Page 44 of His Wicked Wants (West Coast Mobsters #6)

CHAPTER 41

GAbrIEL

The moment we come in contact with the first group of armed men outside the house, I start wondering if this was a bad idea or actually the worst. Julian Castellani seems to relish the action, but I’m just thankful it’s dark enough that his bloodletting is slightly obscured. And I’m not the only one to feel that way. I can sense it in the slowing footsteps behind me, and it’s partly to avoid having to watch Julian’s lethal progression that I turn back and encourage them to hurry.

“Monster,” Miller mutters under his breath as he passes me, but his eyes are fixed on Julian.

“A monster on our side,” Darian points out softly. Of all of us, he seems the most comfortable with the events—although comfortable is not the word. The most willing to accept a necessary evil, perhaps.

But I’ll say this for Julian, he gets the job done. Soon enough we’re around the side of the house and at the entrance to the hedge maze. But men are closing in from all sides, shouting as they catch sight of us, shooting into the maze almost at once.

We need to get deeper in, because the Kevlar sheeting in between hedges was not installed on the outer shell—it would be too obvious what we were doing, Julian told me at the time. I never asked, but I assumed that he and I and the handful of gardeners who helped were the only ones who knew what was happening to the maze. I even thought Julian was being paranoid at the time. Now I’m incredibly grateful for his foresight.

And Kevlar isn’t the only thing in here that might save us.

I would know my way blindfolded through the maze by now and Julian’s the same, so our only job now is to herd the others with us. And soon the shooting from the outside stops as they realize it’s useless. Now silence descends as the enemy makes its way into the maze, tracking us through the twists and turns.

In between my worries for our group, I find myself terrified for Nero. What if he’s been hurt? What if he’s...?

No. I refuse to even entertain that possibility. I think instead of the time I found him wandering the maze, enjoying his own bewilderment. I led him to the center, just as I am trying to lead these men with me, all loved by their own dangerous partners. For a moment I wish I’d left a trail somehow—a skein of silk like Ariadne gave to Theseus when he faced the Minotaur. But any such trail would only lead our enemies to us faster.

As it is, they’re already gaining on us. Julian tracks back a few times and we hear him dispatching men quietly and efficiently, then inevitably returns to us to signal that we should keep going.

Soon we’re almost at the middle, but Julian stops. “We cannot let the enemy know the secret at the center,” he says to me in a soft whisper. Raising his voice a little more so the others can hear, he says, “Gabriel will lead you to safety. I will stay here and make sure you’re not followed.”

“You can’t take on an entire army,” I protest. “I’m armed. I’ll fight with you.”

Julian looks at the knife in my hand, and before I can even blink, he does something to my wrist to make me drop it. “You’re not armed,” he tells me. “You’re a man holding a knife—and not even that, anymore. I work better alone, as I said. You’ll just get in my way.”

The four of us stare at him. “Sounds like a good plan to me,” Nate says after a moment. “Let’s keep moving.”

“Mr. Castellani—” Darian begins, but Julian gives him a little shove.

“Get out of here. That is not a request, little butler boy, it’s an order. You too, Gabriel. Go. Now .”

I take a step back at his intensity, and open my arms wide to sweep the others with me. “You heard him,” I whisper. “We need to keep moving. This way.”

Nate has already gone a few yards ahead and is waiting at an intersection, and we hurry to catch up with him. But leaving one man to face all those enemies isn’t sitting right with me. In fact, none of us except Nate seem to have the same urgency as we continue on through the maze, and when we hear gunfire start up, a sign that the men tracking us must have reached Julian again, all of us stop dead. Even Nate.

“We can’t leave him there alone,” Miller says, sounding troubled.

“I don’t want to, either,” Darian whispers back, “but what he says is true. We will only get in the way.”

“Maybe. But at least I can give those fuckers something else to aim at,” I say, making up my mind. “You guys go on ahead, take the next left and then the second right, and wait for Julian and me in the center.”

“No,” Miller says stubbornly. “I’m coming back with you, too.”

Nate looks at him. “Me too,” he says, though his voice wavers.

“Going to the center is no safer than going back,” Darian agrees, and even takes a few steps back the way we came. I grab him by the arm.

“ No ,” I hiss. “Listen—Darian and Nate, you need to get to the Retreat, to the armory.”

“But we’re nowhere near?—”

“There’s a hidden passage at the center of the maze that runs from the gazebo down into the redwood grove. It comes out right under the Retreat. If you can get in there, you can grab some guns and hurry back. The best way we can help Julian now is by providing what he needs. When you get to the gazebo, push the third stone from the bottom in the pillar to the north. That will open the passage. Be as quick as you can.”

