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“Salvatore. Just Salvatore. I’m Luca’s partner. Please, help him,” Salvatore all but begged.
“I can’t. Not here. I’m sorry,” she answered honestly. “If you want him to live, you need to get him to a hospital.” She hoped he would listen more than Luca and Roman.
“If you want to live, you better get to work.”
A familiar snick accompanied the words, and Angela stiffened. She turned to find herself at the wrong end of Roman’s handgun once more. Her eyes flicked to his caramel ones, finding a coldness that spoke of a man who was not bluffing. She smiled regretfully at Salvatore and Luca before stepping back.
Roman watched her with narrowed eyes. “What are you doing? Save him,” he commanded.
“No,” Angela replied succinctly.
The look on Roman’s face was one of complete shock for a second before it morphed into pure rage. It was a look she was very familiar with, and she braced herself for a blow. But it never came. Instead, she found herself with a muzzle of a gun pressing painfully into the center of her forehead.
“I said, save him,” Roman repeated with quiet deadliness.
Angela met his eyes once more. “And I said no.”
“You took an oath,” her original kidnapper pointed out from beside Roman. He was looking just as frustrated and murderous as his boss. “That’s a thing, right? The Hippocratic Oath?”
She shrugged. “Sure. I took an oath. But not to you.”
The gasping breaths of the young man behind her were the only sounds in the room for a few heartbeats. She did her best to ignore the dying man. But it was hard. Very hard. Still, she would not yield. She had done so in the past, and it had cost her more than a few bruises. Cuts, bruises, and broken bones were easily healed in the grand scheme of things. But her mind, her soul—those things were much harder to repair. She refused to feel them shatter again.
Roman ground the cold metal deeper into her forehead, no doubt leaving a mark. “Are you really prepared to die for the sake of pride?”
Angela raised her chin as much as the gun would allow. “It’s not about pride. It’s about power. You seem to think you hold all the power in this room because you have that gun. But in actual fact, I am the one with all the power. If you want me to save that man, you’ll apologize,” she told him. “You’ll get that gun out of my face. And you’ll get the fuck out of my space.”
“Roman, please,” Salvatore practically sobbed when Roman didn’t immediately move.
Roman stared at her for another tense second before his thumb pushed the safety back on the gun with practiced ease. He lowered the weapon to his side and swallowed audibly, taking a step back. “I apologize for the way you were brought here. I apologize for your treatment. Please, will you help my brother? He’s innocent.”
Angela maintained eye contact for a heartbeat longer, seeing the pain and fear hidden in the depths of the eyes that also held death. They tugged at something inside of her, something she couldn’t—and wouldn’t—name. Turning away, she said, “Nobody is innocent. Not even me.”
Then she got to work, saving a man who probably wasn’t worth saving.
CHAPTER TWO
Roman watched the woman bark orders at his crew. He nodded when they looked at him, telling them, “Get her anything she needs.”
He was furious with Dr. Gaines. The older man had been their private physician for years. He was paid handsomely for his service. And his silence. Roman wasn’t naïve. He knew the doctor only treated them because of the money. The older man didn’t really give a shit about any of them. But that didn’t mean he could put his baby brother’s life at risk by doing a half-assed job.
The last twenty-four hours had been hell. His brother, who was twelve years younger than he was, had managed to fall in love with his bodyguard over the past year. A bodyguard who came with a shady past and a bunch of enemies that finally came knocking. Salvatore was usually more than capable of taking care of business. Unfortunately, his badass rep meant sweet fuck-all when it came to matters of the heart. And having a partner—a male partner at that—had painted a huge target on not only on his back, but on Luca’s as well.
The end result of months at war with a rival crime syndicate seeking revenge had been a bloodbath on the streets. It wasn’t Roman’s usual style, but it was unavoidable. After killing Raz, the leader of The Razors, Roman was ready to celebrate... Until he saw Salvatore screaming and hugging a bloody body to his chest. Roman knew in an instant that it was his baby brother. A brother he had already saved once before, and who was the one bright spot in the dark underbelly of his life. He hadn’t been lying to the doctor; Luca was innocent and everything that was good in the world. And Roman would do anything—including kidnapping, using, and disposing of the female doctor—if it meant his brother would live.
“This is all my fault,” Salvatore said for the hundredth time. His eyes were locked onto Luca’s pale face, and he had a death grip on his hand.
Roman didn’t blame Salvatore. He knew what it was like to escape a past that was hellbent on keeping its claws dug in. Salvatore was a good man. He was one of Roman’s best friends and loyal to a fault. It had taken some time to get used to the idea that his thirty-four-year-old best friend was sleeping with his twenty-two-year-old brother. But in the end, he couldn’t ask for a better man to love Luca than Salvatore.
“This isn’t on you,” Roman told him sternly. “Place the blame where it belongs—on the man who pulled the trigger.” And on the doctor who fucked up, he added silently. Too bad Raz couldn’t be killed twice. But the doctor, on the other hand...
“He needs surgery,” the female doctor abruptly announced. She placed the ultrasound probe onto the portable machine and pushed it away with her foot. “He’s bleeding internally. And who knows what else.”
Roman had spared no expense when he built the Omertà complex, the high-rise building they were currently in. It was all things to him and his crew—home, business, and leisure. Which meant it was important to have a top-of-the-line private medical facility. “Then do it,” Roman said implacably, looking at the beautiful woman in front of him.
Trust Abel to abduct a gorgeous female doctor, Roman grumbled silently.
Her eyebrows rose, and she looked incredulous. “You want me to perform surgery here? Impossible.”
