Five Wrong Moves Read online

  “Actually, Adeleigh here is picking up my order with hers.” He gave me a look that I couldn’t read.

  Trish shot me a dirty look before muttering an ‘oh’ and flouncing her way into the kitchen.

  It was quiet for a couple of seconds before I asked, “So you and Trish a thing? She seems … nice.”

  “Why do I get the feeling that statement is actually more of an insult?” Bo said, glancing back at the doors as more people entered.

  I swallowed and licked my dry lips. Bo’s eyes tracked the movement of my tongue.

  Ignoring his question, I shifted and looked forward.

  After finding out Andy had borrowed money from the Cernutos on top of being spooked by what I had just seen in the closed-off store, I wasn’t up to having this conversation with him. I wasn’t even sure why he followed me here. “Why are you here?” I asked him over my shoulder.

  The world went silent for a few long seconds before loud popping sounds came back with a vengeance.

  They were so loud, they sounded like mini explosions happening at a rapid pace. My ears hurt, stung almost. Then the screaming happened all around me. I stared into the air, trying to understand what was happening when I heard someone scream, “Bullets!”

  Chaos ensued everywhere.

  Chunks of wood flew into the air along with white pieces of wall. Glass shattered in the distance and landed all around me.

  Oh my, God… someone was shooting into the restaurant.

  My name was yelled, and I was yanked off my feet. In the air one second, then knocked onto the hard ground the next with an extreme amount of weight pressing down on my body. Every breath of air knocked from my lungs.

  Had I been shot? Terrified, I gasped.

  The weight shifted on top of me but didn’t let up any. I heard something garbled in my right ear, but because my ears were ringing, I couldn’t make out exactly what was being said.

  Focusing hard, I finally made out a sentence, “Addie, are you okay?” Bo’s face came into focus above mine as he stared down at me with those intense eyes.

  I took a minute to think. I didn’t think I was hurt. I could feel Bo’s large hand wrapped around my head, cradling it from the hard floor. He used his large body to block me from the hell that was occurring in the room.

  Bullets and screams continued to surround us, but they seemed to fade some as I looked into his dark eyes.

  “Ads, are you hurt anywhere?” He breathed as he adjusted his position so he could run a hand down my side, checking me for injuries.

  I shook my head and turned my head away from his face to take a look at the room, but we had landed behind a knocked over the round table. I turned my head to look the other way when Bo’s hand gripped my jaw and pulled my chin back to face him again.

  “No, Pixie Dust, focus on my face. Keep eye contact with me,” he demanded.

  At the use of my nickname, my eyes connected with his again just as the popping sounds stopped.

  Bo glanced up for a second before lifting into a squat half over my body.

  It was a couple of more seconds before he spoke quietly, “Adeleigh, do not move from this position, no matter what, until I come back for you. You understand?” When I didn’t say anything, he looked down at me. “Did you hear me? Do not move a fucking inch.”

  “I heard you,” I croaked. My throat hurt, as if I had been one of the people yelling, but oddly, I couldn’t recall if I had been.

  Bo pulled up from his squat to stand when my hand shot out and grabbed his arm. He looked down at me.

  “Promise you’ll come back for me,” I rasped.

  Removing my hand from his arm, he nodded slightly. “I promise.”

  With one swift move, he stood, reached behind his back, and pulled a black handgun from the waistband of his pants.

  Holy crap! Bo had a gun. Why the hell did he have a gun?

  “Adeleigh, remember, don’t move until I come back for you.”

  I nodded and closed my eyes as I tried to shut out the world.

  10

  Adeleigh

  Bo never came back for me.

  Minutes that felt like hours passed. I laid on the floor, waiting for him to return and listening to the sounds of panic around me.

  People cried, some yelled for help, while others moaned. Sirens wailed in the background, growing louder as they moved closer. Then police and teams of FBI agents ran in, yelling commands at each other as they checked the floor for what I assumed was bodies.

  I didn’t move an inch.

