Page 268 of Lorenzo

The shot explodes through the SUV, deafening in the enclosed space, and the man at the door drops out of sight before he can bark out whatever order was on his lips.

Donna does not waste so much as a second reacting to it.

“Go.”

But I am already moving.

I shove through the open door and hit the wet gravel hard, bringing my gun up as I clear the side of the vehicle. The man I shot lies beside the SUV, while another figure farther back freezes just long enough to reveal that he was not expecting us to come out armed and fighting.

That hesitation costs him.

I fire at him, and he goes down next to another vehicle sitting crookedly across the road.

Donna comes out directly behind me with Mocha at her side, exactly where I expected her to be and exactly where I do not want her to be.

“Donna—”

“I’m here.”

Rain is already darkening Mocha’s coat as he lands beside her, and another burst of gunfire breaks out behind us near the second SUV. I hear someone shouting, but the distance, rain, and echo from the surrounding buildings make it impossible to tell who it is.

Movement in the corner of my eye catches my attention.

A man rushes around the rear of our vehicle, clearly focused on Donna. He reaches for her before he seems to register the gun in her hand, and the realization comes too late.

Donna pivots and fires.

He goes down several feet from her.

For the briefest second, I look at her.

She looks back at me with the expression of someone who has no idea why I am surprised.

“What?”

Under different circumstances, I might have acknowledged that I owe her several apologies for every time I questioned whether she could protect herself.

This is not the time.

“Mocha. Guard.”

The command changes him instantly. He steps behind her, practically between her legs, keeping watching from the back.

He keeps perfectly in step with her as we round the car.

We reach the driver's side door. Rinaldi is nowhere in sight.

Every instinct I have demands that I go looking for him.

He has been with me too long for anything else to feel acceptable. If I were alone, I would already be moving toward that second SUV, searching the ditch, the road, anywhere he could have gone after getting out of the vehicle.

But I am not alone.

Donna shifts closer to me as another shot cracks through the night, and the choice becomes brutally simple.

Whoever planned this wanted us exposed and separated from our security. Maybe the primary target is me. Maybe it is Donna. Given everything Marcello has already done, I have no reason to assume he would object to taking both of us.

If I leave Donna here while I search for Rinaldi, I give them exactly the opening they tried to create.