Love or Justice (15 page)

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Dante

Dante rolled onto his back, taking Laurie with him.

She sank down onto one side of his chest, sighing her contentment. She ran her fingers over his spray of dark chest hair.

He kissed her forehead. Then he ran his fingers down her neck to her shoulder. His movements were lazy, slow. The world was slightly fuzzy, bathed in the early morning light, as if they were both caught in the tail end of a dream.

“I love morning sex,” Laurie said.

Dante chuckled.

“I’ll have to remember that.” He kissed her, brushing her lips with his in a soft caress.

They breathed together for a few moments, and Dante closed his eyes. He breathed in her scent, the faint smell of their lovemaking. The sheets were damp from their exercise. Sunlight streamed through the curtains, landing on Laurie’s head, igniting her hair in a blonde halo. He ran his hands through it, like combing warm silk.

“These past few days have been amazing.” Laurie nuzzled his shoulder.

Dante gave her a grin as he dropped his hand back onto her shoulder to caress it again.

“I’m so glad you were the Marshal that showed up at my door.”

He turned onto his side to embrace her. He pulled her tight to his chest, kissing her deeply. He took a breath, then kissed her with lazy strokes of his tongue. When he pulled away, he just stared into her eyes. He caressed her cheek with his thumb, lightly skimming over the fine-boned surface.

She smiled at him, with the same tender expression she wore more often lately. He returned it. They laid there for a few minutes, unmoving. Then he tucked her underneath his chin, and ran his hands up and down her back.

“I should get up.” He had the worst time trying to pull himself away from her bed.

“You should.” She ran her fingers over his chest.

He didn’t move. He just laid there, caressing her back.

She giggled at him. Then she leaned back to brush his lips with hers.

“You can’t be late for work.”

He groaned as he smiled. He kissed her back, then unfolded himself from her. He pulled himself off the bed.

She got up with him, stretching with the lazy grace of a satisfied cat. He watched her, and she gave him a provocative smile. She was the sexiest thing he had ever laid eyes on, and worse, she knew it.

He grabbed some of her clothes from the duffle bag. He tossed them on the bed. The sooner she was dressed, the more likely he wouldn’t be late for shift change. He slid on her bra, then fumbled with the clasp. He had always hated them anyway.

Laurie took mercy on him. She turned around so he could fix it.

Then he pulled on her panties. It felt strange for him to be working in reverse but he liked the intimacy of it. He pulled on her shirt. Then he helped her into her jeans before kissing her.

Laurie broke away from him to get his clothes from his duffle bag. She helped him into his boxers and jeans. Then pulled his shirt over his head. They stood for a few minutes embracing.

“I’ll wait here for a little while. So we don’t leave at the same time. Have a good day at work.”

He chuckled at her. Dante walked out into the hallway via his unused bedroom.

Dante tried not to swagger in. There was something about taking a beautiful woman as your lover that just screamed from every pore of a man. He bit back a grin and tried to clear his mind before he entered the living room. Dean and John were watching TV, as usual. There hadn’t been a day in the past week he’d seen them do anything else. Dante heard a door open behind him down the hall, and he turned expecting to see Laurie, but he saw Jason instead. Jason walked toward the bathroom, disappearing behind the door.

Dante turned back to speak to John and Dean, but what he said was drowned out by the sound of shattering glass as two bullets burst in through the window.

Dean and John dropped to the floor.

Dante crouched, covering his head as he threw himself into the hallway, away from the windows. Dante’s mind cleared of everything else except getting to Laurie. He ran to her door and opened it to find her on the ground covering her head. A bullet flew through her window, hitting the wall near Dante. He dove down and crawled to Laurie. Bullets flew around him.

“Stay down and come with me!” he shouted to her.

He covered her body with his as they crawled to the safe room door. He popped open the door, shoved her in and locked it. He heard more breaking glass, as the windows in the adjoining bedroom shattered. Dante pulled out his cell phone and called for back-up.

“PD is on their way. ETA five minutes,” the dispatch said in his ear.

“Behind you,” he heard Dean shout from the living room. Then there was a volley of gunshots.

The assailants were in the house.

“We don’t have five minutes!” Dante shoved the phone in his pocket.

He crawled over the bedroom floor on his forearms. The cheap carpet scraped and burned against his skin as he moved to the open bedroom door. He ducked his head around the doorframe to assess the situation.

Jason was just down the hall in the bathroom, firing his gun into the living room. Dante was about to crawl out into the hallway when he heard an ear piercing scream.

Laurie.

He turned to see a large man drag Laurie out of the safe room. Dressed in black, like the hand of death, the behemoth grabbed her by the throat and raised his gun. Dante fired his gun without a second thought.

Taking a clean shot to the head, the man that held Laurie jerked forward, falling to the ground.

Laurie screamed and fell with him.

Fearing the worst, Dante sprinted to her side. He crouched down beside her, as she sat up.

She shoved at the man’s arm draped over her.

“Are you okay? Are you okay?” He grabbed her shoulder. Her expression was full of wide-eyed terror.

She frantically grasped for the dead assailant’s gun. Dante watched as she took aim and shot in front of her into his unused bedroom.

He looked up to see another man standing there. The armed gunman she shot staggered from the blow, falling to the floor.

Dante lunged toward the man, who was not dead, but bleeding from the abdomen. Dante wrestled his gun away with a few swift strikes of his fist. Then he pulled a pair of cuffs from his belt. Having cuffed the gunman, he ran back to Laurie.

She stared at the man she shot in horror.

Dante crouched beside her, taking the gun from her shaking hands.

“Are you okay? Are you hurt?” he shouted over the continued gunfire.

