Page 21 of Point Blank

Her shoulders jostled on a chuckle.

“Are you hurt?”

She shook her head. “No.” Her gaze dropped to the body at their feet. “Is . . . is he dead?”

Milo peeled his arms away from her and dropped to his knees. Then he pulled the mask off the man’s face and tossed it to the ground. A trickle of blood ran over the guy’s ear from the wound on the side of his head.

A pale white shade took over her skin. “Oh my god, please tell me I didn’t kill two men in one day.”

Milo lifted his gaze and saw her press her hands to her eyes and turn away. He brought two fingers to the attacker’s throat and waited. A pulse beat slowly beneath them.

“He’s not dead.” Milo studied the man’s face. Sandy curls dangled around his ears. His mustache was the same color. He fished around in the man’s leather jacket and retracted a wallet.

He pulled out the driver’s license and read the man’s name. “Bart Walker.” He dropped the wallet on his chest. “Name doesn’t ring a bell.”

Serena’s knee bumped into his side. Slowly, she slid down to squat next to him. He studied her makeup-free profile. The delicate lines of her cheekbone tapered to her chin. Her pouty lips hardened his cock.

Christ.

She tilted her head. “He looks familiar.” She plucked up the ID between her thumb and forefinger. “That’s not right. Look,” she said, and thrust the license under his nose. “There’s no way he’s five foot six. It also says his hair and eyes are brown.”

Milo leaned forward and parted Bart’s—or whatever his name was—eyelids. “Blue.”

Serena dug through his pockets. “He belongs to Alfonso’s Boxing Club in Beverly Hills.”

“So?”

She turned to face him. Color had returned to her cheeks. Her eyebrows inched up her forehead. “You don’t remember? Alban co-owns the club with his brother?—”

He gripped her knee. “Alfonso Moussa. Fuck, how could I have missed that?” He stood and rubbed his thumb over his beard. Damn, he hadn’t shaved that morning. “It’s Alban. He must be after you and Dani . . . but why?”

Serena placed her hand around the base of her throat. “I followed up on the story after the raid. He escaped.”

“Yeah, so if he wasn’t arrested, what the hell could he have against you? I never told anyone I caught you in his house. The bald guard is the only one who saw you.”

She pinched the bridge of her nose. “Shit. Alban could have been Dani’s next target. Maybe one of her friends is a mole or it’s possible the bodyguard told him you were working with the FBI and caught me there. Though I don’t know how he would have identified me.”

“We don’t know how long he was listening to us before he attacked me that night.”

The color that had returned to her cheeks morphed into a flaming red. Memories of her hot, wet tongue and lithe body in the barely there dress she’d worn to the party assaulted him. Need coursed through him. How could he have been such an ass to kiss her and then tell her to get lost?

Serena pressed her palms to her thighs and stood. “We need to get some answers from this guy.”

He nodded. “Lock the door and find something to restrain him with.” No way in hell he’d leave Serena alone in the room with the bastard. She locked the door, secured a chair beneath the handle, and then disappeared into the laundry room off the kitchen. He snagged the man’s leather jacket and rolled him onto his stomach. The attacker’s gun lay on the ground. Milo stretched across the guy’s back and picked it up.

The attacker bolted up.

In a flurry of movement his elbow connected with Milo’s jaw, and then he clamped his hand on the gun. Milo held fast to the weapon and swept his arm beneath the attacker’s neck, positioning him in a chokehold.

“I found?—”

“Get back!”

Serena squeaked and ducked into the laundry room. The man drove his fist back, catching Milo in the nose. Pain erupted in his sinuses and blood rolled through his lips to prickle his taste buds. The man tore the gun from Milo’s hold.

No!

Keeping the attacker in a chokehold, Milo reached behind his back and pulled out his Beretta. The man bucked out of Milo’s hold and wheeled around, pointing the gun at Milo’s chest. Milo jerked his finger over the trigger.