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She looks around. “Why are we in a dentist’s office?”

“Later,” I say and adjust my jeans and shirt.

She rounds on me like I knew she would, with fire in her overwrought eyes. “You can’t leave me again.”

“As much as I’d like for you to be safe because you’re away from me, the time has come to keep you safe with me.” She jumps up and down, clapping her hands like she’s on a damn game show. “You didn’t win anything there, Gingersnap.”

“I did! I won one dead husband.”

Lou pops his head into the room. “It’s time.”

“Time for what?” She asks.

“Time to run,” I warn.

“Where?”

“Let me worry about that.” I try to take her hand, but she steps back from me.

“Salvatore Luca Michael Pietro!”

“Going deep with the confirmation name.”

“No. Not one more second of my life is spent in the dark. Do you hear me? I told you! You go, I go. After the years of hoping and praying, you were ok. And what you put me through the past couple of months. Give me a gun and point me toward the bad guy. I’m freaking ready because I’m done with all the assorted times you went to the mattresses and underground for months on end. The popping up randomly in my life for years having to hide all of us and so much of myself. Right here, right now, you start telling me things! I’m your partner, your wife and---”

“Goddamned pain in the ass, love of my life.” I take her in my arms and she’s still spitting angry. Fortunately, I know how to cool the redhead off quickly. “And the other half of me, my heart walking on the outside of my fucking body. You are everything and you’re right.”

“I am?” And she flips cool as a cucumber. She heats up quickly but settles down the same way.

“Yes.” I kiss her quickly. “For the moment, get your skinny, perfect ass in the car.” I put my finger over her lip and say, “I’ll tell you as soon as we’re in the car where we’re going, but for now, I’d like to stay alive, having only recently come back from the dead.”

Lou walks out of the room, clears the hallway and signals for us to wait. I glance at my watch. He’s going to get the car. I pull my gun from my back and flip the safety as her eyes get wide. “You wanted to know. This is part of it. Shh. Stay close and for once be quiet, my love.”

She nods and I hear a door open down the hall. This isn’t good. This dentist’s office should be empty. It’s not even one of my shells. Nothing I own is safe right now as they all hunt for the key to my empire. Poppy. I picked a stranger with no ties to me at all, who I know is on vacation, and shut down his practice for two weeks. My hair’s on end. My gut’s telling me this isn’t a dumbass employee slipping in here to nick some oxy.

I pull her behind me, and we creep to the other side of the open door. The footsteps aren’t heavy. It’s not a big guy, but big enough that you know he’s looking for her. Fucking Tabi, taking her out and flaunting her around. Goddamn that woman. And my idiot of a bride parading around town in next to nothing and then getting inked. Twice. It’s bad enough I found her with facial recognition after the first tattoo, but fortunately that’s when I found Boomer right at her doorstep. He would have kept her safe, but I gave him a little extra incentive and a lot of extra compensation.

Then she had to go to another fucking tattoo place and get one with vines and grape leaves and shit. And should there be any doubt about her identity, add in a California poppy. Enzo was definitely watching cameras. Has to be how Brick found her, too.

I flatten against the wall, and Poppy’s breathing is erratic, as well as her heartbeat. My blood is racing as he gets close. She’s going to see me kill someone. The first time she ever saw me pull a gun, I didn’t get a chance to kill the man. This time will be different. He’ll be a nasty surprise for poor Dr. Paul Sable, DDS, when he gets back from the Bahamas. And my wife will see me become the killer she’s only imagined.

I silently snap on gloves and slide the suppressor from my pocket and carefully wind it onto the end of my Glock. I hear his breathing and he’s not entering the other doors, because this is the only one open.

The voice is flinty. It’s an eerie sort of taunt he’s got going on.

“Ms. Gelbert, I saw them take you. I don’t know who your goons are, but you’re all the fucking power now and I want it. So come out here. I saw your thug go get the car. Can’t imagine my prize isn’t protected, but I’ll get you either way.”

Poppy gasps, then slaps her hand over her mouth. It’s game fucking on. He fires three into the room and is planted in the hallway. I can’t get him until he steps through the door. I push Poppy back against the wall and steady my shot. There will be no kneecapping today. I don’t need to know his soap opera, just need him dead.

He fires again, and she squeals. This woman is going to be the death of me.

“Come out here or I’ll come get you. I need a little proof when we’re done.” Oh shit. There’s a contract on her. That’s new.

He flips on the lights as he steps through the door and I twist his wrist as he turns. His mouth drops when he sees my fucking face, and I waste him. One through the head, swift and brutal. The sound is barely above a whisper and Poppy shivers behind me when he slumps to the ground. I yank her off the wall, and she steps over the body with his blood pooling underneath him. I know she’s in shock, but we don’t have time for that shit right now.

No time for cleanup. And I liked this gun, but I’ve learned not to get attached to anything. Well, I didn’t learn that well since I’m hauling Red through the hallways behind me. I toss the gun onto the body and pull a .19 from my ankle holster. We bust through the back doors into the alley and Lou is gone.

Chapter