And then she knew. He was going to kill her.
Her dad was right. She had to fight. If she was going to die, she wasn’t going to go lying here and letting him do what he wanted to her.
She opened her eyes, stared at him, memorized his face. She wanted him to know she saw him. Then she bit down on his hand and he jerked it away. Taking that brief second, she opened her mouth and screamed. He slapped her so hard she couldn’t think through the dizziness.
He clamped his hand over her mouth again, his other hand jerking at her shorts.
Please, please, somebody help me!
“Anna’s taking a long time with the trash.” Dante got up and went behind the counter toward the back door.
“You know she gets mad when you go back there,” Jeff said.
“I don’t care. I should have taken the trash out for her. I don’t like her out there by herself.”
“You just wanna go out there so you can kiss her,” Roman said with a roll of his eyes. “I’m ready to go watch movies.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Dante said as he opened the back door, and heard the scream.
He pushed off the door and ran like hell, not even bothering to see if the others followed. He ran so hard his legs burned, his whole body shaking in fear.
As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he saw a guy scrambling to his feet near the Dumpster. And he saw feet—tennis shoes. Anna’s.
Shit. Shit. He skidded to a stop at the Dumpster.
Anna was on the ground, her clothes undone. It was pitch-black out there, but he could see her, pale and shivering and bleeding. Goddammit.
“Grab him!” He motioned to Gabe and the others as they whizzed by him.
Dante had dropped to his knees in front of Anna. She was bleeding at her chest. Her blouse was torn, her face swollen. Tears welled in his eyes and emotion he’d never felt before filled him. He wanted to grab her and cry. He hadn’t cried since his parents…
Hold it together for Anna.
“You okay?”
She nodded, jerking the tattered edges of her blouse together.
“How bad are you hurt?”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re bleeding.” He pulled a handkerchief out of his back pocket. “Let me see.”
She squeezed her hands tight over her chest.
“Anna, baby, let me see how bad it is.”
She lifted tear-filled eyes to his and it shredded a hole in his heart, especially when she dropped her hands and her blouse fell away. The guy had cut her bra in half. Dante swallowed and patted at the spot where the bastard had cut her, just above her left breast. There, he’d carved the shape of a heart.
Goddamn. Son of a bitch. Motherfucker.
Rage blinded him. Dante heard his own breath sawing in and out, felt his blood pounding in his ears. He wanted to tear the guy apart. But right now he had to focus on Anna. He forced himself to smile down at her as he pressed the handkerchief to her chest. He unbuttoned his shirt and shrugged it off his shoulders, leaving him in only his tank top.
“It’s okay. It’s going to be all right. Put this on.” He helped her slide her arms into his shirt, then buttoned every single button. “You stay right here and I’ll be back for you, okay?”
She looked up at him, her bottom lip trembling. Then she gave him a brief nod. She was alive. That’s all that mattered.
Dante stood and turned to where the guys had cornered the bastard who’d done this. He’d hurt Anna. Dante didn’t even want to think about what else he’d done to her.
Anger and rage and guilt boiled inside him. The guy stood there with a smart-ass smirk on his face like he didn’t have a care in the world.
“She okay?” Gabe asked as Dante stepped beside him.
Dante swallowed. “He hurt her. He cut her.” Dante put his hand on his chest where Anna’s wound was.
“Fuck,” Gabe whispered.
They all knew, would all feel the same fury that someone would hurt Anna.
Sweet Anna, who didn’t have a mean word for anyone, who would never hurt anyone.
The others stepped away as Dante came toward him. The guy jerked back as if he was going to run.
Oh, no, you don’t.
Dante tackled the guy before he could get away, flinging his body on top of him. It was insane after that. Instinct kicked in, all those years of street fights with fists and knives. Of survival, of doing whatever it took to stay alive, of defending those who couldn’t defend themselves.
Anna hadn’t been able to defend herself. This guy was twice her size.
Men didn’t hurt women.
The guy rolled and kicked Dante away, then sprang to his feet, pulling a knife. A bloody knife—Anna’s blood.
Anger so deep it boiled in his bones raged inside Dante. He saw the blood on the knife and thought of what Anna had gone through. No way was this dude getting out of the alley. The guy waved the knife at Dante, but he was no match for the four of them. They’d gotten into more fights together than Dante could count and they were damn good at working together.
