9. Roman
ROMAN
My heart is chugging so hard in my chest that it hurts. Actual pain. And not because I was just in a gunfight either. Because I can’t stand the thought of losing Annie.
It’s a setup. Of course it’s a fucking setup.
There’s a good chance Jimmy doesn’t even have Annie’s dad and is just making shit up to lure us into a trap.
All my instincts are homed into the same thing. Protect Annie at all costs.
She’s made me a new man. Revived the parts of me I thought were dead. If I were to lose her now, I’d lose everything. And where would I be then? Back to the shell of the man I was? Back behind the barrel of a gun?
No. This is my life now. She is my life now. And nothing will happen to her.
Eyes flaring, Annie gets right up in my face. She looks at me with no fear whatsoever. In fact, she looks ready for a fight.
“You may be bigger than me, Roman. And you may be able to dominate me in the bedroom, but that doesn’t mean you get to control every aspect of my life.”
“Annie—”
“That doesn’t mean you get to decide whether my father lives or dies!”
She’s trying to hold back, but I see the tears starting to well up in her eyes. All it does is make me more protective.
“And you don’t get to decide to throw your life away!” My voice belts out louder than I’d meant it to.
“I’m not throwing my life away!” she snaps back. “You’re going with me. And you’re a big, strong, lethal man, aren’t you? You’ll protect me, right?”
She’s right, but her tone digs right into me. It’s like she’s using my own strength against me. A growl rips up through my chest, and I step right up so we’re only inches apart. The anger in my eyes burns viciously, but Annie just stares right back at me.
She’s provoking me. Forcing me to act on who I am.
The killer. The hitman.
There has to be another way, but I don’t see one. I can’t lose Annie, and Annie can’t lose her father, even if he is the reason we’re in this mess to begin with.
“Fine,” I rumble. “But we do this my way. Got it?”
She nods, gnashing her teeth at me. “Fine!”
She turns to her clothes, but I grab her by the arm and pull her back to me. I can’t believe I’m about to do this, but the urge has been welling up inside me for a while now. I woke up twice during the night and just stared at her, thinking about how and when to say it.
But now I know there will never be a perfect time. Hell, I might not even get another chance. So I give in. I let go.
“I love you, Annie.”
Those words should feel so foreign on my lips, but saying them to Annie feels more natural than breathing. Her beautiful face softens. Her soft pink lips part, and she falls into my arms. I cradle her like the treasure she is, pressed against my chest, and run my fingers through her hair.
“I love you too, Roman,” she cries. “I love you.”
Words I never thought I’d say or hear. Fate brought us together; now I have to keep us alive. And I will. No matter what it takes.
“I won’t lose you, Annie. I promise.”
Thirty minutes later, we’re pulling into the back of an old rug shipping warehouse. I park at the end of the lot, keeping our distance. Jimmy is a shifty son of a bitch. I’ve worked for him long enough to know not to trust him. So I do a scan of the area before even thinking about getting out.
The roof looks clean. No dense cover for snipers. No extra cars anywhere. Just Jimmy’s SUV and a black sedan that belongs to another one of his guys. Frank the Tank, they call him. He’s a big bastard. A little bit crazy too.
“Remember. Stay behind me,” I tell Annie, my hand on her thighs. “And if I tell you to run, you run. As fast as you can into the trees. And you don’t stop until your legs don’t work anymore. Understand?”
“I understand.” She nods. “But, Roman. What about you?”
“Don’t worry about me. This is what I do. I’ll be fine.”
It’s a lie, and she’s smart enough to know it, but it’s what she needs to hear. What we both need to hear. We need to see ourselves getting out of this shit unharmed and walking off into the sunset together. Nothing good ever happened from envisioning your own death.
I check the Glock in my waistband. Safety off. Three shots fired back at the cabin. That leaves twelve in the magazine. If everything goes right, that should be more than enough.
But I sure wouldn’t mind a machine gun right now.
Jimmy emerges from behind his truck and raises a hand from across the lot. There’s a man with him. He shoves him down into the dirt, kicks him, and aims a pistol at his head. I’ve never seen the guy before, but there’s no doubt who he is.
