Cassandra
Dominic flings me into the stairwell. After a peek through the rectangular glass window, he leads me down the stairs.
“They aren’t after us yet,” he says as we pass the next floor.
“Where are we going?” I ask, trying to keep up in my heels. These shoes weren’t meant for fleeing a massacre.
“The honeymoon suite is a few floors down. I have the key card in my pocket. I’m a fucking idiot and didn’t bring my master card for the entire hotel.” Dominic stops at a landing and flattens us against a wall. “I’m going out first. If something happens to me, you keep running.”
My mouth drops open as understanding dawns.
If he gets shot, I’m supposed to leave him to die. I scowl and raise my gun, holding it to my chest, ready to aim if needed.
He glares at me but doesn’t repeat his command. With a quick kiss to my lips, he turns and inches the door open.
I hold my breath as he steps into the hallway, scanning the length, weapon drawn.
Nothing happens, and from what I can see, the space is empty.
“Follow me,” he says, pushing through the door.
Hugging the wall, we run down the hallway to a room across from the elevator bank.
With his gun trained on the elevators, Dominic pulls a key card from his pocket and holds it against the reader.
The door clicks open, and he pushes me forward, rushing in behind me and slamming the door shut.
He engages the safety lock before checking the peephole.
“I think we’re okay, for now,” he says, placing his gun in his waist holster, then shrugging out of his jacket.
My chest rises in rapid succession as I work to catch my breath and process the danger we’re in . . . again.
I look around the spacious suite. It’s done in gold and green, with cream accents. There’s a wet bar with an ivory counter in the corner. Through the mirrored back, I catch our reflection.
My once perfectly coiffed hair has loosened. Wispy pieces break free, sticking out from under my crooked tiara. I glance down at my dress and grimace when I spot a tear near the hem where I must have stepped on the lace.
Dominic paces, hand running through his hair, leaving it in disarray. He fights with his bowtie and throws it to the ground.
With no better ideas, I trek to the bar and place my gun on the counter. The metal makes a deafening clink as it hits the granite, breaking the silence.
“Shit!” Dominic shouts and slams his fist against the wall. “Any other day, any other fucking day, they could have done this.”
“Dominic,” I soothe.
“Cassandra, I’m sorry.” His face falls as he strides my direction. He places his hands on the countertop, trapping me between his arms. “I’m so sorry I ruined your wedding day. You don’t deserve this.”
I place my hands on his cheeks, begging him to stop.
“Dominic, this isn’t your fault. Look at me.
” His eyes, weary with self-deprecation, meet mine.
“Anatoliy Kozlova and Esteban Perez were going to come after us at some point. What makes more sense than at our wedding, where they know all the top Romano-Tariello leaders will be, along with our allies?”
He shakes his head, rubbing the shaved skin across my palms. “I should have protected you better. I should have seen this coming.”
“Kozlova and Perez have organizations that are nearly as advanced as ours. I doubt you, Marco, Leo, and Lucas messed up on security. Something didn’t fall into place the way you expected it to, and our enemies were watching like hawks, waiting for their chance. They found it.”
He sighs and pushes away to walk behind the bar.
Fishing around in the cabinets underneath, he finds a wine cooler and pulls out a chilled bottle of champagne. “To the happy couple?” he snarks, holding it up.
I quirk a brow but retrieve champagne flutes.
I wait patiently as he pops the cork and pours the bubbly wine into the glasses.
“To Mr. and Mrs. Tariello,” he says, lifting his glass.
I tap mine against his, and then he drains the flute in one go. I sip on mine.
“So, what now?” I ask as he pours another drink.
“I don’t fucking know.” He scrubs a hand over his face and places it on the counter. “I guess I should check in with Leo? Let him know we made it to safety—at least for now.”
He pulls his phone from his pocket and turns it on, since it was powered off for the ceremony.
The device instantly starts buzzing with alerts. Dominic opens his texts and scans them.
“Shit. Half of the team thinks we’re dead. But Leo saw us come in here on surveillance video. He made it to the security hub.” Dominic snorts. “And your father is getting very creative in the ways he plans to kill me.”
“He’s okay?” I rush to Dominic’s side to peer over his shoulder.
“I don’t know.” Dominic’s thumbs fly over the keyboard. “In his last text, he knew no one could get a hold of us, but he doesn’t seem to know where we are.”
“When was that?”
“Three minutes ago.”
We share a glance. If my father was texting a few minutes ago, it probably means that our men won the battle in the ballroom.
“I’m calling Leo.” Dominic puts the call on speaker and places the phone between us. We wait through two rings before Leo answers with a tone more serious than I’ve ever heard from him.
