Page 34 of Duke

He stopped, nearly dropping the can. “What—what in the Sam Hill is going on, Dan?”

I let my head thud against the stair. “Ran into some trouble, my man.”

Bruce’s gaze went to the red mess on the wall of the landing above me. “Heard shooting, figured I’d best come investigate.”

I met his fearful gaze. “You don’t want any of this mess, Bruce. Go home. Say you got sick, had to run home before you shit in your boxers. Hell, say you got drunk on lunch break. Just…go home.Now. You never saw me, or my girlfriend, okay? We were never here. You’ve never even met me, matter of fact.” I lifted an eyebrow. “It’s for your own good, buddy. Now go on, git.”

Bruce hesitated, and then his gaze flicked up to the red dripping down the wall. “Yeah. My wife has been sick. Best go home and take care of her.”

“You do that, Bruce.”

He turned and lumbered back down the stairs and out of view. I heard the door at the bottom of the stairs slam closed, and then I finally relaxed, but only for a moment.

I had to get out of here.

The one thing that was really bugging me, though, was that they’d found me here. Harris didn’t even know about this place, and four of Cain’s mercs had found me? How? I’m not sloppy. I know I hadn’t been followed here, because I’d been watching. So...how in the ever lovingfuckdid they manage to find me? Not luck, that’s for damn sure.

I couldn’t figure it out, and that was a serious problem.

I scrambled to my feet and jogged up the stairs to Temple.

As soon as I came into view, she rushed over to me. “Duke! There was so much shooting, I was sure you’d—shit, you’re bleeding!”

Awareness was returning, now that the high adrenaline of the shootout was receding. I touched my earlobe, and found the lower half of it missing, blood dripping onto my shoulder. “Guess I won’t be getting that earring I was thinking about, huh?”

Temple gaped at me. “You’re cracking jokes?”

I shrugged. “It’s just an earlobe, princess, I barely even feel it.” That was a lie—it stung like a motherfucker, but compared to a full-on gunshot wound, it was a minor inconvenience.

I checked the magazine of the suppressed pistol and found it empty. It didn’t use the same kind of rounds as any of the firearms I had, and the suppressor wouldn’t fit any of them either, since I was carrying all 9mm pistols and this one was a 5.56. Which sucked, but whatever. I stuffed the empty firearm into the duffel bag—since I wasn’t the type to leave a perfectly good gun behind, especially if it had my fingerprints on it and had been used to kill more than one someone. Then I threaded my arms through the cloth handles of the duffel bag so I was carrying it backpack style.

I pulled Temple face to face with me. “Got a bit of a mess going on down there, princess, so you may want to close your eyes and let me lead you down, okay?”

“Is this how it’s going to be?”

“What do you mean?”

She gestured at the stairwell. “People shooting, you bleeding, dead dudes everywhere…”

I shrugged and nodded at the same time. “Yeah, probably.”

She sagged against me, her head buried against my chest. “Yay.”

I tipped her chin up. “Come on now, Fancy, where’s that sass?”

She jerked her chin away and re-buried her face into my shoulder. “It’s gone,” she drawled, “I lost it. Bye-bye.”

“Listen, kitten, I’ve kept you safe thus far, yeah?” I nudged her chin up when she didn’t reply. “Yeah?”

She nodded. “Yeah, but—”

“Well, I’ll continue keeping you safe.” I gave her my cockiest grin. “You’re with Duke Silver, babe. Ain’t no half-ass wanna-be two-bit thugs gonna get anywhere near you, and that’s a promise.”

What I wasn’t saying was that these guys hadn’t been half-ass, wanna-be, two-bit thugs. They’d had training, decent training at that, they’d just underestimated me and I’d gotten the drop on them. That last asshole had sent a few rounds my way, which had nearly had my name on them.

Temple frowned at me, but it was an amused frown, which didn’t make any sense, but there it was. “You really think highly of yourself, don’t you?”

“When you’ve been through the shit I have, not much will faze you. A few thugs trying to kill me? Meh.”