  Not when I felt something wet on my pant leg. Not when a shadow moved over me.

  Not. Once.

  Bo had promised he would come back for me, and I believed him. I trusted him. So I did as I was told and laid and waited. More uniformed authorities filed in, tears filled my eyes and fell, but I stayed still.

  A man appeared at my side and lowered to the ground next to me. Without moving my head, my eyes shifted slowly sideways. I took in the bright yellow letters on the front of his black windbreaker that spelled out FBI. It was Eric.

  “Adeleigh, are you hurt anywhere?” he asked as his eyes scanned my body.

  I shook my head slightly, soundlessly telling him no.

  “Can you sit up so I can take a look to make sure?”

  “I can’t,” I croaked. “I’m not supposed to move.”

  He looked thoughtful for a minute while his gaze moved over me again.

  “Why can’t you sit up? Are you hurt?” he asked again.

  My bottom lip trembled. “Bo told me not to move until he came back.”

  “Bo?” Eric asked, moving his fingers to my wrist.

  I frowned. Why was he checking my pulse? Bo said he would be back,” I explained. “He pulled a gun from his pants and ran out of the restaurant. He left me here, but he promised he would be back.”

  Eric frowned. “Bo had a gun?”

  “Yes,” I sobbed, worried I had said the wrong thing. I hoped I hadn’t gotten Bo in trouble.

  Eric leaned over my body and wrapped an arm around my shoulders, slowly pulling me into a sitting position.

  “It’s okay. You are safe now. I just want to have you sitting up. As soon as the EMTs finish with some of the victims that were hit, I’ll have one come over and check you out, okay?”

  I let out another sob. Where was Bo, and why was he taking so long to come back? My teeth began to chatter as my body shook. I was suddenly cold. Very cold.

  Eric unbuttoned his jacket, removed it, and wrapped it around my shoulders.

  “You’re going into shock,” he mumbled, rubbing his hands up and down my arms, over the jacket sleeves. “So, tell me, after Bo pulled out the gun, where did he go?”

  My eyes darted around the mess of a room. A pair of paramedics worked on a groaning man, who laid in a puddle of blood. Acid immediately came up my esophagus and into the back of my mouth.

  “Hey, hey, Adeleigh. Focus on me, okay? Don’t worry about the rest of the room.” Almost the same words Bo had said. Except Eric wasn’t Bo.

  “What did Bo do after he pulled the gun, Adeleigh?” he repeated.

  An image of dark eyes, peering down into mine, flashed in my head.

  Bo had protected me. “He saved my life,” I told Eric. “I was standing by the counter when someone pulled me down onto the ground. The next thing I knew, Bo was lying on top of me, shielding me from the spray of bullets.”

  The reality of what had happened was all starting to piece together and make sense.

  Eric must have read the scared expression on my face because he pushed a piece of hair away. “Pixie Dust, can you tell me where Bo went after he pulled the gun?”

  My eyes went wide, and I blinked a few times. I really didn’t want to get Bo in trouble. But he was carrying a gun. That couldn’t be a good sign.

  I looked around the room again. “I hope nothing happened to him.”

  “Adeleigh!” My shouted name carried over the noises in the café. Before Eri
c could say anything else, Andy came running to where I sat on the floor. “Shit, are you okay?” Andy leaned over and swept me up into his arms.

  “Andy, don’t squeeze me too hard; I can’t breathe.”

  He ignored my protests as he held me tight for a minute before releasing his grip. “They wouldn’t let me in right away. I was so fucking scared something had happened to you. And then I saw Bo, and he told me you were okay. Addie, I am so, so sorry. This is all my fault. Fuck, you scared the shit out of me.”

  I stared up at Andy. “You saw Bo?”

  He ignored my question and addressed Eric over my head. “Can she go?”

  “We are going to need to question her. When she’s done, then she can leave.”

  “Eric, come on, man. I would prefer it if I could take her somewhere quieter. Let me take her back to the shop. You can question her there.” Andy looked around the destroyed restaurant.

