Page 81 of Blood in the Water

It couldn’t be a coincidence this was happening on one of the corners where Ciel had no vision—no functional street cams for two blocks.

Volpe had to be aware of what was happening under his watch. The mafia controlledeverythingwithin their borders. We had been lucky to fly under the radar this evening, and we’d only seen a few groups of men roaming the streets with barely concealed weapons under their jackets. How could henotknow? How could he allow it to happen?

Even if these men weren’t directly connected to the mafia, initiated into its ranks as full members of the Family, they still needed permission to operate here.

“Wynn?” Leona asked as I let my motorcycle idle.

My grip twisted on the handlebars again. I had already decided that I would intervene. But Leona still had her arms around my waist, with only a handgun and one extra clip ofammo. We hadn’t planned on any extended skirmishes, instead prioritizing the storage of the cameras. If we ran into any trouble, we had agreed to run.

I couldn’t run from this. But I couldn’t put her in danger either.

“I’m taking you home.” I peeled out in the opposite direction of the parked van in the alleyway. Hopefully, they hadn’t seen us watching and would stay there long enough for me to drop Leona back at the penthouse and return to take care of business.

“What? Aren’t you going to save them?” She gripped me tightly as I took a corner a little too fast. The penthouse was only about fifteen minutes away. I could drop her off, grab more weapons, and return here within thirty-five minutes.

“I am,” I responded. “But you’re not coming with me for this. Ciel, keep your eyes on that corner for me, please. I need to know if those girls leave or if the van watching them moves.”

“Got it,” he crackled in my ear.

“I want to help,” Leona said. “This is supposed to bemyterritory. It’s my right to fuck them up. I owe it to those women.”

My heart went soft, some light creeping back into its shadowed crevices. “I know you want to help, darling,” I said as I reached back to squeeze her leg. “But I can’t risk it. Go home and monitor the camera feeds with Ciel. Two pairs of eyes tracking patterns are better than one.”

She said nothing for the rest of the drive home until we pulled into the parking garage. It was well after midnight, and the music from Ryuji’s club was already thumping through the lower floors of the building. Was he there now? Or had he already returned home?

“What’s that sound?” Leona asked as she pulled off her helmet, rested it on her hip, and followed me into the glass elevator.

“Ryuji’s nightclub, Club Dragon,” I responded as I punched the button. “It’s the second floor of the building.”

She whistled. “Damn. I’ve heard that club is awesome, but I’ve never been.”

The elevator pinged on the lobby and opened wide, but no one was there. Across the hall, two small groups of drunk men stumbled around, shouting at one another. The doors began to close, and one of the men yelled at us to hold the door, but I jammed my thumb against the close button instead.

We did not need an elevator full of drunks on the verge of a fight. They could take the stairs if they were going up a floor to Ryuji’s club or down to the parking lot.

Leona’s eyes were wide, a surprised look plastered across her face.

“Everything okay?”

She nodded. “Some of those men were shouting in Italian. They were telling the other group to watch their backs.”

The elevator whizzed up the floors again, and I pulled out my phone, texting Ciel for an update on the camera trained on those poor women. “Oh. Ryuji’s club is a neutral zone for those in the criminal underworld. As long as no fighting happens on the property, anyone can access its amenities. Probably why they were in the lobby instead.”

The door dinged as we reached our floors, and I keyed in my code, opening the door for Leona first.

Ciel met us at the door with a black duffle bag packed to the brim. “Here,” he said as he shoved it in my hands. “One girl got a customer. The other was still there as of twenty seconds ago. Hurry.”

I grabbed the bag, slung it across my back, and gave Leona a quick kiss on the cheek. “I’ll be back later.”

“I owe you,” she said, watching me head out the door. “For cleaning up my territory. I won’t forget it.”

I nodded as I closed the door behind me, ensured the locks engaged, and headed back down to the parking lot while shooting off a text to Willow to prepare a crew of her own for extraction.

I had blood to spill tonight.

31

LEONA