Page 76 of His Vicious Vow
Except when I open the door I find Lauren behind his desk frantically typing. Seeing me her eyes go wide. “What are you doing here?”
I flinch from the near scream. Every instinct is pushing me back out of the room, not daring to turn away from her. I’m moving fast but she moves faster. She opens the door further with enough force it slams into the wall. My blood runs cold at the sight of the small gun in her hand, aimed at me.
“Where the fuck is it?” She screeches at me.
“Where is what?” I keep my voice low and even in an attempt to calm her down.
The gun trembles in her hand. “I know they’re doing it! I know they’re forging paintings. I know it’s a way of laundering money. Tell me where the hell the records are.”
“I don’t know.” I shake my head. “He’s never told me what he does. Women are kept out of business.”
“You’re lying!” She screams. My stomach drops to the floor. This woman is dangerous without a gun, with it…Her eyes close. I takes two steps back looking around for something, anything but there is no weapon within arms reach. Exhaling, she appears almost serene. “It’s okay. Because Sandro does. And he’ll give it to me for his little wife he cares for so much.”
Every hair on my neck goes up when she motions me to her with the gun. “Come here. We’re going to make a call to your husband and see how much he cares for you.” I’m frozen in place. But jump when she screams. “Come here!”
I go, praying this is all a bad dream. “Hands up!” She screams even louder than before. I put them up and move toward her. When I get close she grabs me by the hair and puts the gun to my head. “You’re going to call Sandro and tell him to get his ass up here.”
Nodding I take the phone she hands me from the desk.The ding of the elevators sounds. It distracts her for three seconds which is all I need. Years of practice with Celia flash. With my hands already up around my head it’s a flash of movement to get my hands behind her head and pull her over my shoulder by bringing her down using my weight until she’s flipped down onto her back.
Her scream of outrage scares the shit out of me. The gun lands several feet away.
“Carina! Down!.” Sandro yells.
I drop to the floor and roll away down onto my stomach. The sound of the gunshot is loud and causes me to flinch.
“Carina, are you hurt?” Sandro is above me. I don’t have air in my lungs to respond before his hands are on me. “Talk to me.” He turns me over.
I reach for him and cling desperately as he hugs me tight. It doesn’t matter his arms are too tight, I welcome it.
“Why did she do that?” I thought I could talk without crying—I was wrong.
“Lauren was the Fed. No, don’t look. She kidnapped Paul’s daughter. It’s why Paul called out. She told him it would only be a day or two. The longer it went on, the more scared he got. This morning, she wouldn’t let him talk to his daughter so he called me a few hours ago to beg me to help him. I’m sorry, piccolina. I never wanted you near any of this.”
“Paul’s daughter, is she…” I can’t say the word.
Sandro shakes his head. “She’s fine. A little freaked but Lauren took good care of her because in her mind the girl was her dead daughter. Paul is more of a wreck than she is.”
“Are you worried Paul will talk to anyone about what happened? Is Paul aware of the Outfit’s control of the hotel?” I’m glad he didn’t go to the police or FBI but did it mean he wouldn’t in the future?
“His father ran the legal portion of the property from its beginning and not only knew what we did he assisted us in passing things off as legal or circumventing the law where necessary. When Paul came on he said he didn’t want to know what we’re doing and he wouldn’t help the way his father did. Luca respected his decision. Paul was afraid we would kill him if he admitted he hired Lauren aware she was an FBI agent. Until he figured out Lauren wasn’t in her right mind and if she was that bad what she was doing wasn’t sanctioned by the FBI. At least he hoped not.”
“What are you going to do to him?” Poor guy.
He runs a hand through my hair. “Make him get his ass back to work today.”
The ding of the doorbell sounds again.
“Is she okay?” Gaetano asks.
“Yeah. Take care of this mess. I’m going to get her upstairs.” Sandro orders.
“Don’t look, Carina.” Sandro lifts me in his arms. I follow his instruction, burying my face in his neck.
It isn’t until we’re in living room with me in his lap I find the words to ask. “Why?”
Sighing, Sandro pulls out his pocket square and cleans me up. “She lost it. The reason we couldn’t find her in the system and connect her to working an active investigation is because there wasn’t one. She was with the FBI but they put her on leave. Some bad shit went down for her. A case she worked caused someone to put a hit on her. She survived but her husband and daughter didn’t. The FBI placed her on leave, where she’s been for the last six months. Someone pointed her in our direction as a way of imploding Vegas for them to come in. They also took her eyes off them, as they were the one behind the hit on her.”
“Who would do that?” I sympathize with the woman for losing her family but she needed help and should have gotten it. Fear has me more afraid of someone out to get Sandro.