  Eric looked thoughtful for a minute before addressing me, “Adeleigh, I will walk over to the shop when we are ready to speak with you, okay?”

  I nodded and looked down at the floor as I tried to avoid focusing on anything that looked like blood. My purse had landed several feet away from where Bo and I had been standing. Unwrapping Andy’s arm from around my waist, I slowly walked toward it, my body aching with each step. It had to be from being knocked onto the ground by Bo’s heavy body.

  I still couldn’t believe the man had pulled out a gun and ran toward danger like some kind of crazed hero. I wanted to tell Andy all about it but was hesitant to say anything else in front of Eric.

  Gingerly leaning down, I picked up my purse.

  Andy wrapped an arm around me again. “Ad, you sure you don’t want an EMT to look you over.”

  “No,” I breathed. “I’m fine.” Then I remembered I still had Eric’s jacket around me.

  “Eric, your jacket.” I had started to remove it when Eric spoke up.

  “Keep it, Adeleigh. I’ll pick it up when I come over to question you.”

  I muttered a ‘thank you’ as I pulled it tighter over my chest.

  With a nod to Eric, Andy led me out of the café doors.

  Outside was even more chaotic than inside the restaurant. The sidewalk and parking lot were filled with people moving about. Firetrucks, police cars, and television cameras were all over the place. Lights flashed everywhere and reflected off the building. The sidewalk was covered in glass; the windows from the cafe had been broken in addition to a few of the windows from the furniture store.

  Andy steered me away from the shattered glass and further into the parking lot, so we could step around the mess.

  “Come on, Addie, let’s get you back to the store.”

  I said nothing as he led me away. My gaze moved over all the people hustling about. I was just about to tell Andy about Bo and the gun when I saw his tall figure in the crowd, he talked to a group of FBI agents. The jacket he had on earlier was missing, but he appeared to be just fine.

  I stopped walking when I saw Trish walk over to him. Wrapped around her curvy body was a familiar black leather jacket.

  Well, that freaking explained everything. No wonder Bo never came back for me. He obviously had other more important priorities. Ones that involved a riot of curls, a pair of tiny shorts, and a tight tank top.

  My hand fisted in Andy’s shirt at his waist.

  “Shit, Addie, stop. You’re clawing me,” he wailed, pulling at my hand.

  Bo must have heard Andy say my name because he turned to look at me, our gazes clashing together. I frowned and moved closer to Andy, tucking my head under his chin.

  “What’s wrong?” Andy asked as he tried to step back to look at my expression, but I only fisted my arm around his waist tighter so he couldn’t pull away.

  “Nothing. I just want to get away from this nightmare.”

  Not saying anything else, Andy led us away.

  Bo had left me behind because he chose the waitress over a promise he had made. The thought hurt more than finding Edgar cheating on me with his student.

  11

  Bo

  “Who the fuck was responsible?” I asked Santiago under my breath.

  I watched as Laylo and Tony stood across the parking lot where they were being questioned by the FBI.

  Santiago glanced at them, then turned back toward me. “Boss, Phillip was watching them the entire time. When they left Alan’s Air, they stepped into the mattress shop. They were talking to Pete, the owner, the entire time The Mustard Seed was shot up. I don’t think it was them. I mean, it is possible it was one of their men, but it wasn’t Tony or Laylo.”

  I flexed the fingers of my right hand. Tony and Laylo might not have pulled the trigger, but my gut told me the Cernuto brothers definitely had something to do with the place being shot up.

  “How many dead?” I asked, glancing at a body bag being placed into an ambulance.

  “Two,” Santiago replied.

  “Why the restaurant?”

  Santiago shook his head. “That’s what we are trying to figure out.”

  Something wasn’t adding up. The Mustard Seed was targeted for a reason, except I wasn’t sure what reason.

  Who were they trying to hit? Adeleigh wouldn’t have been a factor, she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Unless….

