Dangerous Beauty: Part One: Destiny (26 page)

Yes!

Carter’s heart
soared
. She didn’t know it was possible to love a person as much as she loved Nathan Alessandro Salerno. Leaning forward, she kissed Nathan’s soft lips. “Yes,” she whispered.

“Yes?” he asked.

Carter smiled. “Yes.”

Nathan arched an eyebrow. “You sure?”

Carter giggled. “Positive.”

“Wow, positive huh? That’s really sure. I could give you a little time if you want it.”

Carter laughed. “I don’t want time, Nathan, I want my ring.”

“This ring?”

“Yes, Nathan,” Carter said rolling her eyes, but she couldn’t keep the smile off her face.

“I just want to make sure because if you put this on—”

“Nathan!”

“Fine, fine. Damn, you’re bossy,” he said in a playful tone as he slipped the ring on her finger and chuckled. “Well, there it is. Now you’re stuck with me forever.” He gave her a big smooch on her lips.

Carter bounced up and down gazing at her ring as Nathan stood to his feet.

“Nathan, it so beautiful. Ahh!” Carter screamed when Nathan picked her up and tossed her over his shoulder. He started down the gazebo steps “Nathan, what on earth?” she said and Nathan slapped her behind. She squealed. “Where are we going?”

“What do you mean ‘where are we going?’ You just said that you would marry the heir to The Salerno Empire, Carter. We have obligations baby, responsibilities. It would be out of my way,  but I guess I could devote the rest of my day to starting on that whole heir thing,” he let out an exaggerated sigh. “I suppose I’ll spend all day and night locked up in a room making sweet, sweet multiple orgasm inducing love to you. Making sure that by time we leave the room you’re pregnant with my son,” he said feigning exasperation.

“Wow, you’re so giving. How can I ever thank you?” Carter said dryly, trying not to laugh.

“Don’t sweat it, baby. You know me, I’m a giver,” he said with a shrug.

Carter laughed. There was no way she was getting pregnant today. Little did Nathan know, Carter had emergency condoms in her purse.

“Ahh! I know he’s so sweet. I love him so much.”

“Have you set a date yet?” Jenna asked over the phone.

Carter and Jenna had been screaming over the phone since Carter and Nathan got back to the city. She didn’t get to tell Jenna about the engagement in person because she couldn’t wait.

Carter chuckled. “Jen, he just proposed yesterday,” she replied.

“Omigod! I am going to look so hot in my maid of honor dress.”

“You are. We decided we were just going to have a small ceremony in our garden with the people we love.”

“Aww. That’s so sweet, Carter. I can’t believe you’re getting married! Call me later so that we can cry together,” Jenna said.

She sounded like she already had tears in her eyes and Carter knew she better get off the phone with her before the damn flood gates opened again. “Alright Jen, I’ll call you later.”

“Love you, hun.”

“Love you too,” Carter said as she hung up the phone and caught up with Nathan.

“Nathan, stop walking so fast,” she said running up the side walk to catch up with him. The three security men behind her sped up, as she did.

“I’m sorry, baby. I wasn’t watching. My father said we need to hurry, it’s something urgent,” he said grabbing her hand and pulling her along with him.

“Is it Mitchell?”

“I don’t know, but we’re about to find out,” Nathan said as they walked into The Salerno Organization building.

“Nathan!” Kyle called walking over to Nathan and Carter. “Where the hell have you guys been? You won’t believe who’s upstairs!” he said.

Carter and Nathan stopped walking and looked at him waiting for him to say.

“Andrew Reeves. He said he has information about Mitchell. He’s using it as a peace offering.”

“What?” Nathan asked shocked.

“Wow,” Carter said. “Reeves is such a pussy,” she said shaking her head in disgust.

“Carter. Don’t be so crude, baby. You need to stop hanging out with Mickey, you’re starting to sound like him,” he said and Carter smirked.

“Mickey’s not bad,” she defended, then she spotted him on the elevator and she let go of Nathan’s hand. “I’m going to go up with Mickey,” she said and Nathan nodded.

She saw Mickey exit the elevator and walked quickly over to him, happy to see her partner in crime.

