Page 302 of Mario
She is trembling.
Not visibly to anyone passing by, perhaps. But I can feel the fine, sharp tremors moving through her body as the first hard wave of shock begins to take her.
Her fingers are curled in the sleeve of my jacket, holding tightly since she realized it was me.
“Mario,” she whispers.
“Not here.”
Her head turns slightly, like she wants to look back.
My hand tightens once at her waist. “Eyes forward,cara.”
She obeys.
Behind us, Lorenzo will handle the rest, I have no doubt of it.
He knows what to do, who to move, who to silence, who to pay, who to frighten, and when to disappear before a scene officially becomes a scene.
I do not look back.
There is no need.
My focus is Victoria.
Only Victoria.
Getting her away from this path, this park, this open air where she was almost taken from me in front of strangers who wouldn't have given her a second thought.
My jaw locks.
We should have reached her sooner.
The thought cuts deep and useless in hindsight.
My intel told me that she was going to the park, but not that she was meeting someone, but we knew the moment we saw the woman that there was something wrong with the situation.
But once they had their hands on her, once the gun was against her body, we could not move without risking her. We had to wait, had to let them walk her away.
The plan was to take them in the parking lot, where we could control both the situation and anyone with eyes on it.
Then Victoria flipped the script on us.
She fought.
Dio santo.
She fought.
Terror in her body, no training enough for what faced her, and still she made a decision. She bought us the precious seconds we needed.
Seconds.
That is how close it was.
That is how near I came to watching a bullet tear into her back before we were able to get an angle on the man and woman and take them out.
I push the thought away because I cannot afford to have it here.
