a good idea?” Connor stepped beside me and caught the bag. “Your knuckles are going to split open.”
“Not if I practice technic over power,” I gritted out.
Connor leveled me with a look. “And that wasn’t power?”
