62. Leona
LEONA
Fallon enveloped me in a tight hug while Badawi watched on. As she stepped back, she gave the Special Agent a nasty stink eye.
I poked her in the side. “She’s on my side. Be nice.”
“No, thanks. All cops are bastards,” Fallon quipped. “Let’s get out of here, Leona. It’s not safe.”
I gave Badawi a tight wave, and she nodded before slipping back into her car. She’d written a secure phone number on a scrap of paper, which was currently stuffed inside my bra.
When everything was ready, I’d call it. She’d be waiting.
Fallon’s ostentatious sports car beeped while she unlocked the doors. “I thought you were trying to stay under the radar.” I gestured to its bright orange exterior. “Really subtle.”
She gave me a wink while she slid into the driver’s seat. “It’s my fastest car, and I barely ever get to take it.”
“Where are the guys?” I asked while I sat inside the passenger seat and pulled the door shut.
“Finn’s tracking us,” she said, plugging her phone into a cord. Rock music started playing through the digital dashboard. “The rest of the guys are dealing with a little shipping problem.”
“Everything okay?”
She waved a hand. “Yeah, it’s fine. I’m more worried about you.” She pulled the car back onto the interstate and headed south. “What about your men?”
“I think they’re okay,” I said quietly. Evening was quickly approaching. If they weren’t already processed at the jail, they hopefully would be soon. Then the real fun would begin. “I really hope they are.”
Her hand squeezed mine. “They’re the Shadows. They’ll be all right.”
I gave her a small smile. “Head to Willow’s? I’ll fill everyone in on what happened when we get there.”
She nodded and pressed her foot harder on the gas.
Fallon pulled up in front of Willow’s house, and I was immediately hit with a nasty flashback.
The last time Cas and I had been here, I’d begged Willow to save him.
I’d cried over his bloody body, certain he was going to die and leave me here all alone.
I’d never been as close to losing him as I had been back then. Not even when Max had hurt him.
But this house was also where I’d decided to search out the Shadows.
It’s where I had decided that I’d fight for my future—and even though everything looked different now, I still felt that way.
I was going to fight for my future.
For all our futures.
When I shut the door to Fallon’s sports car, Zoya and Willow rushed out of the house. I met Willow’s outstretched arms with a hug.
“Hey, Willow.”
“I’m glad you made it,” she said with a thin-lipped smile when she pulled away. Her eyes darted across my face. “You’re not hurt?”
“No,” I answered before turning for Zoya’s hug. “How’s everything here?”
“Fine,” Zoya replied. “It’s been quiet, but we’re already hearing rumors of what happened in New York.”
She pulled out her phone and showed me a breaking news story. Arrests made in attempted assassination against Mayor Josephine Zambani.
I frowned as I scrolled through the article. It didn’t list any of my men by name except for Max. The story speculated on a possible FBI case and Max’s ties to organized crime, though a representative for the agency declined to comment.
“This is bullshit,” I said. “You guys know that, right? We were saving the mayor from a fucking car bomb. Greco framed us.”
“We know,” Zoya said, squeezing my shoulder. I handed her back her phone. “I know they hit my brother’s territory, too. Kolya is still in jail.”
“Don’t worry,” I said. “By the end of this, they’ll all be out.”
“Did anyone get hurt?” Willow asked.
“Ryuji got shot in the shoulder when we were fighting Greco’s mercenaries,” I said. “Someone else got shot, too, but I don’t know who. The police radio implied everyone was fine, but I’m having trouble believing it.”
“They’re tough,” Willow said while she let out a slow breath. She wrapped an arm around my shoulder and ushered me toward the house. “Well, let’s get everyone inside. We can talk there.”
Ten minutes later, we sat around the table in Willow’s kitchen. She’d made everyone a cup of tea, and I held the mug, letting it warm up my limbs.
“So what happened?” Zoya asked. “Was my brother there?”
