Page 36 of Vows of Power
“Marco,” I shout over the noise. “Cover us! We’re going right.”
Our guys open up hard on the vans, forcing the new crew to keep their heads down.
“Go,” I say to Amalia.
She moves first and I follow, the two of us bent low. A round splinters wooden crates near my shoulder, and I grab Amalia’s collar and yank her down as another one whips past. We crouch in the gap between two stacks, both breathing hard.
“You good?” I ask.
“Keep going.” She’s up before I am.
We make it to the edge of the dock, and she hops down onto the walkway below. I follow, and my boots hit slick boards just above the waterline. It’s dark down here.
Amalia leads, moving fast along the narrow planks. “Watch the gaps. Some of these boards aren’t nailed down right.”
I test each one before I step on it. The water’s dark, and I really don’t want to find out how cold it is. Amalia’s a few steps ahead, and I keep my hand near her back in case she slips.
We reach the next pier and she pulls herself up onto a service ladder, with me right behind her. When I come up over the top, we’re in the dark by a row of empty fuel drums, and the warehouse and the vans are a good distance behind us now.
Amalia crouches behind the drums.
“We made it,” she says.
“Barely.” I check the lot behind us.
No one’s followed. Yet.
She turns to me, a strand of hair stuck to her cheek. “I need to know how he figured it out.”
I press my hand over hers where it’s braced on a drum. “Right now we need to get away from here, and then we deal with the rest.”
She holds my gaze for a moment, her brow drawn tight.
“Someone talked,” she says quietly.
“Maybe.”
A car engine starts somewhere near the gate, and we both go still. Then it pulls away, going the other direction.
“Come on,” I say, helping her up. “Let’s get to a car.”
Whoever sold us out, Dominic was ready for it, and we just barely got away. But there’s something else I can’t stop thinking about.
Amalia threw herself at me to save my life. No one has ever done that before, because no one cared enough. She could’ve just let me get shot, but she decided to risk her life for me. I don’t know what to think about that.
And maybe it’s better like this. At least we’ll still get to work together.
Chapter 24
AMALIA
I PRESS A FRESH STRIPof tape over the gauze on my forearm where the dock railing tore it open. It’s nothing. Just a scratch. I barely felt it until we got here and the adrenaline wore off, and now it stings every time I move my wrist.
Matteo and I got out. It’s the only thing that matters. But I can’t stop thinking about the moment when I saw a gun aimed at Matteo, and I didn’t think about anything. I just shoved him down without thinking about the consequences and my safety.
And it bothers me that I didn’t have to think about it at all.
I fill a glass and lean against the kitchen counter. I’ve thrown myself in front of plenty of things in my life, but always for a reason. Tonight, there wasn’t one. I just didn’t want Matteo dead.
