Page 111 of Caught in the Crossfire
“First things first, I want to talk with Chiara.” I needed to know how my best friend was doing. I owed Rossi the message, but my heart ached to hear her voice. Even though I’d seen her at the VCI board meeting, and her note promised she was fine, I would never believe it until she was standing right in front of me. It took every ounce of control I had not to go sprinting through the rooms of Max’s house to find her.
He took a slow drink. “She is perfectly safe.”
Yeah, right. “Where is she?”
“Safe.”
My teeth ground together. “I don’t fucking believe you.”
“I’m sure you’ve realized by now that I need her to retain my control over the Tommaso men. All I’ve done is keep her out of reach of the Vokshi Clan.”
“I want to see her.” My voice was firm. “In person. I won’t help you otherwise.”
He rubbed his chin. The passive mask slipped for a moment to show a sliver of frustration. Was that a flash of exhaustion, too?
“The best I can do is let you talk to her on the phone,” he said. “It’s not safe to bring her back to the city until we’ve neutralized the threat. If you want her safely returned, help me with this.”
“And then you’ll marry her?” I asked, barely keeping the bitterness from twisting my tone. Even to me, I sounded like a little bitch. I took a deep breath, trying to rein in the sass.
“Sure. I’ll marry her the same day you marry Cas.”
Cas grabbed my hand, interlinking our fingers on top of the table and drawing Max’s eyes. “I forgot; we need to send you a save the date.”
Max’s voice was icy. “I’ll hang it on my fridge.”
Cas’s touch was the only thing keeping my blood pressure from exploding.
“We’re getting off-topic,” Obi said from behind me. “We were discussing Chiara.”
I nodded in agreement, bringing us back on track. “I want frequent updates on her safety, and I want to speak with her in-person when this is done.”
Max tilted his head to the side. “In exchange, you’ll stop assaulting my businesses and territories on the streets.”
“Nope.” I shook my head. “You’re not in charge. I am. You needmyhelp, not the other way around.”
His jaw clenched. “I cannot effectively fight the Albanians with you putting strain on my men. We need every strength wehave. Their numbers are large, and we can’t stop them if we’re fighting each other at the same time.”
“You owe me, then.” I lifted my chin. “This is a temporary alliance, and it’ll be in my favor, not yours. The Vokshi are putting the greatest stress on you. While we both want them gone, and we’ll do everything we can to eliminate them, you have the most at stake here. I’ll call off my men and the Russians for now—let us all regroup and rebuild—while we join forces to push the Albanians out of the city. But do not forget: you’ll owe me for this.”
“Fine, Leona.” He sagged in his chair before he righted himself and sat bone straight. The action did something to my chest. I rubbed my sternum to banish the feeling.
I stretched out my free right hand—Cas still held to my left.
Max stared at it before slowly clasping it.
I’d expected him to squeeze, to assert dominance with a stupid manly handshake, but his grip was careful. Warm. I pulled back first before Ryuji somehow decided that Max’s hand deserved to be removed from his arm.
“Tell us what you know about the Vokshi that we seem to be missing,” Obi said. “We can coordinate our efforts and pool our resources.”
Max stood. “Wait here.”
I raised an eyebrow as he left. A few minutes later, he returned carrying a file organization box. It looked like the same ones he’d left for me to find when he lured me back to the Vero estate.
He dropped the box onto the table. “Paperwork.”
Ciel groaned. “Paper paperwork. Ugh.”
Max smirked. “Luciano preferred physical copies instead of digital. He kept records of everything. I’ve come to believe he thought it was his way of protecting himself from the Camorra’s and the government’s hackers.”
