Page 102 of Caught in the Crossfire

“Push me and find out,” he said calmly. Shivers trickled down my spine, but I couldn’t tell if it was because I was scared or turned on…most likely both.

What would punishments from Obi be like? A blush crawled through my cheeks.

“I think we all know that’s going to happen eventually, andwhen it does, I want to watch.” Ryu sat up straight with that stupid grin still plastered on his face.

I flipped him off.

Obi’s palm found my thigh, squeezing gently. “Felix is loyal to you. He respects you, and it’s clear he’ll be an effective member of our syndicate. He’ll make us millions, and he’ll sing your name the whole time. That is far more than we ever could have hoped for with Kofler. However, at no point will I ever allow him to be alone with you. That is final.”

I swallowed and nodded. I didn’t think beingalonewas on the table, but the warning—and promise—was clear.

“Say you understand,” Obi commanded.

I gulped. “I understand.”

His palm squeezed my thigh, his pinky moving up higher to brush against my core. “Good.”

The air became charged as he and I stared at each other. This was not the first time he and I had danced around a power struggle. But this was different. His touch had heat coiling through my core like a spring. His fingers trailed up my thigh, and my mouth parted to suck in a breath when he touched me. Even on the outside of my leggings, he had full control over me, over my body, and he knew it.

Maybe I wouldn’t mind Obi’s punishment.

Maybe I wanted to find out what he’d do.

Maybe letting go of control sounded like exactly what I needed.

I opened my mouth to push the matter when an alarm blared through the penthouse.

I jumped, the tension immediately forgotten, while my men leapt into action. Ciel picked up his phone and began typing. Ryu had two knives in his hand; Cas pulled a gun from his ankle. Obi pressed me against his chest, while Wynn bolted to depress a switch on the wall next to the sink. Metal shutters began closing over the windows. It all happened within seconds.

“Perimeter breach,” Ciel said. The sound almost immediately cut out, but Ciel still had his head down on his phone.

“Cameras, Ciel,” Obi said. Once the shutters were completely down, Obi let go of my body and turned on the TV in the living room. The screen populated instantly with dozens of camera feeds that showed all angles of the building where we lived.

He flipped through them one by one until he got to the camera pointed at the penthouse’s front door.

A black vase sat on the doorstep, filled with a dozen red roses and a stark white envelope tucked in between their petals.

The blood in my veins went ice cold.

A red rose every year for my birthday. The last rose I received was on my twenty-first birthday, the day my father died. Then, another bouquet was left in the ashes of the burned-down Irish safe house when Max had captured Cas.

Cas and I locked eyes.

“Max knows where we live.”

34

OBI

When Ciel confirmed no nefarious people waited to murder or maim us, we retrieved the flowers. A simple delivery man wearing all black and a black cap had dropped them off. The man wasn’t Volpe, and the face didn’t ping any facial recognition software, so he was most likely a just delivery man.

I looked through the vase, through each flower and every piece of Volpe’s delivery before I felt confident that this was not a trap of any sort.

They were just flowers.

Just a letter.

Leona stared at them, white as a sheet. I kissed her forehead, drawing her gaze away from the vase. “Let’s get rid of them.”