Page 5

Placing his checkbook and pen back in his pocket, he threw open the car’s back door as his smile disappeared. “Well, the IRS was going to take it from me, anyway.”

Nadia wanted to roll her eyes at him, but she could see past what he was trying to pull off. Keeping up his asshole façade must have been tiring.

“I don’t care,” she told him honestly, putting the check in her blazer pocket before holding out her slender hand. “Thank you, Mr. Caruso.”

He stared at her hand for a moment before he took it in his. “You’re welcome.”

All focus had been lost again as his hand touched hers and she went right back to how she felt when she had first seen him in his office. “H-Have a lovely trip,” Nadia told him genuinely this time, not wanting his contact with her dropped anytime soon.

If he felt even remotely the way she did, he was much better at concealing his emotions. “Have a lovely day, Ms. Brooks.”

She felt his grip loosen, and her heart sank until his grip suddenly tightened on hers again, this time in a death grip. Everything seemed to move in fast motion as she was then thrown into the back seat of his car.

However … it didn’t seem to happen fast enough.

BANG!

Two

SPOILER ALERT … The Rumors About Dante Caruso are True

Shit, shit, shit, was all Dante thought as he slammed their bodies into the back seat of the car. He couldn’t explain it. It had just been a gut feeling that he needed to get out of the way, and fast. His instincts taking Ms. Brooks with him.

“Get us the fuck out of here!” he growled.

Amo had already thrown the car in drive. “On it.”

The car being punched forward, which threw the back-seat car door to an automatic close. Dante was thankful that, while he had been talking to Ms. Brooks, Amo was getting into the driver’s seat. One of his soldiers, Vincent, had driven Leo up, and they would all be fucked if he was the one driving them away from this shit show. Amo was one of his few men left who wasn’t stuck up a girl’s ass, so he was one of the only ones he trusted willing to be his guard for the weekend. It was a dark time for the family if his men couldn’t leave their women for a few days to go party on a fucking yacht. God, he really missed the old days.

“Leo?” His fatherly instinct had him yelling out for his son.

“I’m fine.” Leo’s voice came from the passenger side. It seemed to be dropping octaves more and more each day.

Able to focus on the woman in his arms now, he studied her. “Are you hurt?” When she didn’t answer, he nervously began checking her body. It was strange, the fear he felt banging in his chest. He hadn’t felt fear like that since …

* * *

What the fuck! Nadia’s heart pounded in her chest. She had wanted to scream, but the shock didn’t allow it. Then her shock turned into even more shock, if that was possible, when she felt Dante’s hands searching her body for a gunshot wound. She could practically feel the relief radiate off him when he realized the reasoning for her silence.

“Ms. Brooks, I think you’re in shock.”

Was that a … smirk on his face? What about this is funny? She was repulsed that her internal monologue was braver than she was on the outside at the moment. It would take her until the fear of imminent death wore off, she supposed.

“Uh-huh,” was all she managed with a little nod to confirm that he had hit the nail on the fucking head.

That slight smirk on his face grew a touch bigger as he began to sit up.

“Sir, I’d stay down,” Amo said, looking serious in his rearview mirror.

“Why—Oh shit,” he groaned when he was thrown back into the seat when a car rammed into their rear end.

“Christ!” Nadia yelled, seeming to have found her voice upon the second hit. The only reason she hadn’t gone flying was because the grip Dante had on her was becoming slightly painful at this point.

“Hang on,” was the only warning Amo gave before he suddenly jumped on the freeway.

Well, if the car behind them wasn’t going to be the one to kill them all, it certainly was going to be the breakneck speed the Caruso bodyguard was sure to impend upon them.

“Why am I getting the feeling this is normal for you three?” she asked, exasperated at being the only one showing any emotion.

She had expected Dante to be the one to answer. Instead, it was his son, Leo, who ominously said, “It is.”

Nadia couldn’t see much of the boy yet, with Dante’s body blocking her sight, but from what she could see, she guessed he was definitely a teenager, and the cut of the dirty blond hair told her that he probably didn’t fall far from the tree in the good-looks department. Calling his son pretentious was going to be an understatement if he looked half as good in the front as he did from the back, especially with kids these days.