“Dad…” Annie whimpers.
“Time to go,” I reply, squeezing her thigh. “Remember. Stay behind me.”
I half expect to be dodging bullets as we step out of the truck, but Jimmy just keeps his eyes on us as Annie takes her position and we walk over to him. Frank the Tank comes around from behind the SUV. He’s holding a pistol in one hand and has a strange smile on his face.
“Annie!” Chuck cries out when he sees her. “I’m so sorry, honey—”
“Shut up!” Jimmy snaps, driving his boot into Chuck’s ribs. He looks at me with disappointment, shaking his head. “What’s wrong with you, boy? You were my best. One hundred percent efficient. Old reliable. And so what? You saw her and went soft? You fell for the chick?”
Jimmy’s gun is still pointed at Chuck’s head, but Frank’s moving his weight back and forth like he’s ready to do something.
“Let him go, Jimmy. I’ll pay the two million he owes.”
Jimmy bursts out laughing. “What? And pay me with my own money that I paid you? No, no, no. That’s not happening.”
“I can pay you,” Chuck coughs. “I just need some time.”
“I gave you time,” Jimmy barks. “No, I’ll tell you what, Roman. You want to pay off this guy’s debt? You want Frank here not to put a bullet in all your heads? Fine. I’ve got a deal for you. You do one more job for me, and all is forgiven. Sound good?”
No way it’s that simple. The boss is smart. He’s planning something.
“What job?” I ask flatly.
He grins like the son of a bitch he is, then points behind me.
“That job.” My body goes tense. Just his finger aimed in Annie’s direction is too much. “Kill her like you were supposed to. Fix your fuck-up and I’ll let you and Chuck go.”
My breath is steady. My heart rate is higher than I would like, but it’s controlled. The wind blows Annie’s scent into my nose, and I take a deep breath, relaxing the muscles in my body.
I can feel her heat on my back. Her presence around me.
“What’s it gonna be, Graves?” Jimmy asks. Frank takes a firing stance and flips the safety off on his gun.
I won’t lose you, Annie. I promise.
Slowly, I slightly turn my head to the side and whisper, “Run.”
Annie keeps her promise. She whirls and sprints off like her life depends on it. Which it does.
Frank raises his gun and aims it straight at her. Adrenaline snaps through me like a jolt of electricity. I leap to the side, throwing myself in front of his first shot.
The bullet catches me in the chest, just beneath my left shoulder. Fiery pain scorches through me, nearly knocking me over. Any other day it might have. But it’s not just my life on the line tonight. It’s Annie’s. It’s Chuck’s. It’s our future.
Frank takes another shot at me but misses. My gun arm still works. Gritting my teeth through the pain, I raise up and take aim. Frank may be one of Jimmy’s best, but he’s not me.
Nobody is.
I squeeze the trigger, and my gun bucks. Frank’s legs give out, and he goes down like a sack of potatoes.
Jimmy shouts something, but I can’t hear it over the sound of his gun as he rattles off three shots at me. One grazes my calf as I throw myself out of the way, ducking behind a stack of pallets.
The pain in my shoulder is growing. Blood pours out of the wound. It’s not lethal, but at this rate, I’ll pass out within minutes.
“Deal’s off now, Graves!” Jimmy shouts. “I liked Frank, and you killed him! So now I’m gonna kill Chuck!”
Three seconds. That’s all I’ve got.
That’s all the max amount of time I have before Jimmy brings his pistol to Chuck’s head and squeezes the trigger.
Pushing away the pain, I take a deep breath. Time to put it all on the line.
I put a bullet in Jimmy’s front tire. It bursts, and he curses something under his breath. His gun goes off, but his bullet shreds the pallets above my head. That’s it. He’s firing at me. And all I needed was an extra few seconds of distraction.
Throwing myself out from behind the pallets, I quickly take aim.
The angle is bad, my shoulder is screaming at me, I’m lying in the dirt, and the light from the warehouse is shining right in my eye.
But this is it. The only shot I’m gonna get before Jimmy kills Annie’s dad.
So I take it.