Page 67 of Caught in the Crossfire

I ran back toward the ship, dodging around the cargo. A sedan peeled out, gunning it down the street. I raised my weapon and fired, the bullets spraying against the doors. Pain reverberated down my stomach, throwing off my aim. The car didn’t stop.

I sprinted after it.

“Wynn!” Ciel called behind me. My lungs burned. I tasted copper.

I watched the taillights bust through the marina’s fence and disappear.

Just out of my reach.

I couldn’t stop him.

I turned on my heel and headed back toward the ship. My brothers still faced down against Max’s men. Leona had her gun pointed at Daniele while Obi blocked her body with his own.

“We don’t have time for this!” I shouted, hand pressed to mystomach. My legs were about to give out, but I didn’t have a choice. I couldn’t stop. “We have to go after him!”

Daniele gave one more seething glare in Leona’s direction before ordering his men back. “We’re finding him first.”

“Fuck off, Daniele!” Leona shouted back. “He’s ours!”

We couldn’t follow him. We had to handle the twelve survivors first.

I quickly called Willow’s crew, who were waiting on standby, and they provided triage care. When it was clear they had a handle on the situation, we couldn’t wait any longer. We left.

No one said a word as we backtracked our way through the marina and piled into one of the SUVs—leaving the other behind for now.

Leona fumed at Max’s interference. Ryuji argued we should have just killed Daniele and been done with it, even though we were outnumbered. Cas and Obi tried to calm everyone down so that we could chase after Vokshi and think through a plan, but we had no idea where the car had gone.

While I sat in the backseat, trying to breathe my way through the pain in my stomach and keep everyone else from finding out.

If I were at my best, I could have captured Vokshi. I could have shot out the tires, or caught up to him, orsomething. But I’d let them all down again and slipped further away from earning my redemption.

Ciel stared at me, concern softening his icy blue eyes, and it only made the guilt a thousand times worse.

25

LEONA

We chased Orik Vokshi. Ciel picked up his trail on city cameras, but his trajectory looked like he was driving deeper into the Five Families’ territories instead of away and outside the city.

“Why wouldn’t he go South?” I asked. “Near the other Albanian businesses or something?”

We’d all piled into one vehicle when leaving the marina so we didn’t get separated in any traffic. Obi drove. Ryu sat in the front seat beside him. Cas and I took the middle seats, while Wynn and Ciel were in the back.

I glanced into the backseat, where Wynn stared out the window. He didn’t look good. His hand pressed against his stomach, and sweat misted his brow. I watched him try to hide the strain of this evening out of the corner of my eye, but it was getting worse.

He hadn’t said a word since we all got in the vehicle, but it’s not like it was his fault Orik got loose.

No, that blame lay firmly in Max’s lap. Max and his stupid, asshole men. Fucking Daniele. Growing up, I had always thought he was friendly and kind, until he snitched to Max about themeeting where I’d tried to convince Vero Family men to join us instead. Did he hate me since I was a girl? Or was that just a recent development?

I sighed while gripping the armrest of the door. When would Max stop fucking up my shit? Couldn’t we getonewin under our belt before he blew everything to pieces?

Now we had to chase Orik Vokshi all over New York, and it just so happened that he was getting farther into Italian territory.

“Maybe he’s trying to lose us in the city traffic,” Ryu said. “He thinks he can get lost and disappear. Ditch the car and get another. Or head somewhere on foot.”

“There’s no way,” Ciel said with a shake of his head. “Vokshi would know exactly what territory belonged to whom. It would be stupid to go to the city unless he thought it would be safe.”

I closed my eyes and leaned my head back against the headrest as the realization laced through my brain. Before I could say anything, Obi beat me to it.