Kiss a Frog (The Book Club Series 1)

by Jade, Scarlett

  “He’s a terrible shot,” she garbled, losing her grip on the pole. “The bastard got my arm.”

  She vaguely remembered Luca’s strong arm coming around her and the feel of being towed through the icy water. After that moment, she only knew darkness.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Safe Haven

  Luca had never been more terrified than the moment he’d heard Lily’s voice on the other end of the line telling him that she had a lead on the mob story. He knew then that he’d failed miserably in keeping her safe. It had been a foolish dream that they would leave her alone. He had to try backing off to see if it would keep her safe. If the heat wasn’t on them anymore, they had no reason to go after anyone he cared about. It made sense to him as an honest man, but he forgot the mob didn’t have honest men in it. The mob wanted to hurt him because he was getting too close.

  When he’d made it back to DC and explained to his boss what he’d done, he had been put on desk work. It had been worth it, so he’d thought at the time, because Lily was safe. Things began to unravel after Lorenzo Caprice told him that he had hours to get from DC to Boston.

  Luca hung up in disbelief and had run to his boss’s desk. “They’ve got her!”

  James Kellam, the director of the FBI wanted to set up a sting. “Luca it’s perfect. We can take them all out.”

  “No, I am going to do this alone.” He’d insisted. “I’ll drive down and shoot Caprice.”

  Luca hadn’t listened to reason or even cared to think things through. All he’d done was grabbed a vest, pistol, and a few extra clips of ammo. Kellam hadn’t pushed the sting, and he thought he’d won the battle. He should’ve known that his boss would never allow an agent to go into a dangerous situation solo. Luca found himself being briefed by Jacobs, an agent he’d never met, just an hour before he walked onto the pier. Jacobs had found him in a rest area outside Boston, in the bathroom. Luca was disgusted to find that he was used to keep the mob busy while other agents did the dirty work.

  “Why didn’t I know about you?” he’d demanded of Jacobs.

  “Very few do. We would be killed if everyone in the bureau knew about us. You know there are dirty agents, De Soros. But tonight is the night. You pushed it up a few weeks, but we’re going to make it happen. The mob will go down tonight. Make sure you have a bullet proof vest on. Caprice wants you dead.” Jacobs informed him.

  “What about Lily?”

  “I’ve got her covered. I promise she’ll be safe.” Jacobs had reassured him. “I have to go. Be ready at the dock. The goal is to get Caprice first. The rest of the cretins will roll as soon as they can’t suck off his teats any longer.”

  “Let’s do this.” Luca shook his hand, sealing a pact with his fellow agent. Jacobs had disappeared, presumably back to his post with Caprice.

  Luca had been left with his thoughts as he drove into Boston. Time ticked by faster than he planned, and he parked blocks from the harbor with less than twenty minutes to spare. Making sure his Glock was loaded, he slid from the car and huddled into his jacket, trying to blend in with the thinning crowd. The harbor was empty and half-dark. A stiff breeze blew off the water and it chilled him to the core, but nothing made him colder than the thought of Lily lying dead in the water.

  He’d tried hard to be cool and confident strolling onto the pier. The truth was, he didn’t have a clue if he was walking to his death or not. His bulletproof vest didn’t cover every inch of his body, and a head wound would finish him off. But he pretended that he was sure of the situation. He had to maintain calm for Lily’s sake. Her voice had quavered as she told him to drop the gun, and he longed to hold her, to comfort her and tell her it would be over soon. But he couldn’t keep her safe. You never kept her safe, you only thought about yourself.

  He hadn’t expected Lily’s nervous vomit to set things into motion so quickly. In the dusk of the pier, he could barely see Caprice release Lily and step back in disgust. That’s my girl, puke all over the bastard. Her weak stomach was an advantage to the FBI. Gunfire exploded on both sides, both good and bad, and Luca darted into the darkness so he wouldn’t be a sitting duck. The faint sound of a splash reassured him that Lily had made it to the water. But when a light on the boat flickered on and illuminated her floating in the dirty water, his heart had sunk. She ended up being the sitting duck. Literally.

