Danita Minnis

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Up next is my hero Armand Falcone d’Alessandro  a.k.a.  Falcon  a.k.a.  Tony   

Assassin, Liar, Lover of Angel…

After the
game, they bought groceries at the old Roman marketplace. They waved their
Napoli flags at a rowdy group of fans joining the throng of people celebrating
on the avenue.

Angelina
stopped to make way for the fans cheering the home team victory. She could not
see Tony now that she’d left his side, and the dancing group closed in.

A
sun-bronzed hand grabbed hers, pulling her along, further away from the
laughing group. She had to jog to keep up with Tony while he forcefully parted
the bodies surrounding them.

“I should
have worn my sneakers!” She laughed.

They reached
the end of the avenue where the crowd thinned. Angelina saw who held onto her
wrist.

The silent
man’s brown eyes warned her, before holding her close. He was not much taller
than she was, but he was stocky. There was strength in the arm he put around
her waist. There was no getting away from him as he dragged her across the busy
street.

“Let go of
me!”

The man’s
grip loosened around her waist and he stumbled, jerking his head in her
direction. Recovering quickly, he reined her back in, but not before she saw
the wariness in his eyes. She almost tripped over her own feet as the crowd
pushed them along.

“Tony!” Her
screams blended in with the jovial shouts around her.

She tried to
twist out of the man’s arms, but he held onto her so tight his arm was pressing
into her ribcage. He didn’t look at her again, but nodded and smiled to the mob
of fans that moved toward the town square.

“Somebody!
Please, help me!”

A woman
passed by, laughing and waving a flag in Angelina’s face.

They had
reached the other side of the street. She was being abducted in the midst of a
drunken celebration. Tears streamed down her face and she screamed again as
everyone skipped past her and the silent man, laughing and singing.

She felt
rather than saw Tony jump on the man’s back, dragging him down to the ground,
and breaking his hold on her.

Angelina
slumped down while Tony and her abductor wrestled in the middle of the street.
While Tony pummeled the silent man in the face, she backed away on her elbows,
never once looking away from his calm, calculating eyes.

He’s not
going to stop.

Tony raised
his fist, ready for the descent and the silent man rolled from underneath him
with a groan.

Her abductor
fell into the crowd, pushing the bodies in front of him out of the way.

“Stay here,”
Tony ordered, and ran after the man.

She got to
her feet but could not see either of them, only the blood streaks on the ground
from her abductor’s beating.

The crowd
closed in around her. There was a squeal of tires as a car pulled away from the
curb.

Tony walked
back through the crowd. The sweat on his brow was the only indication that he’d
had some exercise. “He wasn’t alone. There was a car waiting for him. No

license
plate.”

She didn’t
know what she had expected to hear, certainly not his matter-of-fact tone. When
she looked into his eyes, his unspoken words hung between them. He was going to
take you…

Angelina had
the distinct impression that if the silent man had taken her, it would have
been his last action on earth. She stared at her companion of several weeks, a
fellow musician with beautiful long fingers that mastered the piano.

Killing
hands. She hugged herself.

Tony
murmured something and with a shake of his head, he opened her arms and lifted
her against his chest.

A warrior’s
chest. Better than a breastplate. His next words were so anticlimactic it took
a moment for them to register in her mind.

“Are you all
right?”

“Yes.”
Angelina shook in his arms. He was her Roman soldier, and she was his battle
prize. “Thank you for rescuing me. Again.”

She put her
arms around his neck and did what she wanted to do. She kissed him.

He slanted
his mouth over hers, and the crowd cheered.

Angelina
didn’t know if they were cheering the kiss or her champion, and she didn’t
care. She was more interested in what he was doing with his tongue and the way her
body fit the hard body holding her up.

Neither she
nor Tony said anything while she made a delicious slide down that body and her
feet touched the ground.

The last of the crowd moved away towards the celebration in the square as if they witnessed a beating and a criminal’s escape every day in this town.

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