Prologue
Noah sat at his father’s desk, shuffling through paperwork. He needed to start the selling process for the house. There were some documents required, and Noah remembered seeing them at some point. He pulled open drawers, searching through them. Unexpectedly, the office door flew open, slamming against the wall. Noah’s head shot up. He slowly stood and watched as Vinny fell onto the floor, gripping his side.
Rushing to him, Noah crouched down. “What the hell happened?”
Vinny was clutching his side tightly. Noah tried to remove his hands, but as soon as he did, blood poured from the wound.
“Shit!”
Noah quickly looked around, but there was no time to search for a towel or rag. He took off his shirt, pushing it firmly onto Vinny’s side. He tried to look into his eyes, but they were half closed and glazed over.
“Vin! Can you hear me? Who did this to you?”
No response.
Fuck, fuck, fuck!
He kept one hand pressed firmly at Vinny’s side. Then used his other bloody hand to pull out his cellphone. He didn’t know who to call. Their family’s previous doctor had been dead for a couple of years now.
Damn it.
He was so mad at himself. He should have thought of having a doctor ready. He called the next best option.
“Ivy! I need you to get here now! It’s Vinny. I think he’s been shot.”
“What do you mean, ‘you think’?”
“I don’t know for sure. He isn’t responding, and there is too much blood.”
Noah could hear shuffling through the phone.
“Where are you?”
“At our parent’s house.”
“We were on our way over. Just keep pressure on it and try to keep him awake, if you can.”
Noah nodded to himself, tossing his phone onto the floor. Using both hands now, he tried to stop, or at least slow, the bleeding.
Hearing a groan, Noah looked at Vinny’s face. “Vin! Vin, look at me.”
Vinny’s head slowly turned to look at Noah. Although his eyes still appeared lifeless, at least Noah knew he could hear him.
“What happened?”
Vinny’s mouth opened, but nothing came out.
“Do you know who did this?”
Vinny nodded.
“Who?!”
All Noah could hear was gurgling sounds as Vinny tried to speak. He dipped his head down, hoping to hear what Vinny was saying.
Fuck!
Minutes felt like hours when Ivy finally rushed in. Jenny and Emily were behind her.
The three of them had become really close in a short amount of time. Noah nicknamed them the “women’s mafia.” They were definitely some badass ladies who didn’t fuck around.
Ivy started getting supplies ready. “I need you to rip off his shirt.”
Noah did as he was told, then stepped back to get out of the way. His hands balled into fists as he watched Ivy and Emily work on Vinny.
“He’ll be okay. They’ll save him.” Jenny put a hand on his shoulder.
Noah nodded but couldn’t look away. Whether Vinny lived or died, someone was going to pay for this. Whoever thought they could fuck with the Romero family was in for a rude awakening. Noah wasn’t going to get pushed around like he did before.
A few minutes later, Derrick and Logan walked in.
“How is he?” Derrick asked Noah but looked at Vinny.
Ivy answered for him, “I don’t see an exit wound, so I’m concerned the bullet is someplace we can’t reach. He might need an actual doctor.”
Unfortunately, this wasn’t the first, or last, time Ivy would have to stitch someone up. At least with Derrick, it was a stab wound. It was easier to assess his condition.
Noah took a deep breath. “Let’s see if he gets worse first. In the meantime, I’ll see if I can get us a new family doctor. If he doesn’t seem to be healing, we’ll take him in.”
Ivy nodded, then finished cleaning and stitching the wound. “We need to get him off the floor. Can you guys move him to the couch?”
Noah was thankful he hadn’t cleared out the house yet. His father had very large, and soft, furniture in his office. They would be able to put Vinny comfortably on the couch.
Noah stood staring out the office window, still covered in Vinny’s blood. He turned to the sound of footsteps.
“I thought everyone left?”
Jenny nodded. “They did, but I thought you could use some company.”
She averted her gaze from his exposed, muscular chest and powerful arms. Being covered in blood gave her an excuse.
“I can stay with him if you want to get cleaned up.”
Noah looked down at himself.
“Thank you, Jenny,” he gave her a small, appreciative smile.
Vinny stirred as soon as Noah left the office.
Jenny quickly jumped up and ran after him. “Noah!”
He spun around to look at her.
“I think he is waking up.”
Hurrying into the office, Noah knelt by Vinny. It was clear he was trying to say something.
“Sophie? She is fine, Vin. I called her.”
He slowly shook his head but fell back asleep before saying anything else.
Noah looked up at Jenny. She just shrugged. She didn’t understand what he was saying, either.
“Did you check his pockets?”
Noah shook his head. Jenny leaned down and helped him go through Vinny’s pockets. Everything he would normally have was there—wallet, phone, keys. So this clearly wasn’t a robbery, it was a hit.
“Wait,” Noah stood up, “Did you see a vehicle out front?”
“Only yours.”
He looked down at Vinny. “So how the hell did he get here?”
Noah and Jenny glanced at each other. The more they tried to figure this out, the worse it got. They had more questions now than they did before.
One thing was certain: Vinny needed to wake up. Not only because Noah wanted him to live, but also because Noah needed to know who to torture and kill for this.
