26. Max
MAX
He fucking played us.
The casinos were my blind spot, and he went after them. I made a calculated risk, assuming he’d focus elsewhere, but he outplayed me. This was personal. It wasn’t just about the city. It wasn’t just about Luciano or Leona.
In his eyes, I had betrayed him and the Camorra—and he was going to make me pay for it with my blood or hers.
The beat cops had arrested us, but the agents took Leona away in the back of a black SUV.
They took us to a station in Midtown, but after an hour, they turned us out onto the street and let us go.
The lawyer, Achebe, had worked his magic, and somehow we were free.
Maybe he paid a massive amount in bribe money; maybe they were letting us go now so they could come after us again later. Right now, I didn’t fucking care.
I just wanted her back.
Somehow, we’d made it from the police station to the FBI building, where we waited across the street.
Everything else had been a blur. If it weren’t for Cas pulling me along with them, I probably would have walked away right then and there.
Disappeared back into the darkness where I belonged. Alone.
“This is your fault,” Ryuji hissed. He crowded close, his eyes flashing with rage. But I could see the fear behind them, the worry for Leona.
I opened my mouth to argue, but I had no rebuttal. He was right.
“It’s not his fault,” Cas interjected, hand on Ryuji’s shoulder. “He didn’t plan this.”
“Why are you defending him?” Ryuji whirled on him. “He’s the one who wanted to go to the casino. It was his idea! For all we know, he could be working with Greco to pick us off one by one.”
“I’m not working with him,” I snapped. “He’s trying to kill me.”
“We should have let him!” Ryuji shouted, pulling a knife. He pointed it at me, the tip glinting in the streetlights.
I stepped forward, daring him to shove the blade into my chest like he wanted.
“Get your—your fucking shit together,” Ciel said, coming between us and shoving us both back. He’d been typing on his tablet since we got here. At least the cops didn’t take our shit before they let us go. “Stop. You both know she wouldn’t want us to fight.”
Obi stared at the building, his phone in his hand, as unmoving as a statue.
With his dark fatigues and the weapons at his hip, he looked imposing, but it was the fury radiating from him that made him dangerous.
I didn’t know him well, but I would have bet anything that he was calculating the best way to break into the agency office if we needed to.
The fucking FBI.
All of this was my fault.
“Ciel is right,” Wynn said calmly, next to Obi. “No one could have predicted Greco would tip off the FBI, or whatever it was he did.”
“No one had to predict it was the FBI. We just had to realize that Greco could outsmart all of us,” Ryuji said, giving a sideways glance to Obi. Obi’s fists tightened at his sides, but he didn’t turn around. “We should just find a way to walk up to him and shoot him in the face.”
Obi and I had already spent hours debating this and trying to understand a way in, but I actually agreed with their leader. Assassinating him wasn’t the right choice.
“It would never work,” I responded, raking my hand through my hair while my breath caught in my throat. “You could never get close to him. He’s constantly surrounded by security. Everywhere he goes, he’s protected.”
“We’re the motherfucking Shadows,” he shot back. “If we can’t fucking assassinate someone, what the fuck are we doing? I can set up my .50 cal and shoot him from a thousand yards away. We just need an opening.”
“Exactly. An opening that does not exist,” Obi bit out. “Calm yourself, Ryu. Our focus right now is to get Leona back to us.”
“Yeah, speaking of which, what the fuck is taking so long?” Cas grumbled.
“Samuel is doing his job,” Obi said. “Let him. They can’t hold her for long.”
“You have no idea what they can and can’t do.
” Who could I contact about this? My mind rifled through the business contacts I had, both from the illegal and legal sides of my life, but I kept coming up empty.
None of the dirty cops I knew would have enough sway with a federal agency to get her out.
“Waiting out here is ridiculous. What else can we do? We can’t just fucking stand here. ”
“We’re all worried about her, Max.” Ciel looked up from his tablet, his blue eyes piercing. “We’re the ones who love her.”
Not you, he left unsaid.
“I…I do—I don’t—” I stuttered before I stopped and turned away, my heart caught in my throat. I couldn’t respond to that.
I had no right to feel like my heart had been carved from my chest, and I was frantic to get it back. That was their right, not mine.
“And what happens if he can’t?” Cas asked. “Then what?”
“Then we break in and take her,” Obi said. “Ciel is already pulling the blueprints just in case.”
Ciel typed away, not even looking up. Wynn, Obi, and Cas looked over his shoulder, and he started pointing at the screen while they talked in hushed tones.
They really would break in there for her.
“We’ll fucking get her back,” Ryuji said. “We always do.”
Ryuji was right, and I knew the rest of them were thinking it too—probably even Cas.
She was only involved in this mess because of me.
It was my fault, and that was what had me so fucking anxious.
Luciano had planned to take me and all the other Heads out in one fell swoop.
He’d probably given them mountains of evidence against me, testimony that spoke to the work I did for the Family.
My gut twisted because the chances were high that now the FBI had mountains of evidence against her, too.
This is exactly what I’d been trying to avoid.
I should have sent her away before I killed her father. I should have done all that I could to keep her out of this mess, away from me. I was dangerous. If I went down, which was looking to be more and more inevitable as the days progressed, the FBI would make sure she went down with me.
I stared up at the building, shrouded in darkness, wishing I could push my way inside.
Fuck. This was torture.
Was this how they all felt when she and I were trapped on that ship?
What kind of relief did they feel when she was back in their arms? I couldn’t wait to feel it, too. I wanted to feel it.
I wanted her in my arms.
The taste I had of her was burning me up from the inside out. I couldn’t stop thinking about her mouth on mine. Her body under my hands. Her fingers in my hair. The feel of her racing heart against mine.
And then all of it…gone.
Leaving me cavernous. Aching from the inside out. More than ever before.
I was dead, but she brought me back to life.
And now I was burning.
Obi put his phone to his ear, and we all froze. His breath gusted from his chest. “They’re on their way out.”
I stiffened, my eyes locked on the building. Quickly, the six of us jogged across the street and dashed through the courtyard to the entrance on Worth St. Obi said Samuel and Leona would exit from the main doors.
Even though it was well into the night, the building seemed relatively busy.
Small groups of people walked through the courtyard, entered and exited the building, or walked down the sidewalks.
Some gave us a dark side eye, likely able to tell that we weren’t good people.
Others ignored us completely, like standard New Yorkers. Most knew to mind their own business.
I caught sight of her just before Samuel Achebe pushed the doors open and held them for her.
Her hair, no longer in its ponytail, cascaded over her shoulders like a beacon of flame, illuminated by the building’s fluorescent lights behind her.
She smiled when she caught sight of her men and raised a hand to wave.
We were a dozen footsteps away when a car peeled down the street, tires screeching, mounting the curb. Time slowed. I saw it before they did. Three men inside the car held automatic weapons out of the windows.
I pulled my weapon, but it wasn’t fast enough. I was going to be too late.
“Leona!” I yelled.
The lawyer’s head snapped to the side, and his eyes widened as he realized what was happening.
The men in the car began shooting. The sound was deafening, shaking through my ribcage like an earthquake.
The bullets whizzed around us on all sides.
The lawyer pushed Leona to the ground. Cas lunged, covering her body with his.
Ciel and Wynn returned fire. Ryuji stood defiantly.
I pushed him to the ground just before the wave of gunfire crossed over us.
In two more breaths, it was quiet.
Everything happened so fucking fast.
Screams erupted throughout the entire square. People were running and hiding. The car disappeared around the corner.
But all I could see was the blood splattering the ground.