41. Leona
LEONA
Ciel texted me an intercept course, and I ran it on my phone while Max drove. This software was the same program he used when we were tracking down Albanians in New Jersey a couple of months ago. He’d apparently made it himself, and so far it was outstanding.
The van we chased was a little, blinking red blip. Max and I were blinking blue, while the rest of the guys blinked purple. A line connected all three of our vehicles and continually shifted based on how the van moved. The closer it got to the city, the closer we were to catching it.
“The van took a sharp turn north,” Ciel said through our speakerphone. “It’s not going into Manhattan anymore.”
A second later, the course populated updates and started giving us new directions.
“Leona, zoom in on the van,” Max said, quickly glancing from my phone back to the road. His grip tightened on the steering wheel.
“Okay.” My fingers pinched and zoomed in on the screen. Max’s brow furrowed while he watched the van make a couple more turns.
“Zoom out a little more and go slightly east.”
I did as he asked, trying to show him the map while he kept up with the ever-changing directions the program fed us.
“I think I know where they’re going,” he said softly. His eyes flicked back down to the screen. The van made another turn. “Yeah, it has to be.”
“What is it?” Cas asked through the phone.
“They’re taking her to my house,” Max said. “I wonder if Greco is there now.”
I stared at the blinking red dot. My best friend was in that van. “You think Greco’s there?”
“Maybe. It’s a fair assumption,” he replied. “If they’re using it as a base, he might want to hold her there to use against us. If he’s not there, he could be on his way.”
My lips pressed together. The last time I was there, that house pissed me off. But the idea of Greco occupying it, for whatever extent or reason, made my desire to burn it to the ground even more extensive. And if he hoped to cage Chiara there?
“Well, at least we know where that is,” I said tightly. “Hear that, guys?”
“Affirmative,” Obi replied. “Ciel, monitor the trajectory.”
“Copy,” my hacker acknowledged.
“We know that house inside and out,” Max said to me, reaching over to squeeze my hand quickly. “Even if she makes it there, we’ll get her back.”
I pulled my new handgun from my thigh holster and double-checked the mechanics. My knives were secure. My hair was up. I was ready for a fight. And I would kill a thousand men to get my best friend back.
When we reached Max’s neighborhood, we ended the call with the guys.
Max drove through the streets slowly and carefully, so we didn’t draw attention to ourselves.
The plates of our cars were registered to dummy names and addresses, so even if Greco’s men were to spot us, they wouldn’t run any information from the cars.
All we could hope for was surprise, now, at least until the other guys showed up.
“They’re about ten minutes behind us,” I said. The purple dot still blipped, quickly closing in on our location.
“Do you want to wait that long?” Max found a parking spot down the street and five or six houses down. Close enough that we could see anyone who turned into the driveway, but far enough away that they wouldn’t see us easily.
“Not really,” I said. Tension rolled through my shoulders down to my fingertips. “What about you?”
“Ryu made me swear I’d keep you safe,” he said.
I glanced at him out of the side of my eye. “So that means…what, exactly?”
“It means I follow your lead,” he said. “Your call.”
My heart swelled. He didn’t know how much those words meant, and I didn’t have time to tell him. “Okay, then. We’re going.”
We quietly slipped out of our car and walked arm in arm down the street, like a couple just on an evening stroll, until we reached the privacy hedges that protected his property.
In all my years visiting here, staying here, almost living here, I knew the way through these hedges.
I knew the path from the street that cut between them, the right branches to push out of the way in order to make a hasty entrance or escape.
Neither of us needed to go straight through the front driveway, where Greco’s forces patrolled.
We were inside the property and crouching beside the bushes within two minutes.
“There,” I murmured. A white van turned into the driveway and slowly made its way toward the house. My heart raced inside my chest and my hands clenched where they were braced on my knees.
Max wordlessly put his hand on the small of my back while the two of us watched three of Greco’s men exit the house and meet the van. They opened the door and shouts met them. A female voice. It only took a second to recognize it as Chiara’s.
“Get your fucking hands off me!” she screamed when they reached inside.
I let out a little breath of relief at the fact that she was alive, but my blood boiled in my veins when they yanked her from the van and dragged her away. Her heels dug into the gravel, and she shouted over her shoulder. “Luca!”