Dante stared him down, holding his attention as Gabe moved behind the man and grabbed his arm, jerking the knife out of his hands.
Fury took hold, then. Dante pulled his arm back and let it swing full force at the guy’s face. He staggered as if he was high or something, but Dante didn’t care. His fist connected with the bastard’s nose and Dante felt the impact, satisfied by the crunching sound. The guy didn’t say a word, just pulled to his feet again, ready for more.
Yeah, he had to be tweaking or something to get up after the punch Dante gave him. Dante shoved him back down and the others jumped in, and then it was fists and feet and blood and the guy didn’t stand a chance.
He didn’t know when the dude had stopped moving, but at some point Dante was out of breath and his fists hurt. He backed off.
“Stop. He’s done for.” Dante moved away, pulled the others off.
They stood there looking down at the guy who looked nothing like he had when they’d first come on the scene. He was a bloody pulp of a mess. Dante kicked at him, but he didn’t move. He was out cold.
He went to Anna, bent over her.
“Anna.”
She stared at her attacker, didn’t look at Dante.
“Anna.” Dante touched her and she flinched. He reached for her shoulders. “It’s Dante. Look at me.”
She turned to him, then her eyes filled with tears. “Oh, God. Oh, Dante.” She fell into his arms and he lifted her, pulled her against him while she sobbed.
He wrapped his arms around her and lifted her. “Come on, let’s take you inside.”
They took Anna back to the shop and sat her on one of the stools. Dante grabbed some paper towels and wet them so he could wipe her face.
“Is she okay?” Roman asked.
“Don’t know.” Dante focused on Anna.
She was crying hard now, shook her head, trying to talk even though he knew she had to be hysterical. “He grabbed me from behind, dragged me behind the Dumpster. He ripped my blouse and my bra.”
Dante sucked in a breath.
“He cut me, here,” she said, unbuttoning his shirt enough to show them all the heart-shaped cut.
“Jesus,” Gabe said. “I’m going to kill him.”
“Not if I do it first,” Roman said.
“You got there before he…” She bent her head down and wept, her fingers clutching Dante’s shirt together.
Shit. “Let me help you.” Dante rebuttoned the shirt, felt her body shaking, then looked up at Gabe. “Go grab that scum and bring him in here. We need to call the cops.”
Gabe nodded and motioned to the others. “Come on.”
Gabe and the others left Dante and Anna alone.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have let you go out there alone.”
“Not your fault.”
She could say that, but it didn’t matter. “We’ll call the cops and your dad. They’ll take care of this.” Because Dante had failed to.
Chin resting on her chest, she gave a short nod. “Okay.”
Gabe burst through the back door, out of breath. “Dante. I think he’s dead.”
Dante whipped around. “What?”
“He ain’t movin’,” Gabe said. “I tried to wake him up and he didn’t move. We tried to pull him to his feet, but he just went down again like…dead weight. When I went to feel for a pulse I got nothin’.”
“It’s true,” Jeff nodded, his face ghost-white. “He’s dead. Oh, man, he’s dead, Dante.”
Dante turned back to Anna, whose eyes widened. This wasn’t good. “I’ll go check it out.”
She scooted off the bar stool. “I’m going with you.”
“No. You stay here.”
She shook her head and gripped his hand. “Don’t leave me in here by myself. Please.”
He blew out a breath, torn between wanting her to stay put, calling the cops and wishing none of this had happened. He should have just taken the goddamn trash out for her. Then it wouldn’t have happened at all. “I’ll have one of the guys stay with you.”
“I’ll hang in here with you, Anna,” Gabe said, moving next to her.
She shook her head, that stubborn chin of hers lifting as she squeezed Dante’s hand. “No. I need to see him.”
He sighed. “Okay. Stay right next to me.”
They walked outside. He tried to keep her away from the guy, who was still lying there right where they’d left him. Roman and Jeff were standing over him. They stepped aside when he and Gabe got there.
Dante turned to Gabe. “Stay with Anna while I check this out.”
Anna resisted, but Dante turned to her. “This is as close as I’m letting you get to him. Understand?”
She nodded, still shaking.
Gabe pulled Anna to his side. Dante went over to the guy and nudged him in the side with his shoe.
