Page 5 of The Mafia Enforcer's Temptation

For a moment the world wavers and questions of Hank and the other men fade.

I’m rocking against her, a dry hump that she grinds on. And then warm wetness hits my fingers holding the knife.

Dammit.

I’ve cut her.

“Fuck,” the first one says. “We need to get out of here.”

I lift my head.

“Help,” she screams, withering defiance in her face. I pull free, then push down on her hips as I flip her over so she’s face down. They’ve turned and are now running this way, and I shoot at them. A bullet hits the tree next to me.

Then both men fall to the ground. My brother Declan appears with a shit-eating grin on his face. “Just saved yer life there,” he says. “You…”

His voice trails off as he looks past me. I turn, too. Because I see the same thing he does, a light that flares.

It’s a cobbled-together flash bomb that does nothing but catch attention, which is its purpose. If there’s one, there might be another, as the flash bomb usually comes along withsomething more serious. “Get out. There’s a witch here. Get her, move our men back, and clear the perimeter.”

“But—”

“Do it, Declan,” I snap.

I race to the bomb, skidding down as I search the area. There. Another rigged, fucked-up little flash bomb. It’s meant to cause noise, and it’s meant to cause confusion. Irish-style, down to its little green wires.

I make short work of disarming it.

But back in the day, one trick people like Paddy O’Sullivan had, and fuck it, like I had, was to distract so we could do what we needed, and then the real bomb would go off.

The double flash bomb is a blast from the past, a Paddy special, so yeah, I’m betting there’s another.

The Semtex bomb seems to be the work of someone else, someone with skill, someone with real intent. Could it be this fucking Hank they mentioned? Or the girl?

I look, scrambling for the wires when I spy the gate to the manicured back courtyard. The garage sits behind that, then there are supply rooms and guest rooms. We did a run-through of the property before the event began.

The gate is the perfect cover for a second device since a car is parked right on the other side.

I spot a long-ass rag running from the open gas tank of the car all the way to this side of the gate. The stench of gas punches the air. I rip the rag out, throwing it far away, and then I waste seconds digging around for the bomb.

Fuck. Under the ivy. I look at the red numbers and grit my teeth. The timer’s almost counted down to zero. I don’t have time to disarm it. Fuck. Fuck. I pull a wire, and it doesn’t stop the timer. It doesn’t blow me up, but…

I run, right as it explodes, the force hurling me into the air before throwing me to the ground.

My ears ring and a shout rises in the distance from our men. I roll to my back, staring at the stars before staggering to my feet, very disoriented.

The woman has something to do with this. I know it. Feel it. Her blood’s on my knife. I bring the blade to my lips and lick the salty, metallic wetness before snapping the knife shut and putting it in my pocket where it clinks against whatever I stole from her.

I run back to where I left her. But I only find Dec holding the restraints.

I pull out the thing in my pocket.

It’s a gold crest. A wolf.

I look around for a sign of her.

“No one was here when I got here,” Declan says. “You’re… a bit crispy.”

I ignore him and dart into the darkness, scouring the area.