Page 204 of Caught in the Crossfire

He pressed in closer, caging me against the bed. I didn’t have any other option but to fall backwards onto it. The director leaned over me, dragging his nose up my neck. My fingers traced the outline of my knife on top of my dress. When his hands pushed between my thighs, I couldn’t help it anymore. I palmed the hilt of my knife and pushed him back, using my bodyweight to flip us over so I was on top. I had the knife at his throat within a second.

“Don’t touch me,” I hissed.

His eyes were just now going glassy. He swallowed and blinked multiple times. “What’s happening? I didn’t order this kind of play.”

I snorted, digging the point of my knife into his throat. “You didn’t order this at all. Now, listen to me carefully. If you make a sound louder than a whisper, I’ll cut your tongue from your throat. If you move, I’ll kill you. Do you understand?”

He nodded, but the sedative was already working. His eyes rolled back into his head. Only when I was certain that he was out did I hop off the bed and rifle through the drawers of the end table. There, exactly as Ximena said, was a long length of black rope. I pulled it free and tied the director’s hands together, then his feet, and then tied both together. He wasn’t moving, and my guys would get him soon.

I grabbed my knife and headed straight for the door. I had to find Arion Vokshi.

My head peeked out into the hallway. I made a beeline for the room across the hall first, Room 1, because maybe he and the director had just switched rooms by accident. When I opened it, there he was.

Arion Vokshi.

Locked in a struggle with Ludmila.

He had her on top of the bed, and she was fighting him, using her nails to scratch at his face while she tried to keep his hands out of her dress. He laughed caustically, spitting Albanian in her face, which she returned.

I launched myself across the room and jumped onto his back, plunging my knife into his shoulder blade. We needed him alive to bargain with the Camorra, but I needed to get him off her. He reared back with a roar, knocking me off. I fell to the floor and banged my hip while he glared down at me, then back to Ludmila, then back to me. I pulled my Hellcat from my thigh holster and aimed it at his chest.

“Get the fuck away from her,” I said. His pants were unbuttoned, and his shirt was torn. His hand went to his hip, obviously looking for a gun, only to come up empty. His eyes flicked over my shoulder to the table in the corner, but my body was blocking his access. Ludmila scrambled off the bed and darted for the gun. With the two of us against him, he decided the better choice was to bolt.

He leapt off the bed and headed for the hallway.

“Stay here!” I shouted to Ludmila as I followed him. “Check the other girls!”

Vokshi sprinted down the hall, shouting in Albanian. I kept my gun on him, taking two stairs up the staircase right behind him. I didn’t have a clear shot, and I didn’t want to kill him, or else I would have fired my entire clip at his back.

“Stop fucking running!” I screamed as he dashed through the nightclub. I dodged around countless regular customers dancing on the dance floor, waitresses, and guards. They split like the RedSea while we both sprinted across the room and toward the back entrance where Justin had escorted us inside.

Instead of turning right, toward the employee break room and the door where we’d come in, Vokshi turned left. I was ten steps behind him when he pushed through an emergency exit door. I caught a glance of an evil snicker on his face, like he was taunting me—before he ran straight into a body with anoomph!

I stuttered to a stop, my eyes locking with Max. He was armed to the teeth, dressed in head to toe black combat gear, holding an assault rifle. He reacted instantly, dropping his gun to grab Arion’s shirt with both hands. He slammed Arion to the ground, punching him in the face over and over. Arion fought back, trying yet failing to get a few of his own punches in, but Max dominated him completely. It was no competition. My mouth went dry while I watched Max beat the ever-living shit out of him.

“Max!” I shouted, trying to get his attention. “We need him alive!”

Max paused, holding back his last punch. He switched gears immediately, climbing off Vokshi to yank him to his knees instead. Max held his hands behind his back while he wrapped a length of rope around his wrists. Vokshi wobbled, face already bruised and swelling. His single open eye locked on me.

“I recognize you,” he said, before spitting blood onto the concrete ground right outside the door.

I froze. It was just the three of us here: Max, Vokshi, and me. You could hear a pin drop between us all.

“What did you say?” Max breathed.

“I recognize this bitch,” Vokshi wheezed through broken teeth. I could barely understand his English, and I wished I hadn’t. “We have your pictures everywhere. So many people wanted to buy you, myself included.” He cackled. Blood coated his mouth. “You should have seen the men at our castle. Every single one of them got a copy. An Italian mafia princess? Oh, wewere all tugging it that night. Even my father wanted to fuck you and break you.”

My stomach turned, and my chest quaked. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to block it out, and to remain in control of my emotions. Not so I wouldn’t have a panic attack, but so I wouldn’t kill this fucker right here and now.

A gunshot ripped through the air. Vokshi slumped to the ground without another sound, eyes wide in death.

Max stood over him, gun at his side.

“Max,” I whispered while I stared at Vokshi’s body. “What have you done?”

The Camorra wanted that kill. The Camorra were on their way here, right now, expecting Max to deliver this man to them alive. We weren’t strong enough to keep them out of New York. It wasours, and they were going to take it. I couldn’t let them hurt my men.

“Leona, look at me.”