“That’s the man who was supposed to keep her at the house,” Max whispered. “The guard who stayed with her.”
Greco’s men reached into the van and carried the limp body of a man out of it. I would have thought he was dead if it weren’t for his weak groan and slight struggle.
Chiara wrenched her arms free, and I stepped forward, but Max held me back. “Careful.”
My teeth gritted as Greco’s men struck Chiara. She shouted in pain, but struggled to get back to that man, Luca. If she cared about him that much, then we’d have to save him, too.
I pulled my gun free. “We can’t wait for the other guys, Max.”
Max pushed his hair out of his face. He hesitated, worry etched across his face. “If you get hurt…”
I let out a breath. “Here’s one thing you need to learn if you’re going to be part of this family. Keeping me safe doesn’t mean preventing me from doing things. It means supporting me while I do them. Do you understand?”
Max’s grey eyes locked on mine. A storm of emotion waited there, and his eyes twitched while what I said sank in. “I understand.”
“Good,” I said. “What’s the plan?”
“The guys can’t be very far from here,” he said. “But Chiara doesn’t have the time to wait. And, by the looks of it, neither does Luca.”
I nodded. My grip on my gun tightened. “You got my back?”
“Always. Let’s go.”
I snuck out of the bushes, and he followed right behind me. My eyes were locked on Chiara, who had now given up some of her struggle while the men tried to lead her inside. There were five of them. Two carrying Luca, one on each arm. Two with their hands on Chiara’s arms. One following her.
Greco wasn’t anywhere in sight.
I raised my gun and aimed at the lone man first. The sound of the bullet tore through the air, and the reaction was instant.
All four men dropped their captives. Luca slammed into the ground, and Chiara immediately rushed to his side.
Max yanked me behind a tree, just in time for a rush of bullets to slam into the wood.
Chips flew everywhere, and I ducked my head.
“You should have told me you were firing,” Max said, arms wrapped around me, with his back against the wood. “I would have followed you up.”
“You didn’t see the gun in my hand?”
“Think before you act, my love,” he said, peeking around the wood as soon as the barrage of bullets stopped.
I glanced at the branches above us in annoyance. “Act when I act.”
“Sure thing,” he said at the same time that he whipped his gun around and fired four bullets in quick succession. All the men dropped to the ground. My lips pursed, slightly annoyed that he’d killed them before I had. “All right. Let’s go.”
He walked out from behind the tree with a confidence that made me smile, but the feeling only lasted a second. Chiara was still hunched over the body of the man, Luca, and shouts were coming from inside the house. About twenty-five feet lay between us.
“Max, keep an eye on the house,” I ordered while I rushed over. “Chi.” She glanced up, eyes wide. Her hands shook with tremors. “We have to go.”
She nodded, clenching her hands together. “Help me grab him.”
“Max, help.” The time for questions like who the fuck is this guy would have to be later. Max holstered his pistol, grabbed Luca from his other side, and the three of us pulled him up.
“Chiara,” the man mumbled, head lolling.
“We’re okay,” Chiara answered. “You did well. We’re alive.” She looked at Max. “He did his job. He did what you said.”
Max blinked, looking between the two of them. “Okay. We’ll take care of him.”
“We’re too exposed here,” I said, looking around. The four of us stood in the driveway, and it was a decent walk back to our car on the street. The garage started rising. “Shit, we have to move.”
“Hey!” a voice shouted from inside. “Who the fuck are you?”
“Fuck,” Max said while pulling us back toward the van so we could hide behind it. I stumbled over my feet, barely stopping myself from falling face-first into the ground. “Come on.”
Five more men rushed out of the house and my heart jumped into my throat. The realization of the situation settled into my bones.
There was too much space between us and the van. The three of us were carrying Luca’s incapacitated body. If Max and I were going to shoot back, we had to drop him. Chiara couldn’t carry him by himself. She’d be left exposed, or Luca would be left behind.
We weren’t going to make it.
The sound of tires screeching drew my head backward.
The SUV tore into the driveway. Obi’s furious face shone through the windshield before it faltered for just a second when it locked on me.
The engine roared as it barreled down the driveway and immediately turned in front of us to block us from Greco’s men inside the house.