I gave the Bratva princess a small shake of my head. “No, we didn’t have time to call in any of our allies. Our Italian soldiers, with our capo Giulio, were tied up, too. So it was just us.”
I filled them in on everything that had happened since the morning. The mayor’s press conference, how we intercepted the info about the mayor’s assassination, how we tried to stop it, how Badawi helped me escape and brought me to Pennsylvania.
“Now it’s up to me,” I said. “I let my men get captured because Obi and Max think I can get close to Greco.”
“How?” Fallon’s eyes went sharp. “Need any help?”
The plan was masterful, I’d give them that, but it would take a lot of things going right for me to pull it off. I just prayed that I didn’t fuck it all up and let my men down.
“Yes,” I said. “You are one of my strongest allies. I’m going to need as many men as you can spare to pull this off. But I have a feeling you’re not going to like it.”
Fallon took a drink. “Why is that? Does it involve infiltrating another secret sex den? I mean, I wouldn’t mind, but that would just be boring.”
I laughed while I stared into the mug of tea. “Nope. Been there, done that.”
Zoya reached over the table and put her palm over my hand. I looked up to see a kind expression on her face. “You look like you’re about to explode with anxiety.”
I exhaled with a small smile. “Yeah. I’m fucking nervous.”
“Of course you are,” Willow said. “That’s totally understandable.”
“You’re a badass bitch, Leona,” Fallon said. “Every single woman around this table knows it.”
“None of their faith in you is misplaced,” Zoya added. “Your men know you can handle this. I don’t know them very well, but it sounds like neither Obi nor Max would have let this happen unless they trusted you.”
I nodded. “I know they believe in me, but I just can’t shake the feeling that something is going to go wrong and I won’t know what to do about it.”
Zoya shook her head. “That is not the attitude of the woman who put my brother in his place.”
“What do you mean?”
She wrapped some of her blonde hair around her finger while she leaned back in her chair.
“You sat in my Kostya’s living room and argued with him, telling him off to his face.
You fought back against human traffickers.
” Her finger touched her cheek, a mirror of where my scar lived on mine.
“You don’t shy away from hard work or struggle, Leona.
You face it head on, you figure it out, and you fucking win. ”
“I don’t know if I can do this without them, though,” I explained. My knee bounced under the table, and with a frustrated huff, I folded my legs beneath me in the chair. “Through all of that, I had my men by my side.”
Fallon snorted. “You think we need our men to make us strong? Fuck that. I’m a fucking badass because of who I am. My men support me, and they’ve sure as hell helped me grow, but I own Philadelphia because of me. Not them. The same is true for you.”
She was so right. I had fought tooth and nail to get here, and so had my men. Even if something went wrong, I was smart. I was fucking capable.
Willow leaned forward. “Be the strong woman you are, and the pieces will fall into place.”
The corner of my mouth pulled up. “You’re right.”
My men strengthened me, but I could stand on my own. Obi knew that. My men knew that. But Greco didn’t. And that would be his downfall. I’d make it his downfall.
“Okay,” I said, back straightening. “I can do this.”
Zoya grinned. “So, what’s the plan?”
Obi and Max thought Greco would believe I’d run from the city because I was scared.
They wanted me to play into that. At the same time, Greco wouldn’t leave New York now that he thought he had it.
I had to get back there so that I could lull him into a false sense of security and set him up for Badawi.
We had allies at our disposal, and we weren’t alone.
Makarov and the Bratva. Fallon and her men. Rossi. Chiara. Giulio and our mafia soldiers. Anton Felix and reinforcements.
“Get as many men as you can spare,” I said to Fallon. “Zoya, we need to get your brother’s help, too. For our plan to work, it’s basically a numbers game. That will be your job. For me? I need to sneak back into the city, and then I need to get caught.”
“How are you going to get in?” Fallon asked. “I could just drive us back in my sports car.”
I grinned. “I know exactly who to call.”