And probably done. She’s already hustling away without even looking back at me.
“Hang on, songbird. I’ll walk you up.” I jog to catch up with her.
She pushes through the door, and I see a figure step from the shadows, gun pointed right at her head.
“Pepper, get down!” I draw my gun and fire at the same time I yank Pepper back into the parking garage. He fires back, hitting the door. I wait a beat, and throw the door open and swing through the opening with my gun raised.
A karate chop to the windpipe throws me back. My gun’s knocked loose and it skitters along the floor.
I lunge before I can even see, my eyes smarting, my breath still struggling. I take the guy down, throw punches at his face.
A face I recognize.
Ernie Denesto. A second-rate hitman for hire. No connection with any Family that I know of.
“Who hired you?” I demand.
His gun wobbles in my face. I knock it away, get my fingers around his throat. I squeeze.
I squeeze and squeeze.
Pepper whimpers my name, which only makes me squeeze harder.
“He almost killed you.” Just remembering how close she came to dying makes my vision bleed red.
“Tony! Tony, stop!”
I can’t stop. Have to protect Pepper. I won’t let him endanger her again…
“Tony!”
Fuck.
He’s dead.
Fuck, fuck, fuck. I get up and whirl to face Pepper. The look on her face makes my stomach drop to my feet.
She covers her mouth with her hand, her eyes swimming with tears. “Tony. What have you done?”
I hold my hands out. “Fuck, Pepper. I’m sorry.” I look down at the body below me. “Everything’s gonna be okay. I—”
“No. Not, it’s not. He’s dead.” Her voice wobbles on the last word. She turns and takes off down the hall.
“Pepper!”
“Leave me alone!” she shouts and runs away, into the casino.
I punch the wall, cracking the plaster and busting open my knuckles.
How could I fuck things up this badly?
I wanted to save her.
Now I’ve lost her.
Forever.
Chapter 11
Pepper
I enter the stairwell and run up the stairs toward my suite. Probably not my brightest move, but I didn’t want to stand there and wait for an elevator. My body wants to run. To flee. I need to get away from the violence I just witnessed. And the consequences.
Tony just killed a man.
Tony just killed a man.
Holy shit, Tony just killed a man.
Right here. In the casino.
Granted, it was self-defense. But why was someone trying to kill Tony? And omigod, did he have to kill him?
Yeah, he probably did. The man had a gun. He tried to use it. Hell, he tried to use it on me. I could’ve died just now. Because of my association with Tony.
I don’t really blame Tony. But this underlines the point I’ve been trying to forget from the beginning—Tony is a dangerous man. This is the world he lives in. A world with guns and murder. A world of violence.
I want nothing to do with this. I can barely handle my days as a pop star. Why in the hell would I add such risk to the mix? Just because he opened me to a new world of sex?
Oh God. I stop to rest and catch my breath. I feel like throwing up, although I’m not sure if it’s from seeing a guy strangled to death in front of me or from running up five flights of stairs.
Fuck it, I’ll take the elevator the rest of the way. I push out to the landing and hit the call button.
I keep seeing Tony’s face draining of color, the regret in his eyes when he turned to face me. He wasn’t afraid of being shot at, or attacked. He was afraid of my reaction. Like he knew we were over. This was it.
And he’s right.
I get in the elevator and take it to my floor.
In my room, I throw my shit into a suitcase. I have to get out of this place. Now.
I don’t bother to collect Anton. Or my parents.
Certainly not Hugh.
I’ll text Izzy later. I put on a pair of sunglasses and a Dodgers cap and head outside to hail a cab to the airport. I own a whole big mansion in L.A. that doesn’t feel even a little bit like mine, but my parents are here, so that means it’s empty.
Seems like a good place to crash.
Tony
“Why do you think he was after me?” I kick the laundry cart carrying Ernie Denesto’s body.
“I don’t know. If you hadn’t killed him so dead, we could torture it out of him,” Stefano says drily. He, Nico and Leo met me in the basement to discuss the situation.
I rub my face. I know I fucked up. Big time. I can’t even begin to absorb what I’ve done to my relationship with Pepper.
“Let me guess. Your girl was present,” Nico says.