“I’m not hurt.” She shook her head. Her clothes were bloody, but it didn’t appear to be her blood.

Dante turned back toward the two rooms. He didn’t close the safe room door. Instead, he shielded her with his body. He had to find a way to keep her safe, but the bullets were still flying in the windows. He could hear Dean and John shouting. Then he heard sirens. Relief flooded his veins. Back-up had arrived.

There was a few more minutes of bullets exploding inside and outside the house. Then they stopped. As Laurie and Dante crouched in the opening of the safe room, they heard the stamping feet of people running past the windows. A few seconds later, a second group ran past. Through the shattered windows they heard an officer cry out.

“Stop! Police! Drop your weapons and get down on the ground. Stop!”

Shots were fired outside the house. Then there was silence.

Dante waited, every muscle coiled, ready to explode. Laurie clutched his shirt with tense hands. He could feel her trembling, her breathing ragged.

“Dante! Where are you?” Jason charged into the bedroom.

“We’re in here.” Dante let out the breath he was holding.

“The assailants—” Jason stopped as he saw the two men. “What the hell happened?”

“They got to the safe room.” Now that he could hear himself, he turned to Laurie. “What happened, Laurie?”

“I don’t know. You closed the door. I sat down on the chair. A second later that guy opened it and pulled me out.” She stared at the man at her feet.

She was breathing in short gasps.

Dante put his arm around her and she buried her face in his chest. Dante looked at Jason over Laurie’s head.

“They knew where it was and how to open it,” Dante said. “I have to get Laurie out of here.”

Jason nodded, understanding Dante’s unspoken conclusion. Dean and John charged into the room. Blood stained John’s shirt from his bicep down to his wrist. Both of them looked exhausted.

“Boss, the gunmen fled. Whoa.” John stopped in his tracks.

“I have to get Laurie out of here.” Dante didn’t answer their questioning looks.

“But PD is going to have questions.” Dean’s gaze traveled between Dante, Laurie, and the two men on the floor.

“I don’t care.” Dante took Laurie by the hand. “Laurie is our only priority.”

He led her to the bed. He gently pushed her down to sit on the edge. He started zipping up her bag and his.

“Can I…” Laurie started to speak through her trembling jaw. Her voice broke on a sob.

“What do you need, sweetheart?” Dante cupped her face, bringing her eyes up to meet his gaze.

“Can I change first? Please?” Pain ripped through his chest at her gentle plea.

Dante looked down at her clothes. They were spattered with blood. She would attract attention wherever he took her.

“Yes, of course.” He unzipped her bag. He pulled out a clean pair of jeans and a shirt, and handed them to her.

“Boss?” Dean asked.

“What, Dean?” He led Laurie to the bathroom. He closed the bathroom door for Laurie and turned around.

“Where are we going to take her?” Dean came to the doorway.

“You aren’t going to take her anywhere. I’m taking her somewhere safe. You three are staying here to file the police report and answer their questions.” He unloaded his gun and handed it to John.

“That’s my weapon. I shot the man who tried to kill Laurie. I ran to Laurie, but I didn’t see the guy in the other room. Laurie did. She grabbed the first assailant’s gun, and shot the man in the other room. He was armed. He was ready to fire on both of us.”

“How did they get her out of the safe room?” John stared at Dante’s gun.

“Good question.” Dante arched his eyebrows at him. “John, Dean. I need you to sweep the vehicle. Get me the gun in the dashboard. Jason, I need you to go talk to the detective. They’ll be at the door any minute.”

They all exchanged glances but didn’t move. None of them knew what to do. Dante didn’t know either; he just knew he had to leave with Laurie.

“Now.” Dante clapped his hands together. They all filed past him. He turned around and knocked on the bathroom door. “Laurie, are you okay?”

There was no response.

“Laurie?” Silence. He pulled open the door.

Laurie stood in the middle of the bathroom in front of the sink, still in her bloody clothes, trembling. She held the clean clothes in one hand. The other hand covered her eyes and forehead, trying to shut out the world.

Dante felt a sudden cold rage toward Kaimi. He began to think of all the ways he could kill the man. He had to find him, and every last member of his brute squad. Dante wanted nothing more than to make them pay.

He took a shuttering breath, mentally stepping back from the rage. Dante entered the bathroom, locking the door behind him. Moving over to Laurie, Dante began undressing her.

She stood there, trying to apologize, moving as if she were in a fog.

He pulled on the new clothes he had given her. Then he helped her wash her hands. He wet a washcloth and blotted the blood spatter from her face. Then he cupped her face, looking into her watery eyes.

“Laurie, look at me.” Her sad, distant eyes floated up to his. “I want to comfort you. I do. I would give anything to just hold you. But I can’t right now, sweetheart. I have to get you somewhere safe. Okay?”

She nodded.

“Did I…” she started. She paused to take a quick breath. “Did I kill him?”

He leaned his forehead down, and touched it to hers.

“I don’t know, baby. He was alive when I went over to him. The paramedics will get to him. If you did kill him, it was self-defense, and you saved my life doing it.”

Laurie nodded, taking a calming breath. She licked her dry lips.

“Let’s go.” He kissed her forehead and took her hand. They walked out of the bathroom together.

Dante led her back into their bedroom and picked up his duffle bag. He slung it over his shoulder.

Laurie picked up her duffle bag with stiff, wooden movements.

Dante put his arm around her waist and led her out of the room.

Dean ran up to him in the hallway.

“Boss, the detective is saying no one can leave until they’ve—” Dean handed Dante his gun from the truck.

“I don’t care what the detective has to say.” Dante pulled Laurie past Dean.