Seized Mafia Bride by Mae Doyle
Lorenzo
Dane’s eyes are wide as he runs out of the coffee shop. Natalia’s under the table, her hands over her head for protection, her eyes slammed shut. She’s curled up against the wall, pressed hard enough against it that Dane is going to have to peel her out of there when it’s time to go.
Other diners have all dropped down to the floor and done the same thing. All except for the man stretched out in front of me on the floor, his gun thrown to the side, a single bullet hole in the back of his head.
I saw him coming from across the coffee shop when I was still standing outside the door waiting on Mia. He’d walked with purpose right to the back booth, just like he knew where he was going.
Before he could reach our booth I’d sprung into action, running across the coffee shop, pulling my gun and aiming when I knew that I wouldn’t have to worry about any customers standing up and getting in the way.
He hit the floor and all hell broke loose. Turning, I slip my gun into its holster and stalk back to the bathroom. Halfway there I hear something.
Screaming.
Mia.
I run, pumping my arms, then slam into the bathroom door to open it. It rattles on its hinges but doesn’t fly open, so I ram it again, putting my shoulder into it to break it down. This time there’s a splintering sound then the door flies open, slamming hard into the wall before bouncing back a little.
Mia’s at the window, her back to me, but she looks behind her when she hears the door fly open.
“Lorenzo!” There’s so much fear and terror mixed together in her voice when she calls my name that I stand still for a moment, then take off across the bathroom. I’m trying to see what the fuck is going on as I run.
She looks like she’s trying to get out the window, but then I figure it out. She’s not trying to get out. She’s trying to stay in. Someone’s pulling her.
“Look out!” I call, yanking my gun from the holster. Before I can get to the window to get a clean shot through the crack, however, the sound of a gunshot outside makes me skid to a stop. Grabbing Mia, I pull her from the window, folding her into my chest.
She’s sobbing, huge tears running down her cheeks. Looking through the window, I’m not surprised to see Dane out there. He gives me a nod, then kicks the man he just shot, flipping him over on his back.
That’s something we have to worry about later.
“Mia, darling, are you hurt? Did he hurt you?” I have to push her away from me a little bit so that I can get a better look at her. It’s the last thing that I want to do, but I do it anyway, my hands firm on her shoulders as I make her take a step back.
Her eyes are wide and watery and her cheeks are bright red with a flush that’s crept up from her chest. She moves to hold up her arm and then sucks in a breath, immediately grabbing her shoulder with her good hand. “Oh, God,” she whispers. “I can’t move it.”
Grabbing her arm, I rub her skin, working my way down to her wrist. The skin is angry and red from where the man had been yanking on her, trying to get her out of the window. Glancing over at it, I can see how small the crack is. He wouldn’t have ever been able to get her through it without killing her.
“He dislocated it,” I tell her. Her face is suddenly pale and I have a pretty good feeling that I’m about to have a passed-out Mia on my hands, so I move quickly. “This is going to hurt, darling, but only for a moment and then you’ll feel better, okay?”
“What are you doing?” She asks, but before she can get too worried, I move around her, grabbing her arm and the back of her shoulder.
Taking a deep breath, I slam the arm back into the socket. It clicks into place and her knees go weak at the sensation. Immediately, I wrap my arms around her, grabbing her and pulling her back up to her feet so that she doesn’t pass out on the floor.
“Okay, you’re okay,” I tell her, turning her in my arms. “We’re going to get you some ice, alright? And some meds and then you’ll be just fine. Don’t worry, Mia, I’ve got you.”
She leans against me, her cheek pressed into my chest. “I thought he was going to kill me,” she says. Her voice is breathy and light and I scoop her up, carrying her against my chest.
I need to get her off her feet, get her some ice, make sure she doesn’t pass out. “He wasn’t going to kill you,” I assure her. “He was coming to take you away from me, though, and that simply couldn’t ever happen. I won’t ever let anything happen to you, Mia. You have to trust me.”
“But why?” She shifts in my arms a little so that she can look up at me. “Why do you want to protect me and take care of me? It doesn’t make any sense.”
“You don’t think so?” We leave the bathroom and I carry her back to our booth. Everyone else in the coffee shop is gone, all except for Natalia and Dane, who are standing by the booth, and Henry, who has a feral look in his eyes and is standing behind the counter.
“No.” She shakes her head and I stop walking long enough to really look down at her. “It doesn’t, Lorenzo. You have everything. You...are everything. I’m nothing. Nobody in my life has ever wanted me. You don’t get it, do you? You have this family who loves you and will do anything for you so it doesn’t make sense to you, but I don’t have that. I don’t have people caring for me.”
“You do now.” When I put her down on the booth, she wobbles a little bit, but braces herself on my shoulders. “You may not have had those things in the past, Mia, but you have them now. Don’t you dare think for a second that I’m not going to take care of you. You have a family now. You have people who want to keep you safe.”
Natalia sucks in a breath at my words and I glance over at her. Even though she’s listening to me, she’s staring at Dane. he puts his arm around her shoulders and pulls her close to him so that her head is resting on his shoulder.
“I’m going to get you ice and medication,” I tell Mia, taking her chin so that she has to look up at me. I don’t want her to go into shock, and keeping an eye on her pupils will help me make sure that we’re not going down that path.
“I have Tylenol,” Natalia says, grabbing her purse from the table. She unzips it and starts rummaging inside. “Get her some water, too.”
When I walk over to Henry, he gives his head a little jerk like he was lost in his own thoughts, then finally looks at me. “How are you?” I ask, walking behind the counter to get a bag of ice. I know where everything is in here. The Accardi family has always made themselves at home and Henry doesn’t make any move to stop me.
“That’s going to be bad for business,” he finally says, turning to look at me. “How in the hell are you going to spin this one?”
Zipping the bag shut, I toss it on the counter and pull my wallet from my back pocket. “This should cover everyone who was in here and made a run for it,” I tell him, peeling off a handful of bills. “And as for spinning it, I don’t think that you’re going to have to worry about that. We’re taking all of those assholes out tomorrow.”
“Someone was shot in my shop,” he says, gesturing at the dead body on the floor. “And someone else called the cops.”
Sure enough, I hear the sound of sirens in the air and I grab the bag of ice. We need to get the fuck out of here before the police show up and start asking questions. Having some of them in our pocket makes our job a hell of a lot easier, but not all of them are on our side.
“Someone was shot in your shop because they were threatening the Accardi family,” I tell him over my shoulder as I walk back to Mia. Dane and Natalia have her on her feet already, which means that they heard the sirens, too. “As long as people don’t threaten us—or you—things will work out just fine.”
I’ll have to deal with Henry later and get him talked down off the ledge a little bit, but right now I need to take care of Mia. She’s my top priority. When she wobbles a little on her feet like she’s going to lose her balance, I pick her up and carry her, the bag of ice nestled between her shoulder and my chest.
She may not think that she has anyone on her side, but she’s wrong. I’m here for Mia and there’s no way in hell that I’m okay with letting her feel so all alone.
