Page 32 of Caught in the Crossfire

“Alive.”

She let out a heartbreaking sob as Obi carefully lowered her to her feet. He directed her to the ladder, but she paused before taking it.

“Wait,” Leona said, looking over his shoulder. “Is everyone here?”

Cas nodded his head. “Yes, baby. Everyone’s going to be okay.”

Her throat bobbed. Without another word, Obi and Cas helped her down the ladder, along with the women one by one. I watched as Ciel helped her aboard the RHIB, already glancing angry red wounds peeking through the suit covering her chest.

Anger surged through me so strongly my hands shook as I realized there had to be even more where I couldn’t see. My chest was hollow, like someone had fucking carved my heart from it with a blunt knife.

She was covered in blood, but what would we find when we cleaned it off?

She was alive, but what would be left of her when we returned home?

I needed retribution. My head was going to explode if someone didn’t pay for what had happened to her.

And I knew exactly where to lay the blame.

12

OBI

Iwaited on the ship deck while everyone else climbed down the ladder to the RHIB first. Ryu and I exchanged more than one confused look as we stared at Volpe climbing after Caspian. I’d keep a careful eye on him. If he came within a foot of Leona, I’d shoot him.

Volpe was silent, observing us while following our directions without complaint as we assisted Leona and the other women to the now-cramped vessel. Edward waited as instructed with water bottles, towels, and the first aid supplies.

Volpe stood against the wall of the main salon after refusing the first aid. He did, however, take a water bottle and sipped from it. Even so, Volpe’s eyes moved everywhere. It was unnerving—though that could have been more because my emotions were undergoing a constant earthquake at the sight of our woman.

Leona was in a horrible state. The gash on her face was still bleeding and would need stitching. It would scar if she didn’t lose her eye. Her body was covered in bruises; she had flinched with my every movement as I carried her, which told me she had multiple broken ribs. She was dehydrated and emaciated, not to mention a burning fever.

What kind of hell had she been through? Or those other women, who looked just as terrible as she did?

I felt like a volcano, pressure building and building beneath my surface. One crack in my exterior and I would blow. The spider-cracked glass of my heart was moments away from implosion.

I would repay the hell she suffered a thousand times over.

For now, Max Volpe would have to wait, but I signaled for Ryuji to keep a close eye on him.

Caspian and Ciel had already moved the rescued women to the main salon’s couch while Max stayed on the opposite side of the ship. The women were quiet and dazed. It would take them a few hours to realize this rescue was reality and not a figment of their terrified imaginations.

Caspian sat on the large sectional couch wrapping around the main salon with Leona under his arm, with Ciel on her other side holding her hand. This superyacht was outfitted with sleek luxury. I had chosen it for its speed, uncaring about its interior, but now the opulence looked horridly out of place next to the condition of Leona and the other women. At least they could rest while we traveled back to the city.

I made my way to her. She looked up at me through her good eye—the other closed and bloodied.

My lips thinned. We’d need to tend to that wound. I cupped her cheeks and gently rubbed my thumb over her cracked lips.

Her good eye rimmed with red. She leaned into my palm. “Take me home, Obi.”

“Yes,” I murmured. Everything she asked for, I would give her. I crouched at her feet and pressed my forehead to hers before clasping Caspian on the shoulder and nodding at Ciel. They both tightened their grips on her.

She was alive. She was safe. We had found her.

I repeated the facts over and over inside my head, but it stilldid nothing to calm me. She wasours, and we let this happen to her.

I doubted I’d be able to breathe until her wounds were treated and she was tucked in bed at home. Even then, my rage would not be stifled. Not until the Albanians paid for this.

There was one glaring lesson this entire event had taught me.