“Dominic.”
“What’s going on?” Dominic leans his forearms on the counter, clasping his hands together.
“It’s not good,” Leo warns. The sound of chaos emanates from the background. “They hacked into our security feed. Figured out how to shut us down.”
“Do they know where Cassandra and I are?” Dominic stands straight with his gun out of its holster immediately.
“I don’t think—”
Leo doesn’t finish his sentence before a succession of three loud raps comes from the door to the suite.
“Fuck!” Dominic twists, aiming his weapon in that direction. “Cassandra, get behind the bar.”
For once, I listen, but not before grabbing my gun off the counter. I get down on my knees and stay just high enough to aim over the counter.
Another three raps.
“Leo, I’m going to need backup,” Dominic hisses.
“God damn it, Dominic. Open the fucking door!” I recognize the voice calling from the hallway. Dominic and I raise our brows, sharing a look before he inches toward the peephole.
Neither of us listens to Leo spewing information in the background.
“Nico,” Dominic calls with one hand on the deadbolt. “Is anyone else with you?”
“Not right now. But if you don’t open the door, I’m pretty sure some fucking Bratva or cartel assholes are going to find me, and subsequently you.”
As Leo continues his play-by-play of everything they’re trying to do to get the surveillance system up and running, Dominic opens the door.
I sigh in relief when Nico rushes in and locks the door behind him.
“Holy fuck. Thank God you guys made it.”
“What happened upstairs?” I rush to his side, grabbing his shirt sleeve before realizing it’s covered in blood. “Oh, my God! Are you hurt?” I start inspecting every inch of Nico that I can see.
“I got grazed.” He grunts. “I’ll be fine.”
I gasp when I locate the source of the bleeding. “Nico, this looks bad.” Blood still leaks from the wound on his bicep onto his crisp button-down. “You need stitches.”
He laughs. “We’ve got bigger problems at the moment.”
“Dominic,” Leo snaps. “Are you listening at all?”
“Yes.” Dominic holsters his gun and leans against the counter. “All I’m getting is that right now, we have no surveillance abilities in my hotel, the property is swarming with enemies, and my wife, her family, and my family are trapped inside.”
Leo sighs. “We’re working on it. Victor got his hackers to jump in from LA. They’ve proved useful before.”
“Can someone please tell me what happened upstairs?” I beg.
The men fall silent until Leo says, “Nico, I think this is your realm.”
Nico looks to Dominic, who waves his hand in a what the hell are you waiting for gesture.
Nico unbuttons the top few buttons of his shirt.
“The Bratva and cartel fuckers got in right as you two disappeared into the stairwell.
The guys we had set up as a first line of defense took the hardest hit.
We lost four. Three more are on their way to the hospital. Leo, get ready to spin some PR on that.
“The good news is that the attackers weren’t expecting Cortez and his crew, or our friends from Boston and New York. Our allies set up a sneak attack, coming in from the sides to blindside them. Only two men locked in on the Romano-Tariello crew at the altar.”
“Did anyone other than you get hit?” My voice cracks with the lump that forms in my throat. I think of my father, who stayed to fight for us. I could never live with myself if something happened to him because of me.
“Marco had a shell casing jump up and bite him in the ass. He’s being a big fucking baby about it, too. Jonathon had to smack him around a little bit and tell him to suck it up.”
“My dad is okay?” I gasp, stepping closer.
“He’s more than okay,” Nico says. “He shot the guy who did this to me.” He gestures to his injured arm. “I like your dad. He’s a stand-up guy. Even for a cop.”
“Dominic, Nico, and Cassandra,” Leo barks through the phone.
“We need a plan. Our communication is cut. We have half our crew, including Vincent and Lucas, guarding the guests in the ballroom. Jonathon and Marco are on a witch hunt to find out where the enemy is staged. The only way we can communicate is by phone call because I’m fairly confident Kozlova and Perez possess enough technology to access our texts. ”
“And not our calls?” Nico asks dubiously.
“We scramble the signal of syndicate phones,” Leo explains. “It should make it a lot harder for them to access the calls.”
“Regardless, we need to dispense information on an as-needed basis,” Dominic orders. “For now, the three of us will stay put. Leo, as soon as you have the surveillance system running again, or have information we need to know, call me.”
“Okay.” Leo pauses. “Stay safe, don’t try to be a hero. That goes for all three of you.”
“Yes, Dad.” Nico rolls his eyes.
Dominic scowls and hangs up the phone.
“And now,” he says, grabbing the champagne bottle and crossing to a set of plush ivory couches. “We wait.”