Page 160 of Handsome Devil

I wondered what that meant.

I thought about Filippo’s life. How his choices were taken away from him at such a young age. I wanted to help him if I could.

“Filippo, would you rather—”

The rest of my words were drowned in a sharp, loud noise. Filippo jerked forward suddenly, landing face down on the pavement. Gunpowder scorched my nostrils, so smoky and peppery I could taste it on my tongue. My eyes darted to his crumpled form. Horror quickly flooded through my veins. His raven hair was wet and matted to his skull, and blood gushedfrom his wound, down the slope of his ear, in a river of deep maroon.

His eye was missing. Either it exploded or rolled off somewhere.

I shrieked, dropping the brown paper bags I held to my chest. I whirled around, my eyes flaring when I spotted Tiernan Callaghan standing about twelve feet from me, a Cheshire Cat smirk on his lips. He was holding a gun with a silencer, spinning the trigger on his index finger. Behind him were three scary-looking men.

“Hello,Gia.”

I started running before I had time to think about what I was doing, my heart pumping so hard I felt my pulse thrusting against every inch of my skin. I had never run so fast in my life.

“Bring her to me,” Tiernan ordered in an indifferent tone. “I want her alive and well. Mostly, anyway.”

The side street was empty, so I tore across the pavement as quickly as my legs could carry me, looping around streetlamps and stop signs to slow down the three men at my heel. Their feet pounded on the cement, reverberating through my spine as they inched closer.

I spotted two overflowing plastic bins. Whirling behind them, I pushed them hard against the three men, unleashing a dam of garbage on them. They tumbled backward, cursing and growling. It bought me a few precious seconds, which I took to turn onto Fifth Avenue. There, I’d be able to disappear amid the throng of people. My lungs were burning and my muscles shaking, but I kept running.

As soon as I made the sharp turn, the fog of catastrophe clouded my vision.

The street was closed for construction. Thick, long wooden boards blocked my way.

I’d hit a dead end.

The sound of thrashing boots grew louder, closer. They were snarling, swearing under their breath. Hurling garbage at them obviously only angered them further.

I stopped in front of the barrier, calculating whether I could smash through it. I yanked my phone from my pocket and tried to slide the screen to unlock it, but my fingers shook too badly. Tiernan’s soldiers materialized from the corner of the street, circling in on me as they spread across the narrow alleyway. They stalked toward me. My nerves finally gave in. I dropped my phone between the bars of a water drain.Bollocks.

I was completely screwed.

“Ah, there she is, the little spitfire.” The burliest man out of the three advanced in my direction, cracking his knuckles, his friends following close behind him. The three of them were brawny and pale, dressed in inconspicuous black jackets and dark denim.

My gaze danced between them, trying to come up with a game plan.

“Here, kitty kitty.” The leader of the pack rubbed the pads of his fingers together as though I was an alley cat. “C’mere now, you little—”

I pounced on him with a snarl, scratching his eyes out with my fingernails. Maybe I was going down, but I wasn’t doing it without a fight.

“Fuck!” He stumbled backward, falling flat on his arse. “This pussy has claws.”

The other two men tackled me, one of them pulling out a knife and pointing it toward me. “Tiernan saidmostlywell,” he reminded me, flashing rancid, yellow teeth. “He wouldn’t mind a few shallow cuts, and man, wouldn’t I love a taste of a proper lady.”

My back was pressed against the boards. I heaved, knowing the only way out was through. I could let them take me…

But as Tate graciously pointed out countless times, I was never good at taking orders.

Drawing a deep breath, I gained momentum and started running straight into the men, hurling myself between them. For a moment, I thought I could actually escape them. But then one of them grabbed me by my pearl choker, yanking me back. My head slammed against the ground. My ears rang. Liquid heat spread across the back of my skull. I was bleeding.

A cloth was pressed against my face, and my eyes snapped open, flaring in horror.Chloroform.

Thinking on my feet, I pressed my mouth shut and stopped breathing. Losing consciousness was a terrible idea. I fluttered my eyes shut after a few seconds while holding my breath until I felt the hand that pressed the cloth to my face loosening around my nose.

“Finally,” one of them spat on the floor. “Fucking bitch. Do you wanna have a go?”

“Nah,” another one sighed. “Her husband is killing people left and right. She’s gorgeous, but no pussy’s worth it.”