“He ain’t movin’,” Gabe said. “I tried to wake him up and he didn’t move. We tried to pull him to his feet, but he just went down again like…dead weight. When I went to feel for a pulse I got nothin’.”
“It’s true,” Jeff nodded, his face ghost-white. “He’s dead. Oh, man, he’s dead, Dante.”
Dante turned back to Anna, whose eyes widened. This wasn’t good. “I’ll go check it out.”
She scooted off the bar stool. “I’m going with you.”
“No. You stay here.”
She shook her head and gripped his hand. “Don’t leave me in here by myself. Please.”
He blew out a breath, torn between wanting her to stay put, calling the cops and wishing none of this had happened. He should have just taken the goddamn trash out for her. Then it wouldn’t have happened at all. “I’ll have one of the guys stay with you.”
“I’ll hang in here with you, Anna,” Gabe said, moving next to her.
She shook her head, that stubborn chin of hers lifting as she squeezed Dante’s hand. “No. I need to see him.”
He sighed. “Okay. Stay right next to me.”
They walked outside. He tried to keep her away from the guy, who was still lying there right where they’d left him. Roman and Jeff were standing over him. They stepped aside when he and Gabe got there.
Dante turned to Gabe. “Stay with Anna while I check this out.”
Anna resisted, but Dante turned to her. “This is as close as I’m letting you get to him. Understand?”
She nodded, still shaking.
Gabe pulled Anna to his side. Dante went over to the guy and nudged him in the side with his shoe.
“Get up, asshole.”
Nothing. He kicked him harder this time.
“Come on, get up.”
He kneeled and put his fingers on the man’s neck, searching for a pulse. He couldn’t find one there, or on his wrist. God, he was a bloody mess and Dante didn’t want to do it, but he leaned down and laid his hand over the guy’s chest.
The body was warm. He was still warm. But there was no heartbeat, no pulse.
Dante looked up at his brothers. “He’s dead.”
“Shit. Sonofamotherfuckingbitch.” Jeff tore at his hair and started pacing back and forth. “Now what do we do, Dante? We killed him.”
Dante stood. “We go back into the shop and we call the cops.”
“No.”
Dante turned to Anna. “What?”
Anna shook her head, tears streaking down her face. The hysteria had gone, replaced by a calm awareness of exactly what to do. “You have to get out of here. All of you. Now.”
Dante went to her, put his hands on her shoulders. “Anna We killed this guy. We were protecting you. Besides, he came at us with a knife. It’s kind of self-defense.”
“I know that and you know that. But you all have juvie records. You know how it’ll look. You still beat him up and now he’s dead. You all have to get out of here. I’ll call my dad and he’ll take care of this.”
Dante shook his head. “No. I can’t let you do that. I’m not leaving you.”
“He’s right, Anna,” Gabe said. “We can stand up for this.”
“No, we can’t,” Jeff said, his hands balling into fists as he paced. “I don’t want to go to Juvie again. We got a nice family and I wanna stay there.”
“Me, too,” Roman said, sniffing back tears. “Let Anna call her dad and make this go away.”
“What are we, a bunch of pussies?” Dante stared them all down. “We did this. We can handle it.”
She took them in with her gaze, and knew she’d do anything to make sure they stayed safe.
Anna pulled Dante to face her again. “I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to you. To any of you. You saved my life. God only knows what that…guy…would have done to me if you hadn’t showed up.”
Tears fell down her cheeks. She didn’t bother trying to swipe them away.
Dante folded her against him. “Anna, it’s okay. You’re okay. We’ve been through worse.”
She pushed on his chest and shook her head. “No. I won’t let anything bad happen to you because of me. Please, just do this for me. Please.”
“Let’s go inside.” He wrapped his arms around her and led her back inside.
“What do you want to do about him?” Roman asked.
Dante looked over his shoulder at the dead guy. “I guess we leave him there for now.”
“What if somebody comes?” Roman asked.
“Not much we can do about it.”
Once inside the shop again, Dante checked Anna’s wound. The bleeding had stopped and all she felt was a raw throb she was determined to ignore. She wished she could ignore everything that happened. Concentrating on something other than herself would help. She wiped her face and hands, lifted her chin and stared them all down, determined they were going to see things her way.
“I want you all to go. Now. Hurry, before someone finds the body. I’m going to call my dad and we’ll figure out what to do.”
“That’s not right,” Dante said. “You shouldn’t have to deal with it.”
“I’ll have my dad. He’ll help. I’m not going to have you be charged when it was you all who saved me. Now go. Please.”
“She’s right,” Roman said. “You know what they’ll do to a group of juvies who beat a guy to death, even if he did attack a girl first. We could have just pulled the guy off her, held him and called the cops. We didn’t have to beat him up. We didn’t have to kill him.”
“Come on, Dante,” Jeff said. “We can’t handle any more on our records. We’ll lose the house, our family. I can’t do more time.”
Dante paced the shop. “It’s not right for this to come down on Anna. Hasn’t she been through enough?”
She stopped him, cupped his face with her hands. “You saved my life tonight, Dante. All of you. Let me do this for you.”
The pain in Dante’s eyes, the guilt she saw there, hurt her more than that jerk outside did. “He hurt you. We had to make him pay.”
Tears welled in her eyes. “I know. Now let me thank you the only way I can. Go on. I’ll handle this.”
Dante shook his head. “No, Anna.”
Roman gripped Dante’s shoulder. “She wants to do it. Let her.”
Anna grasped his hand. “I’ll call my dad right away. Dante, please.”
No way was she going to have him take the fall for this. She’d stand here all night if she had to and argue with him. But finally, he nodded and she exhaled.
“Fine. We’re outta here.” He pressed his lips to hers, soft and gentle. “Call your dad right now.”
“I will.”
“We’ll head out the back door. We’re going to move the…body…behind the Dumpster so no one sees him.”
“Okay. And I’ve got his knife.”
The other guys walked out the door. Dante stood there, his fingers wrapped like