Page 48 of Arranged

We were out on the road, speeding away from our enemies. Maybe we should’ve stayed and fought them, but I doubted we had enough information and time to form a good plan.

“Rafael, who the fuck attacked us? And how?” I’d thought our compound was one of the safest places.

We should’ve seen our attackers coming.

Someone should’ve done something.

“Santino’s men.”

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!”

“I wish.” Rafael groaned. “We just got the info on where Santino might be hiding, based on what Jessica said. But we missed something.”

“Missed what?”

“She had a tracker under her skin. No one realized it until it was too late. They were already there.”

“And they had the whole night to plan the attack! Fuck!” I gritted my teeth. “But how come we didn’t see them coming?”

“He hired someone. Mercenaries, I guess. Someone who isn’t in our database. They could’ve flown in during the night and prepared for the attack.”

“Where the hell was the tracker? Is it still in her? We have her, right?”

“Under her skin on her back. It’s very small and almost undetectable. Our team is removing it right now. She’s being taken in a different direction and will be brought back to us when it’s done and it’s safe.”

“So she knew.”

“Not necessarily. It could’ve been put in while she was asleep. If she was drugged.”

“How many of them attacked us?”

Rafael took a look at his phone. “About twenty, but they managed to find our secret back exit. The one we didn’t monitor so it would stay secret. I don’t know how they figured it out.”

“We should’ve stayed then and taken them all out.”

“We did get most of them, but we had to get away in case more were coming, and we can’t use that place ever again since our enemy knows about it. Catching them wouldn’t do us any good either because they don’t know anything, maybe not even who hired them.”

“What about our people? Is everyone okay?”

“I don’t know yet, but we have about a dozen wounded because the attackers surprised them.”

“Because the back exit leads to the sleeping quarters,” I said.

“Yeah.”

“If Santino wants war, he’s going to get one.”

Luca’s fingers brushed mine, and I placed my hand over his. Maybe it was to comfort him, or it was me who needed comfort more.

I didn’t know, and it didn’t matter.

But I couldn’t imagine what I would’ve done if Luca had been left there, all alone and unprotected.

Once we got to our new hideout, Rafael waved at me from the foyer.

“Let me take care of your shoulder,” he said.

“No. It’s fine. Go check on the wounded.” There had to be people who needed help more than me.