AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Elio blew out a long breath. “You don’t understand.”
“I understand that you’re a witness to my criminal activities. I’ve got to bring you in and put you under my protection, or you could end up the next target.”
“If you take me in, you’re going to be a fucking target.”
“For taking you from this asshole? If he had had better friends, he wouldn’t be lying there dead.”
“No.” Elio laid a hand on my good arm. “From my family.”
“Your family?”
“You don’t know my name.”
I really didn’t like where this was going. “Are you telling me your name isn’t really Elio?”
“It is Elio. Elio Barruchi.”
A knot formed in my stomach. “Fuck.”
“Yeah. You can’t take me with you.”
“Who’s your father?”
“Giacomo.”
The head of the family. Damn, I really knew how to step in it. “You’re still coming with me.” I’d already fucked up. I might as well bring one of our enemies home.
“You’re crazy, Tony. I mean, maybe you’ll get lucky and my father will decide I’m not worth the trouble, but he likes to defend what’s his, even if you did capture his most worthless son.”
I growled and took hold of Elio’s chin, forcing him to look at me. “You are not worthless. Your father is a fucking fool if he thinks that.”
“I’m not like the rest of my family. I never wanted to be involved in all of this shit.”
“I didn’t either, but here we both are.”
“But you,”—he gestured toward the dead body on the lawn—“you’re good at this.”
“I’m a good shot, and I’m willing to do the work. Especially when the asshole has hurt someone I care about.”
“I think you’re confusing good sex with caring about somebody.”
“What if there could be both? I’ve been trying to find you ever since you didn’t show up that night.”
His eyes went huge, and he pulled away from me. “What? You actually thought about me again after….”
“I thought about you every fucking day. But you were like a ghost. I couldn’t find a trace of you.”
“I thought about you too.” He sucked in a breath and put his hand over his mouth like he hadn’t meant to say that.
“Good. Why did you stop showing up?”
“I figured out who you were, and I knew it was safer for you if I stayed away.”
“I don’t give a fuck about safe.”
He sighed. “You know this can’t work, right? You can’t take me with you, and we can’t be together.”
“Maybe you don’t have a choice. I’m taking you with me. I’m not going to let anyone else hurt you.”
