Then there was Trouper and Beckham—Beckham I knew through my dad. Her dad and mine worked together on the SWAT team. And though Beckham and I hadn’t exactly run in the same circles, we still got along well, so I wasn’t totally a ‘newcomer’ so to speak.
There was Sin and Blaise—again, with Blaise, I knew her like I knew Zach.
And finally there was Laric and Catori—Catori, like Beckham, was a family friend. Though she was older than me. Laric I had met this past year when my now sister-in-law, Dillan was having trouble.
Still, I felt totally and completely out of place when they all descended on Bruno’s place looking as if they were seeing something spectacular that they never hoped or prayed to see.
“Holy shit,” I heard one of the ladies say. “He’s holding her hand.”
I looked down at Bruno’s hand—which hadn’t let me go since we’d gotten in the door of his place. Then I looked up at the group that was congregating in the living room.
“Take your fuckin’ shoes off for Christ’s sake,” Bruno grumbled as Sin took a step into the main room.
Sin looked down at his shoes, then sighed. “They are lace-ups.”
“I don’t fuckin’ care,” Bruno muttered.
While they were all distracted with the shoes, I all but yanked my hand out of Bruno’s and headed for the chair in the very corner of the room, that was all but in the shadows, and planted my ass there with my knees up against my chest.
I was overwhelmed.
And when I say overwhelmed, I mean, I’m about to start freaking out any second.
Bruno, the man that could read me better than my own family could, looked over as I had that thought and frowned.
“This is the best house I’ve ever been in,” Six breathed. “Bruno, how could you keep this place from us?”
Bruno continued to keep his gaze on me, his eyes taking in every single detail.
He got up and moved then, sitting down on the ottoman so that he was penning me slightly into the corner of his living room.
But now, with Bruno sitting on the ottoman in front of me, he’d effectively blocked me from the room with his hulking form.
I could instantly breathe.
And when he reached back and placed his hand on top of my foot, I smiled and leaned into his back, my face going to the spot right between his shoulder blades that felt like they were made for my cheek to rest.
“How about we stop worrying about his house and get to talking about why he has an assassin after him,” Trick grumbled.
“I’m more interested in getting those pigs back inside their pen,” another man said, but since I wasn’t able to associate his face with his voice, I couldn’t remember who he was.
“We go out there and get those pigs back in,” Bruno said. “And we’re going to get dirty. They’re well satisfied at this point and don’t really have a desire to leave at the moment. So they’ll be fine until we can have our discussion and then go out there.”
“Ewww,” Six gagged. “That’s so gross.”
“We’ll discuss the pigs later,” I heard someone else say. “Let’s talk about the assassin who somehow found your place, why you have an assassin in the first place, and how the hell we can help find those kids.”
Bruno grunted, and I felt the vibration against my cheek.
“I was out for a ride on the bike, trying to clear my head after the op last week, when I got behind this panel van. I’d been behind it for what felt like an hour when I realized I needed fuel. Since it was the only place in the area, I went ahead and pulled off along with this van. When I went inside for something to drink, I came back out to the guy in the panel van doing something in the back of the van. When I got closer, I heard a kid whimpering and something hit the van so hard that it sounded like whatever it was inside didn’t want to be there.”
I closed my eyes as I felt my stomach roll.
Just the thought of that happening, to any kid, was devastating.
“Then what happened?” Lynn asked.
“I confronted him,” Bruno continued. “Things happened, he took off with the gas nozzle in his van, and then I got on my bike and followed him. I was close, about to call it in, when another van came from out of nowhere and plowed into me.” He paused. “I think that was the van that was found at the scene. The one without all of those kids inside. That was the one that the cops were questioning me about. The guy who hit me hit the steering wheel wrong and broke his neck. The guy in the van that I’d been chasing backed up and nearly ran over my head. He got out, made sure I couldn’t get up by kicking me in the face, dazing me, and then checked on the van. But by that point, we’d already drawn a crowd so he couldn’t stay. But I remember the guy’s face. I can get a sketch artist to mock him up.”