“Carter, hey, just the legs I wanted to see,” he said with a sly smile.

Carter laughed. “Where are you headed?” she asked looking up at his smiling face.

“I was actually looking for you and your boyfriend. The Russian one, not the one that’s full Italian,” Mickey teased. “Angelo sent me to see if you two finally made it in. You know where he is?”

Carter turned her body around. “They were just—”

Her words were cut off when two loud gun shots rang through the large lobby of the building and Mickey doubled over screaming in pain.

Carter whipped around just in time to see Mickey fall to the floor holding his thigh and knee.

After that everything went in slow motion, as Carter turned to the direction of the gun shots and saw a man in a hood walking away with a gun at his side.

Carter. Saw. Red. She kicked off her heels and darted in the direction of the shooter.

Carter was so far gone that she completely ignored the screaming people running passed her, trying to get out of the building. She faintly heard men yelling her name, but she was passed the point of thinking straight. There was only one thing going through her mind at that point. Capture and kill the motherfucker that shot her Mickey.

As if the shooter knew she was coming, he turned around, and saw her running at lightning speed and he began to run. This only made Carter speed up her pace as rage continued to fill her. She wanted blood, and she wanted it right now.

The man quickly ran into the door where the stairs were located on the far side of the large lobby. Carter ripped her skirt up her thigh so that she could have easier access to her knives. She’d been running so fast that she entered the stairwell only seconds after the shooter, and once she walked in, she discovered she had walked into an ambush.

Shit!

Carter had time to register that three men were standing in the stairwell, and they all had guns pointed directly at her.

One man stood to her right legs spread apart. Another man stood in front of the downward stairs. And the last man stood on the first step of the upward stairs.

Carter took a deep breath, did what her father trained her to do. She slowed down their movements, and moved at the speed of light.

The gun shots rang in the acoustic room. Carter dropped to the ground and scrambled through the legs of the shooter on the right of her.

She pulled one knife from her holster, stood quickly, and stabbed him in the back of the neck twice. The man let out a loud howl, and before he lost his balance, Carter pushed him hard into the man standing in front of the downward staircase. Both men tumbled down the steps.

The man on the upward staircase made a mistake and looked at his two accomplices falling down the steps. Before he even thought to raise his gun again, Carter threw two knives, piercing him in both eyes.

Carter ran down the stairs quickly to the man she knew was still alive. He was panicking and trying to push the now dead man off of him. He frantically grabbed for the gun that had fallen from his hand on the fall down the stairs. Carter jumped the rest of the stairs, and kicked the gun. She pulled out one of her remaining knives quickly and stabbed his hand. He howled in pain and Carter grabbed both sides of his head and slammed it against the floor effectively knocking him unconscious.

***

Nathan had only heard two gunshots and Mickey scream in pain before he looked up and saw Carter running fast through the large lobby after a man in a hood with a Glock in his hand.

His heart stopped, but he managed enough breath to scream her name before he took off running after her. He heard Kyle shout something behind him, but Nathan didn’t look back. He ran passed Mickey where he had fallen to the floor and saw him pointing frantically in the direction Carter ran out of the corner of his eye.

The lobby was in chaos. People were running, screaming, and as the crowd became more frantic. Nathan lost sight of Carter.

He turned in every direction looking for her, hoping she would appear.

“Carter! Carter, goddammit,” he shouted feeling dread in the pit of his stomach.

Kyle ran up next to him. “Where is she?” Kyle asked frantically looking in every direction hoping to see Carter’s face.

“I don’t know. I fucking lost her,” Nathan yelled. He was hysterical at this point and his heart was pounding. If anything happened to Carter, he would kill everyone in this fucking lobby. “I can’t see passed all these fucking people.”

“Carter!” Nathan and Kyle ran around the entire lobby calling out her name as men from upstairs began to pour into the lobby and join in on the search. They all continued looking until they heard something that made each of them turn and run in the direction of the sounds at the same time.

Nathan’s heart dropped to the pit of his stomach when he heard a series of gunshots ring out in the staircase on the far side of the massive lobby, and just as quickly as they all began, they stopped, as did Nathan’s heart.