  Caprice yelled her name and raised his gun before firing off a round. Lily’s scream made his heart stop. He didn’t even pause to see if she was okay, he was out for blood. Running down the pier, he aimed directly for the fat man’s forehead, and fired. Lorenzo Caprice had fallen on the wood of the pier with a sickening thud, and Luca knew then that he’d be no more. The boat roared to life and took off, and he fired off a couple more rounds after the boat, knowing even as he did so it was futile.

  As silence filled the harbor, dread settled in the pit of his stomach. Lily had been shot and she was in the water somewhere. “Lily!” he screamed, needing to know that she was okay.

  “Luca?” Her soft, weak voice hit his ears, and he felt his heart restart in his chest. “You’re alive!”

  “Of course I’m alive! Are you okay? Where are you?” he yelled again.

  “In the water,” Lily responded, and he climbed to the top of the railing on the pier and dove into the icy water before he could think. It didn’t matter if anyone bad lingered around, all he could worry about was getting to her and making sure she was okay. As he surfaced, he heard her scream in terror. No! Is someone else in the water?

  “Lily, where are you?”

  “Under the pier,” she mumbled.

  “Lily, did he get you?” Luca swam closer to her fading voice.

  “He’s a terrible shot,” she garbled. “The bastard got my arm.”

  Luca gripped her shirt just as she slid under the surface of the icy water. Hauling her under his arm, he swam for the shore. Lily hung limply in his grip, and he began screaming for help to the agents he knew lurked around the shore. “We need an ambulance!”

  “They’re on the way. Cops too. Jacobs and Carlos were on the boat with the mobsters, and they’re bringing them in,” a voice called. He recognized it immediately as Kellam.

  “Help me get her out of the water, she’s injured,” Luca groaned as he pulled them through the water.

  “Coming.” He could hear Kellam running toward the shore and a bright light shone in his eyes.

  “Hey, move the light, dick hole! I can’t see! What the hell are you doing here?”

  “Don’t you know, son? I’m like Santy Claus. I’m everywhere.”

  “Screw you! Move the damn light!”

  The light swung out of his eyes and as he neared the sand, Kellam helped him haul Lily up onto the bank. Her face was deathly pale and her arm oozed blood. “God dammit, don’t you give up on me, Lily. You better not quit on me. Hold on!”

  “It’s her arm, kid, not her chest. The ambulance is two minutes out,” Kellam informed him.

  “Tell them they better be here in one or I’m going to have their job!” Luca roared, ripping off his T-shirt and pressing it to her upper arm. Sirens sounded through the air, and Luca whispered a soft prayer. “Keep her safe…”

  He lost ten years off his life between the paramedics getting her on a gurney and into the ambulance. “Are you riding with her?” the paramedic asked.

  “Yeah.” He glanced around and spotted Kellam in the melee. “You! I’m going to the hospital.”

  “We’ll brief you later.”

  Luca clambered in the back of the ambulance and sat frozen on the bench seat as the paramedics worked over her. “Does she have any allergies?” the paramedic asked as they started an IV.

  “I don’t know,” Luca admitted.

  “Okay. What happened?”

  “She was in the water, and she got shot, simple as that,” Luca muttered gruffly.

  “Okay.” The medic made some notes on his pad. “What are her medical conditions? When was the last time she at
e or drank anything? Does she drink or do drugs?”

  Luca rubbed a hand over his eyes in frustration. “I don’t know,” he whispered hoarsely. “All I know is that I care about her and want to make sure she’s okay.”

  “The bleeding is slowing down, and it’s a clean shot. She should be fine.” The paramedic offered kindly.

  “Think so?” Luca glanced up at the man hopefully.

  “I think so.”

  Luca stared at her lying on the bed, her dark hair damp on the pillow, her skin nearly the same color as the white sheets. Dammit, Lily, why did they get you?

  “This gash on her cheek is gnarly,” the medic murmured, probing it gently. “What the hell?”

  Luca stared in shock as the cut peeled away from her skin. “What the hell is that?”

  “Halloween is over…” The medic frowned, tossing it into a trashcan. “Why would she have something like that on her face?”

