A Bad Man: Joey Read Online Free PDF Page B

crew that thought coming into Bourbon and taking what wasn’t theirs was going to happen. He felt his cell vibrate in the front of his pocket and put Marra in the backseat before answering it.
    “Yeah?”
    “Found out from Seth that Mario hasn’t just been running his mouth at the bar, but trying to cut a deal with the Gondalos.”
    “Old news, Alex. Just saw Mario with a hole in his head thanks to one of their guys.”
    “Well shit.”
    “Yeah.” Joey scrubbed a hand over his face and glanced at Marra. She was lying on the backseat, and the skirt she had been wearing today was hiked up her thighs. God, he shouldn’t be thinking the filthy fucking things he was right now, because she was injured and in shock. But the bastard part of Joey couldn’t help but take in the tanned fullness of her thighs, or how the hem of the skirt stopped right where he would have been able to see her panties. “Fuck.”
    “You okay, Boss?” Alex asked, sounding concerned.
    “I’m good,” he responded, knowing that things were far from okay because some motherfuckers had managed to turn a promising guy in their crew. “But Marra was nearly executed by the fucker I just laid down.”
    “The café chick?”
    “Yeah. I’m taking her to my place until she wakes up. I need to know if she heard or saw anything that can help us.”
    “Boss,” Alex said softly, but with more concern in his voice. “She could be a liability now. She might know shit that she shouldn’t.”
    Yeah, he knew that, too. “Don’t worry about her, I’ll handle it. Just figure out why the hell Mario flipped on us, because it doesn’t make sense.” He disconnected the cell and shoved the phone in his pants pocket. He then took off his suit jacket and laid it over her legs. He knew that she was a liability, and that if she knew anything that she shouldn’t about the business he’d have to handle it. He could have just finished her off right in the alleyway and let Luciano handle it, but Joey wanted her, and letting her get hurt wasn’t an option.
    For the last year he thought he had just wanted to fuck her desperately, and every time she turned him down it just made him want her more. But then when they had walked out of the bar, about to hunt down Mario and find out the truth, he had heard her scream. The fact he had known it was Marra had sent a jolt of awareness through him. And then he had seen her across the street getting dragged into an alleyway. Everything inside of him had gone on alert, and this white-hot rage moved through him that someone thought they could touch her. The possessive and territorial side of him was something he had never felt for a woman, but it was intense and powerful, and he wasn’t about to ignore it. Then he had seen her getting tossed around like a ragdoll, and that gun pointed to her head. He had been so fucking angry, but the calm of the kill had come upon him. He had gotten his gun out, placed the barrel at the back of his enemy’s head, and blown his brains out. Joey had never felt the relief that had coursed through him as he did at that moment when he had pulled that trigger. He had killed a lot of people, bad men that deserved to die because they had done heinous things, or had turned their back on the family. But this kill had been different. He had done it because he wanted to protect the woman he wanted.
    The sound of Little Johnny moving behind him had Joey shutting the backdoor and turning. “All good?”
    Johnny nodded. “Luciano is just a few blocks away.”
    Headlights flashed across them, but Joey knew it was Luciano. The car came to a stop behind Joey’s, and then Luciano climbed out. Another man came out of the passenger side, and without saying anything, just tipping their chins in acknowledgment; Luciano and his partner went into the alleyway to clean up.
    “You want me to take care of her?” Johnny asked. He reached in his coat for a cigarette, and stared at Joey.
    “No, the only one taking