Hero: A Bad Boy Mafia Romance by Lara Swann Read Free Book Online

her eyes, and as she continued, I wondered what on earth had happened to my usual intimidating presence.
    “It needs stitches. If you promise to head straight to a hospital, I’ll let you go - but I imagine you have some cheap and nasty medical kit that you think you can fix it with one-handed.”
    The mental picture was disturbingly accurate, and she grinned when I paused.
    “Exactly. So let a professional take care of it, hm?”
    “A professional?”
    “Yes, a professional - I’m a qualified nurse.”
    She was already reaching for the kit now open on the ground in front of me and I sighed as I let her take my arm. Damn stubborn girl.
    “Spending your energies on mobsters and street thugs?” I couldn’t tell whether my comment was more challenge or bewilderment.
    Her eyes clouded briefly, then the intensity came back full force.
    “Someone should, don’t you think?”
    “No.”
    If there were less deserving people out there, I wasn’t sure I could think of any.
    Her grip on my arm was firm but gentle as she pinched the broken skin together, and I was surprised at how she could manage that soft touch with the ferocity that overcame her expression.
    “I live down the next street over. I’ve spent my whole life watching this place deteriorate - watching kids who could’ve been friends take up knives and guns and drugs. Maybe some are beyond help, but most? They could’ve grown to be good, honest people if anyone had ever shown them how. Everyone deserves that chance, deserves to know that someone cares and something good exists. To think that after all of the blood and fighting, someone they don’t even know will put them back together.”
    Her fiercely spoken passion - backed up by the neat, efficient stitches she’d started - had something dark and deadly twisting inside me. I’d never heard or seen anything like her. And the poison that was boiling up inside and threatening to overwhelm me made me question whether I even wanted to.
    She was either a complete fool, or…I didn’t know what. I didn’t want to know.
    Her words put the lie to everything I felt and believed. Everything I lived by.
    As if she knew, something made her look up, that barely contained fire turned soft as she met my eyes.
    “Anyone can turn things around. Even mobsters and street thugs. In fact, they’re probably the most important of all.”
    Why did it feel like she was throwing me a lifeline?
    My head throbbed and I pushed the thought away. I was beaten and bruised and this was a fucking surreal moment.
    One that shouldn’t be happening. Which reminded me - yet again - of Jorge. The guy who’d pretty much claimed her, even if she refuted it.
    “So that’s why you’re with Jorge, then?” I wasn’t sure if I actually wanted to know the answer, or if I just wanted a reprieve from her intensity. Either way, the words felt harsh on my tongue - an accusation, not a question.
    “I’m not with Jorge. I just agreed to help fix up his guys - no more than that.”
    The way her eyes focused on tying off the stitch on my arm gave me the distinct impression there was more to it than that. And even if she denied owing him any loyalty, I had no doubt what Jorge would think if he found out about what she was doing now.
    Not that I was going to tell him, but still, it was hard to watch her reckless belief - or to picture what might happen to her because of it.
    My gaze hovered on the bruise on her face again, and it was suddenly easy to see just how it had happened, if she showed half the attitude I’d seen tonight to someone like Jorge.
    “I meant it earlier, Lottie, you should be careful.”
    Whatever the chaos still spinning inside me at her impassioned words, I couldn’t stand the idea of her getting hurt. Or of that bright spark she struggled to hide being extinguished.
    Fuck.
    “Don’t worry. I know what I’m doing.” The calm determination there caught at my attention, as did the resolve in those bright blue eyes.
    Double