  The wheels in Luca’s mind spun, and he groaned, dropping his head into his hands. They didn’t capture her. She went willingly. She was bait. Fury burned through him, and he gritted his teeth. I never should’ve left her here alone. As the ambulance pulled up to the hospital, Luca crawled out of the back and watched the paramedics roll Lily into the hospital.

  “Wait out here, they’ll let you know when you can go back,” a nurse told him, pointing at a chair against the wall.

  Luca stood helplessly in the middle of the emergency room, still wet, cold, and shirtless, wearing only a bulletproof vest on top. A passing nurse touched his arm. “Let me get you a blanket.”

  “Thanks.” Luca smiled tightly at the petite redhead.

  Soon, she returned with a heated blanket, and he wrapped it around himself in relief. Sitting in an uncomfortable chair in the waiting room, he ignored the blatant stares from people who waited. Kellam walked into the hospital a few minutes later, and Luca stood, waving at his boss.

  “Sir?”

  “De Soros, come with me.”

  Luca stood and looked over his shoulder at the hallway they’d taken Lily down. “Coming.” Following his boss into the night, they loaded into a police van that sat nearby. “Why are you here?”

  “Why do you think, Luca? You fucked up and got this girl involved. We had layers of people involved in this, and you had to let the mob see you with her. Where was your mind?”

  Luca sighed and parked on a seat in the van. “I don’t know. I messed up, okay?”

  “Yeah, well, we had to use her,” Kellam informed him. “We knew we could tie things up. Caprice never doubted anyone in his mob family. He only knew you were after him. And he wanted to take you down. We knew that if Lily could be convinced, you’d follow. We just had to get her to finish the job.”

  “What do you mean, you had to convince her to finish the job?” Luca demanded, even though he already knew the answer. He just wanted to hear his boss say it.

  “We brought her into the mission. She was willing to be bait when we told her they were already looking for her.” Kellam explained. “The truth was, she wasn’t much more than a blip on the radar until Jacobs talked her up to Caprice. But it got the job done and no one is too much worse for the wear.”

  “What if they’d killed her?” Luca roared.

  “It would have been a terrible casualty, but the main goal was to take down the mob.” Kellam shrugged as though her life didn’t matter. “The two agents on the boat got the other guys that were trying to high tail it out of the harbor. They’re in custody. I’m sure there are a few little pipsqueaks still running around, but after seeing Caprice killed, I doubt they’ll do anything.”

  “You’re a sick bastard! So, one life to save many?” Luca cried incredulously.

  “You used to feel the same way. But you let your feelings get in the way.” Kellam shrugged again.

  “So if your wife or kids were the bait for someone, you’d be okay with that?” Luca taunted.

  “I’m married to the job, and if you want to succeed in this field, you will be too.”

  “Yeah, I don’t know if I can do that.”

  “I really believed you were better than this, De Soros. You came out of the military and you were a hard ass, but now you’re going soft. You put a lot of boys in danger.”

  “No one got hurt but her, and we killed Caprice, didn’t we?”

  “This time no one got hurt but a civilian. Next time, we might not be so lucky.”

  Luca blew out a breath and ran a hand through his hair. “There won’t be a next time. I can’t take the risk of putting anyone else in danger. I’m giving you my badge and gun.” Luca pulled his wet badge from his pocket and his waterlogged gun from his holster. “I quit.”

  “What? De Soros! You’re a great agent, you just can’t get mixed up in your feelings! I know you’re not going to give this all up for some ass,” Kellam exclaimed. “Hell, no ass is worth giving up your career.”

  Luca continued to hold out his gun and badge. “I’m tired of my mom being worried all the time. I’m tired of my sister never getting to see me, and I’m not going to walk away from Lily to protect her again.”

  Kellam took the badge and gun and placed it on a seat beside him. “What are you gonna do now?”

  “Maybe I’ll be a small town cop. Hell, I’ve got enough savings. I have time to decide. But for now, I’m going inside to the girl who put her life on the line to bring down the mob.” He held out his hand, and Kellam shook it.

  “It was good working with you.”

  “It was nice to work with you too,” Luca replied.

