Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
“Hell hath no fury like a best friend on a mission.”
Anna
A s Gio answers the phone I feel embarrassment creep up my neck as the realization that I basically just climbed Aldo in this office with him still here hits me. I look down at my feet to hide my shame. Gio whispers into the phone and we catch our breaths from the impactful kiss the call interrupted. A strong hand finds my chin and brings it up to meet his eyes.
“Never be ashamed of the explosive chemistry that we have. I know that I’m not,” he says to me with a taunting grin. He places a soft kiss on my cheek to reinforce the meaning behind his words as Gio wraps up the call. I reach into my bag and pull out my keys before handing them to Gio.
“I am not a damsel who sits in the car, so what’s the plan?” I ask, hoping for something more concrete now that it is understood that I will be going to get Lucy. Both men's jaws fall open and they just stare at me. I stand there, cross my arms, and raise my eyebrow, waiting for a response.
“Love, I won’t try to make you stay on the sidelines but I am begging you to stay by my side so that we can get both you and Lucy out of this situation in one piece. If you stay near me then we can jointly focus on getting your friend out of this with as little harm as possible. If you wander off, I will shift my focus to protecting you instead of finding the person that we came to get.” He cups my cheeks and stares into my eyes, allowing me to see his sincerity and the fact that every action he has done since we met has been to respect my wishes to the best of his ability. He has given me choices that no one ever had before.
“When this is over, I need to sit down and tell you why I would gladly lose my life if it meant saving her, but for now, let's go save my best friend,” I promise him and pull his hand toward the door. He is everything I could have asked for and more with his only flaw being his loveless marriage. We walk hand-in-hand to the parking structure and stop at his car. Gio opens the trunk and grabs something before heading over to us. Aldo takes the dark cloth items from Gio and it looks like a bulletproof vest. He opens the back door and sets one of the vests down in the seat before handing me one. I set my bag on the floorboards and examine the vest.
“Can you help? I have never put one of these on and I know you will feel better if you know that I am secured properly.“ As I finish my sentence, he laughs and it is a comforting sound that warms my soul. I pull my sweater over my head and throw it in the back of the car, leaving me in a camisole and yoga pants. The goal was comfort today after work, but luckily they will also work for the rescue without slowing me down. There isn't a thing in this world that I wouldn’t burn down for Lucy, and God forgive the people who stand in my way.
Aldo smiles at me in my more relaxed state before he slides the vest over my head, positioning it on my body before securing the sides and brushing my hair out of my face. He grabs my sweater out of the car and hands it to me with a soft smile.
“What they don’t know will surprise the shit out of them,” he says with a smile as I pull on the sweater over the vest. We climb into the car and I grab the extra magazines from my bag and place them in my sweater pocket before I buckle into my seat. Gio takes the front seat to drive us to the location and we check our guns to ensure that they are loaded. It is a tenuous time traveling between the hospital and the meeting place, almost thirty minutes away, but Aldo holds my hand the entire drive, crazing the contact.
“I would pull you into my lap so I can keep you close but your safety will always be a much more prominent concern over my comfort,” he tells me as we come to a stop in the alley with the rest of the cars. When the door opens, he steps out and holds his hand out to me to join him. I slide across the seats and step out as the men gather around us and I hop down from the seat. I shut the door behind me and look to Aldo, ready to hear him lead his people for the first time.
“Listen up, the target here is to get to Lucy. She is five foot five with brown hair and brown eyes. This is Anna and she will be by my side for this; do not let anything happen to her or you will meet the Angel of Pain,” he instructs his people and I am in awe of the power that he commands every time he opens his mouth. This incredible and powerful man has been on his knees for me and while our connection is incredibly strong, we haven’t even had sex yet. Finding the hair tie at my wrist, I pull back my hair in a braid to keep my field of vision clear. I run through my mental checklist; gun: Loaded, magazines: ready in my pocket, vest: secured, laces are double knotted so I don’t trip over them. I don’t think that there is anything else I could do to prepare.
Gio leads the team into position and Aldo and I file behind him as we make our way from the alley to the warehouse where they are keeping Lucy. The walk is made in silence with the team communicating in signals without spoken words. Aldo keeps his hand in mine, making sure that I move within the safety of the pack, and for the first time in my life, I felt like I belong somewhere. Lucy has always been family and I would rather die than give her up, but these men didn’t even know my name until minutes ago and here they are protecting my life without a question or second thought.
We stop around the corner of the building and Gio goes ahead to secure entry to the warehouse door. Everyone but him freezes when it swings open from the inside. He moves so fast that it is hard to make out each individual movement in the dark, but he takes out the man's windpipe first before knocking him to the ground and using him as a prop for the door. He signals us all to come to him so we can enter the building as a unit. My heart is beating wildly but I put all of my feelings and emotions aside to focus on the task at hand.
As we enter the first door the strobe lights and the smell of urine take over my senses and I force my body to focus. We make it down the hallway to the first door that we open to find a stained bed and nothing else. The second door on the other wall opens to two armed men at a desk. They stand up and draw their weapons but before they have them out of their holsters bullets fire from one of our men and they hit the floor. Sadly our time moving stealthily is over with those gunshots. My shoulders tense but I do not raise my weapon for fear of hitting someone on our side from this angle.
We hear whimpering coming from down the hall and continue to move in that direction when I see a large man standing behind her with a knife to her throat. It's Lucy, and the rage in my chest goes wild. All of those years of training to perfect my aim come down to this.
“Put the knife down and you might survive this,” Aldo booms from beside me as I raise my weapon. The ogre of a man has the audacity to smile like he has no control over what happens next. I steady my aim, breathe, and then fire. The bullet leaves the chamber of my gun, finds purchase in the center of his forehead, and blows the back of his head off. He falls to the floor as Gio and I rush for Lucy.