  “She could have been killed,” I softly said, watching Adeleigh and Andy walk slowly back to the shop. Phillip, who stood outside of Alan’s Air, pulled open the door to let them in.

  I looked toward Laylo and Tony again. This time Tony stared in my direction. No way they knew. They only just saw me today, and I have been extra careful.

  “Do you think they figured it out?” I quietly asked.

  “No,” Santiago quickly responded, scanning over the parking lot. “There is no way they would be able to that quickly. Besides, we have been tracking them carefully.”

  I placed my hands on my hips and watched Phillip as he crossed the parking lot toward us.

  “Out of the fourteen left, how many are truly loyal to them?”

  Santiago sighed, as if my question bothered him. Neither him, nor Phillip knew the true answer, but right now, I needed to hear what he thought. I needed some reassurance somewhere.

  “Boss, we don’t really know. Maybe nine or ten, not counting Miguel. It’s not like we can tell what they are thinking. They all took the situation with Kristof hard.”

  I knew this too. There were years of loyalty to the old man that ran deep. Ties thicker than blood. And now that he was gone, no one was left to take the throne, with the exception of the Cernutos. Nothing had been the same and the Mafia family as at war with each other as they all fought for power. For control.

  I watched as another body bag was wheeled out of the restaurant. Who the fuck were they after?

  “Boss, we have a problem,” Phillip said as he reached us.

  I turned to look at him.

  “Ruben has been reaching out to other cells. He wants to leave the group.”

  I fiddled with my watch as I looked at it. Ruben Delgado was the youngest member of what was left of Kristof’s Mafia faction. In his mid-twenties, he was often a fool at the way he handled business mainly because he was immature and a little trigger happy. He had been warned more than once to settle down.

  I knew why Phillip was telling me about Ruben. We could reach out and take him into our circle, except I knew he was a liability, one I wasn’t sure I wanted to take.

  “How is Adeleigh?” I asked, still looking down at the ground in front of me.

  “Not good.”

  At Phillip’s response, I looked up. “Did something happen? Was she hurt?” I had checked her over carefully, but maybe I had missed something.

  Phillip made eye contact with me. “Physically, she’s okay. Mentally is another thing. She is really shaken up. And she kept telling Andy you were supposed to come back for her.”

  Fuck, fuck, fuck. I was so caught up with searching the furniture sto
re before everyone else arrived on the scene, I forgot I had told her not to move until I came back.

  “Will you all hang out here for a bit. I am going to go check on her,” I directed as I started for the shop.

  I was pissed at myself for already fucking this up. None of this was the business I wanted. Like my father, I wanted a normal life: wife, kids, house complete with a dog and a cat. But also, like my father, I had learned you can’t control what you are born into.

  When I was really young, I watched as he destroyed my mother’s mental state. She was always stressed, worried sick to her stomach about him. Those nights when he didn’t return until the next day, often covered in blood, my mother would go into hysterics.

  It didn’t stop until we moved away, and even then, my mother was never the same.

  I had promised her, my father, and myself, no matter what—no matter how many times my grandfather reached out for me—I would never, ever follow in his footsteps.

  Yet here I was.

  Standing deep in the middle of the warfare.

  And to make matters worse, I had already forgotten a promise I made to Adeleigh, just as my father had forgotten promises he had made to my mom.

  12

  Adeleigh

  Slamming the front door behind me, I kicked off my kitten heels and watched one of them fly across the room. It bounced off the back of the brownish-gold loveseat before clattering across the floor.

  In addition to being exhausted, I was furious. It had been four days since the shooting at The Mustard Seed.

  Four. Long. Days. And I wasn’t sleeping well at all.

  I kept hearing screams mixed with gunfire every time I closed my eyes. When I fell asleep, the pictures morphed. I was lying on the cold floor of the restaurant, in a wet puddle. I’d run my fingers over the wetness, then hold them in front of my face, only to see blood dripping off my hand. I always woke with a start, panting as I tried to breathe and slow my heartbeat down.