Miller, thankfully, backs me up. “He’s right, Darian. You and Nate need to get those weapons. Gabriel and I will go back and see what we can do to cause a distraction.” He glances at me as I open my mouth to protest. “Don’t,” he warns. “I’m coming with you.”

I just nod, relieved when the other two run off, and even more relieved that Darian didn’t ask for me to repeat my instructions. He must have honed his memory during his years in hospitality work, and now he’ll put those skills to use in saving lives.

Miller and I head back through the maze. I’m feeling increasingly hopeless, increasingly desperate. Is there any chance I’ll ever see Nero again? Will we ever get to finish that conversation?

But these people here have become my family over the last few months just as surely as Nero has worked his way into my heart. I’m not going to abandon any one of them in a time of need. Miller seems to feel the same way, even though I know he has a problem with Julian Castellani.

“There’s still time to go through the tunnel with the others,” I pant to him as we hurry. “You don’t have to do this.”

“I’m not going to let that asshole protect me without at least trying to lend a hand,” he puffs back. “Hey, what’s that?” He points at something white on the ground, slowing down to snatch it up, but I keep going. “ Shit ,” I hear him whisper, and then he runs to keep up. “It was a map. These fuckers have a map to the maze.”

“Won’t do them much good. Next corner.” We slow down to peek around the corner and find Julian engaged in hand-to-hand fighting with three men. Four more lie dead on the ground behind him.

“Hey!” I shout, and wave my arms as though trying to attract a wild animal. It works—too well. One of the men swings his AK47 toward me, and Miller and I dive away from each other to avoid the bullets that pepper where we were just standing.

It does give Julian a chance to open the throat of one of his attackers somehow—he must have a knife—and then he kicks the other into the side of the hedge, forces the man’s own rifle up under his chin, and fires.

But Miller and I have been split up, and the third attacker is running toward Miller, gun already raised. Julian is speeding toward him, leaping just as I close my eyes instinctively. I hear a burst of gunfire and then a muffled Oof . I open my eyes to see Miller’s astonished face across from me, watching Julian and the enemy struggle on the ground between us. They roll over, the other man now on top, forcing the muzzle of his gun closer and closer to Julian’s head…

“ No! ” Miller and I both cry out as a shot rings out. The man on top of Julian collapses completely, but both of them lie there, unmoving.

I whirl around, and for a moment I think I’m seeing what I want to see, hallucinating. But it’s real— he’s real—it’s Nero, here in the maze with us.

He’s moving past me already, pulling the enemy off of Julian…and that’s when I realize something is terribly wrong. Because Nero shot the attacker, but Julian doesn’t seem to have the strength to even sit up.

“Help me,” Nero barks at me, slinging Julian’s arm around his neck. “Gabriel, please ,” he adds, and I snap out of my stupor, scrambling over to help him support Julian between us.

“We need to get to the center,” I tell Nero.

He nods, then glances over to where Miller is slowly getting to his feet, staring at Julian. “He took a bullet for me,” Miller says, astonished.

“And it will be a waste if you don’t move now ,” Nero snarls. “Come on. You can make him a friendship bracelet later.” Miller seems dazed, but hurries behind us through the maze. Nero and I are dragging Julian as quickly as we can, but he’s a dead weight. And every now and then, Nero pauses, shifts Julian onto me, and clears the passage behind us of someone who has unwisely followed us.

“How did you even find us?” I pant out to him.

“I followed the trail of bodies that Julian was kind enough to leave.”

I’m too scared to appreciate the joke. We’re just about there now, but when we reach the center of the maze, I see no signs of Nate or Darian. They must have made it—I pray they did, because if not, they’re wandering around in the maze, lost…or they’re dead. But we have no time to check, because Julian is in bad shape. “We need to get him to the Retreat for first aid,” I pant out. “Take him for a second—” I wait until Nero has Julian securely, and then I hit the third stone down to the north, revealing the secret passage.

Miller, who has been looking at Julian again since we stopped, doesn’t even seem awed as the floor of the gazebo opens up, the paving stones clicking quietly aside to reveal steps leading into the maw of the earth. He just keeps staring at Julian, as though Julian is the biggest shock of the night.

“Go,” Nero hisses at me. I hurry Miller down the steps, Nero coming last with Julian’s limp form, and at the bottom I hit the control panel to seal the entrance behind us.

We’re shrouded in darkness, entombed in the earth.