The gunshots stopped, that meant they got their target, Carter,
his
Carter. Images of Carter lying dead in a pool of blood assailed him making him light headed, and he sped up his pace.

They all made it to the door and stood aside as the underboss stepped forward. He opened the door. Nathan and the men stood frozen at the sight before him.

Carter quickly jumped down a flight of stairs to a man trapped under another man frantically reaching for a gun. She kicked the gun and pulled a knife from her holster, raised it in the air and stabbed the man’s hand. Then she grabbed both sides of the man’s head and slammed it into the marble floor.

Carter stood up with her back still to them and released her long hair from the bun she had it in and it fell down her back in thick waves. She ran her hands through her hair trying to catch her breath and let out a pained groan while she twisted her wrist around working it out.

The men stood in silence, trying to move closer and get a look at the woman standing in the stairwell with two dead men and one unconscious. They looked at what she’d done. One man lay at the bottom of and upward staircase with a dagger in each eye, another man lay on top of the unconscious man with the back of his neck brutally cut open.

Nathan looked at Carter, relief rushing through him. That’s it. He was going to lock her little ass up somewhere where nothing like this would ever happen again.

“Carter,” Nathan said.

Carter turned around quickly and looked at Nathan, worry masking her face. “Mickey?” she asked in panic.

“He’s fine. Two shots in the leg, but he’ll live, he’s upstairs in the office,” Nathan said trying to remain cool. He wanted to yell at her, but he couldn’t, he was just so fucking happy she was alive.

Nathan held out his hand for Carter. “Carter, baby, let’s go,” he said softly.

Carter nodded then bent down and pulled her knife out of the unconscious man’s hand. She ran up the stairs, her skirt ripped up her thigh showing the lone knife she had left in her holster, and her shirt was open and disheveled showing off her black lace bra, but from the looks of it she was too tired to care.

She went over to the dead man at the bottom of the staircase and pulled both knives from his eyes, careful to keep the blood away from her clothing she handed them to Gianni. “Gianni, I would love you forever if you cleaned these for me,” she said. Gianni nodded and took the bloody knives from her.

“These bodies need to be handled before the cops get here. The one under the man who shot Mickey is still alive. Take him somewhere for me, do not kill him. I would like to have a discussion with him when he wakes up,” she said to the men as they all began to file in the stairwell to follow her orders.

Carter went over to Nathan who still stood waiting for her to take his hand and she walked over to him. She was just about to take his hand when she looked in his eyes. “Shit,” she said looking up at him. “You’re pissed.”

And just like that he was. His jaw clenched and rage filled his gray eyes. He looked at her wondering what the fuck she was thinking going after a man with a fucking gun. Alone.

When she didn’t take his hand he reached out, grabbed her arm, and jerked her out of the stairwell passed the men. Kyle followed silently behind them.

“Ouch! Dammit, Nathan,” she yelled.

“What the fuck were you thinking?” Nathan yelled.

“I wasn’t thinking obviously, or else I wouldn’t have run into a fucking ambush.”

“Why the hell do you do shit like this, Carter? I tell you over and over to control your fucking temper because it makes you do stupid shit.”

“Not all the time, Nathan. There are times when my bad temper is the only key to my survival.”

“That makes no fucking sense, Carter,” he said pulling her into the elevator he pressed the twenty-sixth floor and typed in the security code. Nathan and Kyle stood on both sides of her.

“It does make sense. I had to go after that guy. If I didn’t then those men would’ve come back anyway. Now we don’t have to worry about it. Plus, he shot Mickey. The son of a bitch had it coming. I wasn’t going to let him get away with that shit.”

Both Kyle and Nathan slowly turned to her and gave her looks that made her gasp and back into the wall behind her, trying to disappear. She worried her bottom lip and looked up at both of them as innocently as she could. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking,” she whispered, but she couldn’t keep the wicked smile out of her eyes. She couldn’t help it, she had just kicked some serious ass and they were worried about something that could have happened, instead of what actually did.

She saw rage fill blue and gray eyes before the two men began to yell at her simultaneously in Italian. Carter took a peek at the lit number above the elevator door and groaned.

Dammit, only the tenth floor, and sixteen more to go.