After a hail of bullets slammed into the car’s side, my guys instantly leapt out of the car and fired back. Obi gave concise orders, and they all followed with extreme precision.
“Come on,” I urged, pulling Max and Chiara to the back of the SUV.
We had to get Luca inside. We’d figure out the rest once the guys had dealt with the Camorra.
I heard more gunshots, men’s grunts of pain, but it had to be the Camorra men.
There was no way they’d be better than the Shadows.
My guys could handle the rest of our enemies.
Max pulled open the trunk, and he and I pushed Luca into the back. He flopped inside with a groan of pain, but his eyes didn’t open. It finally gave me a chance to give him a look. If he were in terrible shape, we’d have to call Willow or figure something else out.
I put a hand on Chiara’s shoulder. “What happened?”
She shifted from foot to foot. Her voice was flat and lifeless, like she were in shock.
“They attacked us at the house. I thought the car was your guys. I thought…I didn’t know what they looked like, but obviously it wasn’t you.
They grabbed me, grabbed my arms. Luca tried to defend me.
They just beat him up and then shoved us both into the van.
He woke up on the ride back, but they knocked him out again and threatened to kill him if I made any wrong moves. ”
“No gunshot wounds?” I tilted his head from side to side and checked for his pulse. The beat was steady. Max inspected the rest of his body, looking for bruising or wounds. Any indications of internal bleeding. “No other injuries?”
“They just hit him in the head.”
“I don’t see any blood.” The poor man had a goose egg on the back of his head, probably from a pistol or some other blunt object, but it wasn’t bleeding. “We can try to get him medical attention.”
“Okay, please,” Chiara said. She grabbed Luca’s hand and squeezed it. Her voice wobbled. “He was a good friend while we were there. He tried to protect me.”
I pulled her into a quick hug. “I’m sorry we weren’t there sooner.”
She squeezed me back tightly before we both heard the gravel crunch with multiple feet. I turned to see my men stalking forward, guns in hand. Obi reached me first. His hand threaded through my hair at my ear, and he tilted my head up to press a rough kiss to my lips.
“You should have waited for us,” he said sternly.
I shook my head. “We didn’t have time.”
He released a shaky breath before he turned to Chiara. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Chiara Tommaso. My name is Obi.”
Her eyes were wide. “Hi.”
After each of my guys gave me a hug or kiss to say hello, they introduced themselves. Cas gave Chiara a big hug. Chiara’s silly grin was wide when all my guys were done. She had at least stopped shaking and looked like she was coming back into her skin.
“Seriously? All of them?” she fake-whispered at me.
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, it’s a lot.”
“You love it,” Ryuji called over his shoulder while my guys figured out what to do about all these dead bodies.
“Unfortunately, I do,” I sighed. “What now?”
The house loomed behind us. Greco wasn’t here. Just ten of his men, whom we had slaughtered.
“Let’s burn it.” Max crossed his arms over his chest and stared at the house. His house. Where we’d grown up. Where his father and mother had lived. Where Cas and I had played. Where my father and his had run our empire.
“What?” I breathed. “It’s your home.”
He gave me a small smile. “It’s not. Not anymore.”
Unspoken words floated between us. A thousand feelings choked my throat.
“Okay,” I said. “Obi?”
Obi immediately gave more orders. “Take the bodies inside first. Ryu, see if you can find some fuel and a lighter or matches. Check the garage. We need to make sure it all burns.”
They made quick work of the entire scene, moving the bodies inside.
Max asked Cas to help him carry out boxes of my father’s paperwork that he’d had—the same boxes that he’d previously shown us when we worked together against the Albanians.
Then, Cas helped me and Max grab a couple of photo albums of our mothers, things neither of us wanted to leave behind, before Ryu and Wynn doused the rest of the house in lighter fluid.
They gave a lighter to Max. Together, we stood outside the front door.
“Ready?” I asked.
He flicked on the flame and tossed it inside the door. The flames immediately caught, spreading through the house with a viciousness that had heat licking my cheeks.
“Let’s go.” Max folded his hand into mine and turned around. “Oh, by the way, we need to make a quick stop at your house.”
“My house?”
Obi raised an eyebrow. “What for?”
Max smiled. “We need more of the boxes Luciano left behind.”