My hands go to my mouth to muffle my scream as the gun goes off. I stumble back in terror. Everything in me is telling me to run, but I’m stuck standing here in shock.
Tears prick my eyes, my heartbeat pounds in my ears, and just when I think I’m going to stand in this place forever, the big man turns and looks directly at me.
Chapter 2
Salvatore
I pull the trigger, and a rush of satisfaction runs through me as I watch Joey’s body go limp. I knew when I brought him out here he wouldn’t be leaving alive. I could have done it fast, but I had to give him one last beating before he left this earth. He’d earned it after all.
The silencer muffles the sound of the gun, and the snip of the bullet going through his head is followed by the quiet of the night. Normally I would’ve had my men handle something like this, but I’d known Joey for years. He owned a deli in the city where I ate every so often. I just didn’t know that he liked beating on his wife and kids. I’d given him a warning a month ago when I saw the evidence. Then I’d given him a beating so he knew what it felt like. He didn’t appreciate someone bigger than him laying down the punishment. He found out quick what it felt like to be powerless. It was a lesson he needed, and I thought that would be the end of it. It happened after I saw his wife shuffling around the deli with a black eye, her daughter sporting one just like her mother. I couldn’t believe it had been going on under my nose and I never saw it before then.
It had enraged me that I’d been giving his place of business protection when really it was his family that needed it from him. I hated that I hadn’t seen it sooner. Normally I’m good with reading people, so it only pissed me off more that I’d missed it.
Then today, I came into the deli to check on things, and the little girl had a split lip. I felt it was my responsibility to handle it then and not just give out the order. I was partly responsible for the little girl’s busted lip. When her young innocent eyes met mine and I saw the misery in them, Joey’s fate was sealed. He’d never lay his hands on them again.
I’ll still give the deli protection, but as a penance, it will be for free and for life. As long as Joey’s family owns the place, I’ll make it right for them. It’s only right after not acting sooner.
A muffled cry snaps my eyes away from the body on the ground, and I turn to see someone standing in the dark alley behind the junkyard. The sight takes me by surprise because it’s the middle of the night and this place is always deserted.
I can barely make out the shape of the person on the other side of the fence, but I can tell they are small. They could even be a child. My eyes focus in, and the moonlight picks up the shadow. It’s then I can see it’s a woman. Just as I open my mouth, she turns and takes off running.
“Fuck,” I mutter, jamming my gun back into its holster and taking off after her.
I race toward the fence and jump up, my foot connecting with the center of the chain-link fence as my hands go to the top. I push myself over the top, landing on my feet in a quick, smooth motion. My legs are longer than hers, and she’s not far ahead of me. I don’t even really need to full-out run to keep up with her, but the closer I get, I can’t help my eyes going to the sway of her ass.
My cock jerks, taking me by surprise. I almost trip over my own fucking feet as I stare at her lush, round ass trying to get away from me. What the fuck? My cock hasn’t shown interest in anything for a long while, and now just watching an ass sway as it runs has it coming to life. This is not what I need right now. I can’t even remember the last time I had an interest in jacking off, let alone the last time I wanted a woman.
I’m distracted by her body as I keep pace with her and watch as she runs toward a run-down apartment building. I grit my teeth, wondering why she would think running into this place is a good idea. A woman with a body like hers isn’t safe in a neighborhood like this. What was she even doing in the alley? And why am I having all these thoughts? I can’t concentrate because I’m too busy wondering if her tits are bouncing in the front and I can’t see them.
She gets closer to the building, and I can see trash bags litter the entryway because people are too lazy to walk the extra ten feet to throw them in the dumpster. All of the windows have air conditioners in them, telling me the building doesn’t have any sort of cooling system. The ones that don’t have them stuck in have bars on them.
The whole place pisses me off, and I’m also getting mad that she’s cornering herself. She can’t possibly think this is the shelter she needs to see, because there are likely worse things in that building than the man chasing her right now. She’s gotten ahead of me, and I watch as she pulls open the door, darting inside. I follow her, eating up the space she’s managed to put between us. She’s quick, I’ll give her that.