Bailed Out (The Anna Albertini Files #2) - Rebecca Zanetti Page 0,100

he turned again, I fell slightly, reaching for his ankle. My fingers touched metal. Going purely on instinct, I pulled the small handgun out of his ankle holster. I was unable to turn to face him, so I aimed at his driving foot and fired. Blood blew out of the hole in the leather.

The explosion in the small space was deafening, and I already couldn’t hear. My ears rang and my skin stung.

He yelled and turned the steering wheel, crashing into something. We rocked back and forth, and I fell more fully onto the floor. “You bitch.” He released me and shoved me away, kicking the gun out of my hand with his injured foot. The weapon fell to the floor and clattered beneath the brake pedal.

I fumbled to grab for it when he opened his door and ripped me out of the truck by my hair to throw me. I landed on the riverbank on my stomach and quickly turned over, crab walking backward up rough rocks.

Blood flowed from the top of Pucci’s boot. Fury covered his face along with lines of pain. He limped toward me and drew another gun out of his pocket to point right at me. “I can’t believe you fucking shot me.” He kept coming as if in a trance, his body jerky and his once handsome face ravaged by darkness.

I tried to scramble farther away, but the rocks stopped me. “Don’t shoot.” There wasn’t anything else to say.

“Oh, too late.” He lifted the gun higher and pointed the barrel right between my eyes.

I hunched over myself and tried to protect my head.

A loud gunshot echoed through the night.

Chapter 36

I stilled. The shot had been loud. But I was still thinking and apparently not dead. Why wasn’t I dead? Slowly, I opened my eyes to see Pucci face-down in the river with blood flowing from his head. I turned to see Aiden and Saber running toward me through the river, and Aiden’s gun was still in his hand. Confusion bore through my brain like a hundred buzzing bees.

Aiden landed on his knees in front of me. “Anna? Anna, talk to me.” His hands were everywhere. On my arms, my legs, my face. “Say something.”

I blinked. “You were shot. Three times.”

Aiden looked over his shoulder. “She’s going into shock.”

Saber flipped Pucci over, and his eyes were wide in death. “Jesus. Nice shot. You got him right in the temple.”

Aiden shrugged out of his leather jacket. “Put this on, sweetheart. It’s warm and it’ll keep you from shock. Just hold on.” He gently pushed my arms into his sleeves, and I settled into the safe smell of leather, motor oil, and man. Aiden’s scent. “There you go.” He zipped up the enormous jacket, and warmth began to seep into my bones.

The moonlight shone over his rugged face, bringing out the light and dangerous hues of his eyes. “The cops are coming,” I whispered.

He gently brushed a couple of curls off my face. “They’re already here, Angel.”

I tried to concentrate, but between the concussion and apparently the shock, it was difficult. “You were shot.” Hadn’t I already said that? My gaze dropped to his chest, which should be covered in bullet holes. Instead, a black bulletproof vest spread across his wide chest with the letters ATF across it with POLICE in big letters beneath it. A silver badge was stamped next to the letters. “ATF?”

He nodded, lowering his head to better see my eyes. “You’re definitely concussed.”

Hope leaped into my confused brain. “They let you borrow a vest?” Maybe he was an informant, and they’d let him off. “I don’t want to stop dating.” Tears filled my eyes. If they took Aiden away, what would I do? “We can fix this.” Wait a minute. I’d said that before, too.

Saber stood over Aiden’s shoulder and peered into my eyes. “Yeah. She’s definitely concussed. We have paramedics en route.”

Aiden ran his palms down my legs again. “Are you hurt anywhere else?”

“I have no idea,” I sighed, scrapes on my hands starting to ache. “I don’t understand what’s happening, and my head hurts.”

A couple of men wearing full assault gear and ATF uniforms jogged up in the middle of the river. Water splashed all around them. “We have the camp under control. Three of theirs dead, none of ours. Drag was hit, but it isn’t fatal,” the first guy said. “Looks like Pucci isn’t going to face racketeering charges after all.”

“No,” Aiden said, his hand remaining reassuringly on my thigh.