I lick my lips and take a breath, almost shy as I ask, “What is the one thing about yourself you’ve always known to be true?”
The light in Jesse’s eyes darken.
His shoulders drop, as does the tightness in his jaw. I watch as his lips part and his head tilts. His eyes search mine, as if they’re looking for the answer to his question. I hold his stare, entranced by the calming blue in a raging dark sea of hidden intention.
I never saw it before, but there’s a secret inside Jesse.
It’s dark, yet it’s not scary. It’s guarded, and still, I feel like he’s screaming it at me, if only I were listening carefully.
He inhales quickly, and my breath hitches. I hold his gaze, awaiting the answer, knowing what he reveals will not be a lie.
“I’m a protector,” he breathes. “My entire life, I have known I would do anything to protect the ones I love.”
My smile lets out a nervous laugh. I lay a hand over my neck and feel my pulse racing beneath my skin. His eyes travel to where my fingertips caress the flesh and then trail down to my collarbone.
His gaze meets mine again, and I let my hand drop to my lap, gripping the skirt of my dress to keep myself from doing something inappropriate, like kissing him.
I stare at his lips. They’re perfectly pink and smooth.
I want to kiss him so bad.
It’s wrong. The timing, the place … the man. And yet, in this moment, I feel a connection more blistering and hotter than anything I’ve ever known. I don’t even know where he’s from, but I know he’d do anything to keep me safe. That alone is the sexiest quality a man can possess.
The air is electrified with stilled intensity.
His tongue darts out and skims his lip.
My heart races.
His chest rises, and his Adam’s apple bobs with an intense swallow. He’s as unsure as I am, and yet he isn’t moving away.
He inches his hand closer to mine. The warmth of his skin as his fingers brush against my own sends a jolt racing through my body, down to my toes.
His eyes turn darker, making my skin prickle with excitement. I lean in. We’re inches away, so close that I can practically taste him.
And then the room ignites with a blast!
Chapter Two
Bang! Bang! Bang!
A crescendo of violence and screams erupts from the foyer of Villa Russo.
Jesse leaps over the bar and pulls me down to the floor. I’m crouched on my knees with my hands on my head as he covers my body with his own, like a human shield.
The doors to the main dining room are rolled shut with the loud sound of a lock being bolted.
“What’s happening?” I scream.
Jesse places his lips to my head and shushes me. “It’s okay, Amelia. Stay with me.”
He lifts a gun. I have no idea where it came from. It’s silver and shiny, and it looks light in his hand.
“You have a gun,” I observe with an exasperated breath.
“Lucky for us.” He aims the weapon and shoots it toward someone entering the room.
I squeak and burrow into his side. My long, black hair is a veil, shielding me from watching as he lets out a series of shots.
Pow, pow, pow!
Still low to the floor, Jesse pulls me around the bar and toward the back wall of the farthest side.
“My father!” My words are a cry. He’s in a meeting in the front of the building. “I need to get to him.”
“He’ll be okay.” He stops me from trying to move. “We can’t go that way, or you’ll be killed.”
“Killed?”
He doesn’t seem to find any of this as alarming as I do while he pulls me to the opposite side of the bar, where there’s a door to the dining room. He pulls on it, confirming it’s locked. “Fuck!”
My eyes widen with horror. While I’m thankful everyone inside is safe, this means Jesse and I are trapped in the Oak Bar, dangerously unsafe. There’s no way out, except through the main hallway, and from the sounds of it, a gunfight is happening in there.
“We’re going to die,” I say through staggered breaths.
His brows curve in concern, but his eyes are steady as he ignores the chaos of the moment and gives his sole focus to me. “I got you. You hear me? Just stay with me and do as I say.”
“Lucky for you, I am the epitome of a rule follower, and since I have zero experience with guns, I’m gonna let you take the lead on this one.”
A small smile tugs on his mouth, which seems odd because this is hardly the time to find my words endearing.
A bullet ricochets off the wall above my head, and I scream.
Jesse snaps back into protector mode and leads the way. His hand never leaves mine as we hide behind the half-wall, and he shoots at someone. I say a silent prayer—or ten—until I hear a loud thump.
“Did you kill him?” I ask in horror.
“Crawl inside the bar,” he says.
“No. That’s a cube of death. We’ll be trapped.” I adamantly shake my head as my body trembles with fear, hoping for some other option than to go into the space with no way out.
“Do as I say, Amelia.” He’s stern, and his jaw is clenched as he looks toward the door to make sure no one else is coming.
With a huff, I crawl through the opening that leads behind the bar, where the two of us will surely perish like sitting ducks. I see the club phone on a shelf and grab it.
Jesse pushes it from my hand. “There’s no time.”
“I need to call the police,” I whisper-yell to him.
“The silent alarm’s already been triggered. Help will be here soon. In the meantime, we need to get you out of here.” He moves the black rug on the floor, revealing a panel with a round hook. He yanks on it and opens a door. Inside, I can see the top of a ladder that leads down an ominous, round hole in the ground. “Go down there.”
I eye the ladder for a second before descending. I have no idea where it leads, but a secret ladder that will take us away from gunfire seems like a better option than the alternative. I reach the bottom, and Jesse is on his way down after closing the panel behind him.
It’s dark down here. And cold. We’re in a storage room. There are kegs on one side with hose lines that run up the wall, and boxes of booze line the other side.
Jesse tucks his gun into his belt as he walks to a wall where a wire rack is filled with paper goods. He moves it to the side and kneels down to push against the stone a few times until a line in the grout starts to form. He kicks the wall next to the seam, punching in a square-sized hole, perfectly formed and just big enough to climb through.
“Secret door for the win,” he says and nudges for me to go through.
I shake my head, refusing to crawl through some random hole in the wall. He gives me an annoyed look filled with urgency. At the sound of heavy footsteps pounding above us, I anxiously get to my knees and crawl through. He follows me, putting the metal rack back and then the square in place, as if no one were ever there.
It’s pitch-black and eerily quiet. I can hear my own heart beating, and my breathing echoes in the silent tunnel.
I feel Jesse’s hand on my calf, and I flinch at the unexpected touch. He shifts, and then suddenly, the space is brightly lit by the flashlight of his phone. I have to hold my hand in front of my eyes to protect them from the glare. He points it up and down the tunnel.