Page 213 of Caught in the Crossfire

He nodded.

“When!” I practically shouted, jumping to my feet and launching myself into his arms. “Where?”

He laughed while spinning me around. “Somewhere safe. Somewhere we can be secure.”

“State-of-the-art security,” Ciel said, mouth stretching into a smile. His eyes went wide as he took a faraway gaze. “A brand new overhaul of our systems. I can finally make the upgrades I’ve been wanting. Oh, this is going to be so fun. What about guard dogs?”

“Guard dogs?” Cas perked up.

Ryu almost squeaked. “Fuck yeah.”

I pressed a kiss onto Obi’s lips. “Thank you. I can’t wait to see it.”

“We can go look at it tomorrow after the interview,” he said. “Our treat for dealing with them successfully.”

Now, that sounded like a plan. Suddenly, I was excited about tomorrow instead of anxious. A new home. For ourfamily. My throat was getting choked up just thinking about it.

“Does it have?—”

Something pounded on the front door.

The sound reverberated through the hallway. All our heads whipped toward it. Obi immediately held his arm out to shield me like someone was about to burst into our home.

But nothing.

Then, another knock. Weaker this time.

“I’ll get it,” Cas said, pulling his guns from the holster around his shoulders. We all followed him, arming ourselves along the way.

Ciel typed away on his phone, tapping into the security feeds. His head snapped up.

“What is it?” I asked, my heart racing.

“It’s Max,” Ciel said quickly.

“No fucking alarm?” Ryu demanded. “Where’s the perimeter breach?”

“I added him to our safe list earlier—” Ciel said just as Cas whipped open the door. His guns pointed directly at Max’s chest. We all froze.

“Max,” I breathed. What was he doing here?

Then I took in the state of him. A fury began building inside my chest.

“I need—” he choked out. He coughed violently, eyes squeezing shut while he swayed on his feet. “I need help. Please.”

His face was bloodied and beaten; one eye was completely swollen shut. He pressed a hand against a wound on his ribs that oozed blood, staining his white shirt. Another matching wound dripped from the shoulder of his opposite arm. He wheezed, stumbling. Cas immediately reached out to grab hold of him, but it was too late. He collapsed against the doorframe and slid to the ground.

I thought I might be sick. This had to be another one of my nightmares.

“Leona…” he murmured.

It wasn’t a nightmare. Max was on my doorstep, beaten and bruised, asking for help. I sank to my knees beside him, and Cas followed right behind me. Cas, too, was struggling to process this—to understand how this had happened. His face betrayed his concern and anger, as I knew mine did, too.

Max was the strongest person I knew outside of my men.Someonehad done this to him.Someonehad almost killed him. And it wasn’t us.

“I’ll call Willow,” Wynn said.

My men moved into action behind us, but the fury growing within me hollowed out the sound. It was hot as molten lava, heavy as metal. It was choking and blinding, like pyroclastic ash burning me up from the inside out.

“Who did this to you?” I curled my hands around his. His pulse was weak, his breaths shallow.

Nothing else mattered except the answer to that question.

His hand gripped mine weakly. Cas reached out to steady him, but he’d looked like he would pass out any second.

A sudden, deafening blare of the perimeter breach alarm sounded all around us.

“They’re coming.”

To be continued…