“Get up, asshole.”
Nothing. He kicked him harder this time.
“Come on, get up.”
He kneeled and put his fingers on the man’s neck, searching for a pulse. He couldn’t find one there, or on his wrist. God, he was a bloody mess and Dante didn’t want to do it, but he leaned down and laid his hand over the guy’s chest.
The body was warm. He was still warm. But there was no heartbeat, no pulse.
Dante looked up at his brothers. “He’s dead.”
“Shit. Sonofamotherfuckingbitch.” Jeff tore at his hair and started pacing back and forth. “Now what do we do, Dante? We killed him.”
Dante stood. “We go back into the shop and we call the cops.”
“No.”
Dante turned to Anna. “What?”
Anna shook her head, tears streaking down her face. The hysteria had gone, replaced by a calm awareness of exactly what to do. “You have to get out of here. All of you. Now.”
Dante went to her, put his hands on her shoulders. “Anna We killed this guy. We were protecting you. Besides, he came at us with a knife. It’s kind of self-defense.”
“I know that and you know that. But you all have juvie records. You know how it’ll look. You still beat him up and now he’s dead. You all have to get out of here. I’ll call my dad and he’ll take care of this.”
Dante shook his head. “No. I can’t let you do that. I’m not leaving you.”
“He’s right, Anna,” Gabe said. “We can stand up for this.”
“No, we can’t,” Jeff said, his hands balling into fists as he paced. “I don’t want to go to Juvie again. We got a nice family and I wanna stay there.”
“Me, too,” Roman said, sniffing back tears. “Let Anna call her dad and make this go away.”
“What are we, a bunch of pussies?” Dante stared them all down. “We did this. We can handle it.”
She took them in with her gaze, and knew she’d do anything to make sure they stayed safe.
Anna pulled Dante to face her again. “I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to you. To any of you. You saved my life. God only knows what that…guy…would have done to me if you hadn’t showed up.”
Tears fell down her cheeks. She didn’t bother trying to swipe them away.
Dante folded her against him. “Anna, it’s okay. You’re okay. We’ve been through worse.”
She pushed on his chest and shook her head. “No. I won’t let anything bad happen to you because of me. Please, just do this for me. Please.”
“Let’s go inside.” He wrapped his arms around her and led her back inside.
“What do you want to do about him?” Roman asked.
Dante looked over his shoulder at the dead guy. “I guess we leave him there for now.”
“What if somebody comes?” Roman asked.
“Not much we can do about it.”
Once inside the shop again, Dante checked Anna’s wound. The bleeding had stopped and all she felt was a raw throb she was determined to ignore. She wished she could ignore everything that happened. Concentrating on something other than herself would help. She wiped her face and hands, lifted her chin and stared them all down, determined they were going to see things her way.
“I want you all to go. Now. Hurry, before someone finds the body. I’m going to call my dad and we’ll figure out what to do.”
“That’s not right,” Dante said. “You shouldn’t have to deal with it.”
“I’ll have my dad. He’ll help. I’m not going to have you be charged when it was you all who saved me. Now go. Please.”
“She’s right,” Roman said. “You know what they’ll do to a group of juvies who beat a guy to death, even if he did attack a girl first. We could have just pulled the guy off her, held him and called the cops. We didn’t have to beat him up. We didn’t have to kill him.”
“Come on, Dante,” Jeff said. “We can’t handle any more on our records. We’ll lose the house, our family. I can’t do more time.”
Dante paced the shop. “It’s not right for this to come down on Anna. Hasn’t she been through enough?”
She stopped him, cupped his face with her hands. “You saved my life tonight, Dante. All of you. Let me do this for you.”
The pain in Dante’s eyes, the guilt she saw there, hurt her more than that jerk outside did. “He hurt you. We had to make him pay.”
Tears welled in her eyes. “I know. Now let me thank you the only way I can. Go on. I’ll handle this.”
Dante shook his head. “No, Anna.”
Roman gripped Dante’s shoulder. “She wants to do it. Let her.”
Anna grasped his hand. “I’ll call my dad right away. Dante, please.”
No way was she going to have him take the fall for this. She’d stand here all night if she had to and argue with him. But finally, he nodded and she exhaled.