Bailed Out (The Anna Albertini Files #2) - Rebecca Zanetti Page 0,101

My entire thigh. “But he has second and third in commands who are just as dirty, and I want everything thrown at them. Start with charges of violating the Organized Crime Control Act, and we’ll go from there.” He looked over his shoulder. “Looks like the locals are arriving?”

The first guy scouted the area with a world-weary gaze. “Yeah. We coordinated quick, and you’re going to need to handle it.”

“I’ve got it,” Saber said, pulling off his Lordes jacket to reveal a bulletproof vest just like Aiden’s. His silver badge had a scratch through it, obviously having had been used before. “You’re gonna need to bring her to the ambulance. They can’t get down here. I’ll be right back.”

Aiden wiped dirt off my shirt. “No. I need you on the body. Pictures, diagrams, and interviews. Also, take my service weapon out of my holster and clock it in for evidence. There’ll be a hearing for the shooting. Clancy? Go deal with the locals until I can, all right?”

“Yep.” The first guy turned to head back up the river with his buddy by his side.

I tilted my head and reached out to touch his badge. Surprise and relief and a whole lot of other emotions I couldn’t quite track spread through me. “You said you weren’t ATF.”

He grasped my chin and turned my head to the side, examining my forehead. “You never asked about ATF. You asked about the FBI, DHS, and the CIA, I believe. And I told you I wasn’t an informant.”

So he hadn’t lied to me. Wait a minute. Yes, he had.

Saber leaned over Aiden and took a gun out of the back of his waist. “We like to stay under the radar, you know?”

They were good at it. “You’re a Fed,” I murmured.

Aiden ran his knuckles across a bruise I could feel on my cheekbone. “You’re bruised but nothing is broken, I don’t think. To answer your question, I’ve been undercover for almost three years for this campaign, and I had to go through the Lordes to do it. I’ll explain everything later. Right now, we need to get you checked out.”

Yeah, everything was still pretty numb, including my brain. But my heart was beating fast and out of control, and for the first time that day, it wasn’t because of terror. It was because of Aiden. “I knew you were a good guy.”

Saber snorted. “Ha. Boy, do you have her fooled.” He took a picture of Pucci’s dead body with his phone.

“Nah,” Aiden said, cupping my jaw. “She’s had me figured out since the beginning.” He frowned and brushed a finger along my neck. “You’re bleeding. It’s not bad, but we need to go.” Then he stood and lifted me, grunting when I settled against his chest.

“You’re hurt.” I tried to remain still and stiff. While I didn’t know a lot about bulletproof vests, I had seen on television where somebody could have a couple of broken ribs after being shot while wearing one.

“The vest took most of the impact,” he said, turning and starting up the river. When the brush receded along the shoreline, he strode that way and became more surefooted on land.

I gave in and snuggled my face into his neck. “Pucci said he didn’t kill his cousin.”

“I don’t know who killed Danny,” Aiden murmured, tucking me closer. “I told the truth about when I showed up that day and saw the shooter jump out the window, and I was just using Danny to get to Rich. From what I could tell, I don’t think Rich had any reason to kill Danny.”

I lifted back up to look at Aiden’s face in the moonlight. His nose was straight, his jawline strong, and his eyes bright. Everything about him was masculine and sexy, even more so now that I knew my instincts had been on track with him. He was a good guy. “You have to know.”

“I don’t, and it’s not my case.” He pressed a kiss to my nose. “I know that Tessa didn’t shoot Danny because she came in right after me, and I know that I didn’t do it. Danny was an asshole who hit women and probably had a ton of enemies. I didn’t know him very well, but he seemed like a screwup to me.”

I coughed and my ribs ached. “Why were your knuckles all bloody?”

He smiled, and the sight was slightly less than pleasant. “Oh, Rich Pucci arranged a fight between Danny and me the night before, just to