  “I’ll give you a letter of reference. Be in DC Monday morning.”

  “Sounds great. I look forward to it.” Luca opened the door of the van and stepped out into the night. “Take care.”

  Striding back into the hospital, he couldn’t stop a smile from crossing his lips. It’s time for a fresh start.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Pride Cometh Before the Fall

  Lily woke to find herself in a hospital bed, and she looked around quickly. Luca sat beside her in a pale pink chair, his mouth slack with sleep. A dull ache pulsed in her arm, and she probed at the ache, hissing as she made it worse. I was shot. I’m in the hospital, and Luca’s here. She reached over and nudged Luca’s cheek with her fingertip, the only thing she could reach.

  His eyes flickered open instantly, and she melted as he grinned. “Hey, princess, how are you feeling?”

  “I’m okay.” Lily insisted. “My arm burns a little. What happened out there? All I remember is you coming to me in the water and that’s it.”

  Luca looked away, and she watched the muscles play in his jaw. “Why did you agree to be bait, Lily?”

  She gulped as he looked back at her with smoky eyes. Anger burned in the dark depths, and she sighed. “They said the mob was going to come after me anyway. I figured this way was the safest. Why did you put me in danger in the first place?”

  “I don’t know,” Luca groaned. “I thought it was no big deal us going out to dinner. I was not on duty that night. I nearly shit myself when I saw Caprice sitting at a table as we left, so I tried to convince you nothing was amiss.”

  Lily shifted in the bed. “Okay.”

  “Then I saw two guys at the movie theater, and they were packing heat. I had to get you out of there. I know things seemed abrupt, and I was trying so hard not to let you know I was freaking out. That’s why I kissed you. I know, it was stupid.”

  “What? Really? I never saw them.” Lily gasped.

  “I told you I watch people. I never, ever planned on coming to your apartment that night, but I couldn’t get you off my mind, and I was weak. I just wanted one time with you, Lily, I thought it could be enough. Then you sent me away and everything started falling apart. I knew you were in danger, and I thought that if I backed off them, they’d leave you alone. But what I didn’t know was that things were going on under the surface that I had no idea of. There were several men in there with Caprice, and they jus
t freakin’ decided without me to put you in the middle of it,” Luca growled, standing suddenly and pacing the room. “You could’ve died, Lily.”

  “You could’ve died too, Luca. I was terrified when I saw you on the pier standing in the light. What if they’d shot you?” she choked out, her eyes filling with hot tears.

  “They did shoot you, Lily. You’ve been hurt because of me,” Luca groaned and covered his face with his palms.

  “It’s not a big deal. I’ll have an awesome battle scar. Did they get Caprice?”

  “Yeah, I got him. When he shot you, I saw red. I just remember running down the pier and shooting. If I hadn’t shot him I was going to strangle him. He hurt you.”

  “Stop pacing. You’re going to rub a hole in the floor. Can you make some calls for me?”

  Luca paused in his pacing and nodded. “Sure, who do you need me to call?”

  “Mmm, first my friends Abby and Laura, then my parents. I’m pretty sure all of them are going to want to strangle us both, but they deserve to know what’s going on. Grab that notepad and—” She forgot how to speak as Luca leaned over and picked up the notepad from the table. The blanket he wore around his shoulders shifted, and she saw his bulletproof vest underneath, and a significant amount of skin. “And find clothes, because you’ll cause patients to have a heart attack running around here half naked.”

  Luca chuckled. “Okay. Write down the numbers. What do you want me to tell them?”

  “Tell them I fell ass over head off a fence and got speared by a rock.” Lily snorted. “Whatever you do, don’t tell them I got shot. I’ll never hear the end of it.”

  Luca chuckled and took the paper from her. “You scared the shit out of me.”

  “I’m accident prone, it’s the story of my life. Go away.” Lily smiled, pointing at the door.

  As Luca left the room, Lily groaned. The mob leader was killed…Luca is here with me…what now? Where do we go from here? Could there be a future between us? She shifted in the bed and hissed as fiery pain shot down her arm. Ow. Hey! I get to see my birthday! There will be birthday cake!