Between a Rock

Chapter One

                “What cover?”

                “That you and I are dating.”

                He said it so flippantly that I was too surprised to strangle him like I’d planned on doing.

                Rocky must’ve noticed the murderous look on my face, because he quickly backtracked. “Trust me, it was for your own good.”

                Oh, that was a serious matter of opinion. “I didn’t need you kissing me in front of everyone to improve my social status,” I snapped.

                “What?” Rocky shook his head, confused. “No, I meant, you’re in danger.”         

                 Agent Howard caught my gaze in the mirror as she drove. “We’ve lost contact with Antonio.”

                Antonio. The name smashed its way into my heart, as it usually did. My twenty-six year old brother was the reason Nani and I had kidnapped Rocky in the first place after the idiot stole five grand from our father, Los Angeles’ resident gang leader. After we’d turned ourselves into the police Antonio had agreed to testify against him, but in order to do that he was put in Witness Protection.

                Fat lot of good that did him. The rest of the sentence caught up to me and I leaned forward in the seat intently. “Where was he last?”

                Agent Howard hesitated, which nearly drove my nerves into a frenzy. “DC,” she answered finally. “Turnbow was his handler.”

                “Where’s he?”

                I could see her face tighten the slightest bit from the rear view mirror. “Dead.”

                Rocky sent me a sideways glance, trying to gauge my reaction. Personally I didn’t know Turnbow, except for the less-than-pleasant interrogation he’s given us after we’d turned ourselves in. He rubbed me the wrong way and from what Nani told me, he was a hard guy to get along with. But he was also Howard’s partner.

                “He was killed in DC,” the agent continued, keeping her eyes on the road. “When our agents got there he was dead and your brother was missing.”

                “I saw it on the news,” Rocky said quietly next to me. “We were in the area. When they showed a picture of Antonio asking if anyone had seen him, I connected the dots.”

                “Dawson?” I guessed.

                “No idea.”

                It had to be Dawson. The lanky oddball of a man looked harmless at first glance but he was one of the heads of the Redfangs—the gang of assassins that had been LA rivals to my father since before I was born. He’d almost killed all of us four months ago when he used Rocky’s brothers to lead him to me and Nani. I knew he wanted us for some reason, but I couldn’t figure out why. It made sense that he would hunt my brother down.

                The light dawned on me. “You think he’s coming after me and Nani next.”

                “We wouldn’t be surprised,” Agent Howard said. Her eyes connected with mine and she gave me a smile that made me wonder just how young she was. “The girlfriend thing was Rocky’s idea.”

                Rocky visibly flinched as I turned to look at him. “I just figured it would be harder to get to you guys if you were in the spotlight,” he said defensively.