Lainey had heard every word Alexsey had said. “A cleanup crew. Safehouse. You mean for…”
I pressed my finger across her lips. “Nothing for you to worry about. You’ll need to trust me.”
“I do trust you,” she whispered. “But don’t do anything stupid, Sasha. Please. Think of Nina. She needs you.”
“I am. I’m also thinking about you. You are… amazing.”
“Come on,” Halle said. “I don’t know about you, but I need a damn drink.”
I squeezed Lainey’s arm and the connection we shared shifted, what we’d both just faced an ugly reminder that we were from two different worlds. She looked away, but I’d caught the quick look on her face. She was questioning her judgment about being with me.
So would I.
The two women left and as soon as Lainey was out of my sight, I felt a sense of sadness, but allowed the fury to continue fueling me. I moved around Alexsey and into the bedroom, waiting until the girls had moved downstairs. “I need to know how the fuck this happened.”
“Calm down,” he told me. “We need to be very careful in the decisions we make.”
“Careful? We need to develop a plan of retaliation.”
“Agreed, but we can’t do that if we don’t know who and what we’re dealing with.”
With a disgusted shake of my head, I moved to the hallway with Alexsey following just as Jaxon made his way up the stairs. There were additional voices. More of our soldiers had been called to the house.
Jaxon’s face was grim. “All six men at the front are dead. Execution style. From what I could tell, there was no fight. The news gets worse.”
“How?” I growled.
“Two of the perpetrators got away. I think they stole a car. I tried to chase after them, but they were gone, even crashing into a vehicle parked on the street.”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
“Fucking fantastic. What about the guests?” Their quick exit meant within minutes it would be known they hadn’t succeeded.That would keep a target on our backs with almost no time to recover. Maybe the attack had been meant as a warning and an abduction. Weaknesses. My father and uncle had warned us that while family was important, once we had one our lives would change.
While I’d heard of women being used as pawns, held against their will to try to gain leverage, it was widely known only the most despicable humans used children.
That was an unwritten rule of men with integrity. Whoever we were dealing with had none.
My anger was at an all-time high.
“Nothing unusual.” Jaxon shook his head. “The entire takedown was well structured and if I had to guess, planned for several weeks. Someone has been paying attention to the various family activities. They knew when to hit where they had a chance of success.”
“We handed them the opportunity on a silver platter.” I took a deep breath. “Where are the caterers?”
Jaxon’s nostrils flared. “Those who are left alive are waiting in the kitchen.”
“That’s how they got in,” Alexsey gritted out.
“Likely,” Jaxon answered. “I checked the records at the front. They used two huge vans and another arrived late.”
While we’d vetted the company, one we’d used before, it was next to impossible to hand select their workers. Not practical. Not usually necessary.
“Get the owner on the goddamn line!” I was headed to the top of the stairs just as three of our men were half carrying the still shaken assailant from the playroom.
“No need. She’s downstairs,” he said. “She’s very shook up. Be gentle with her, boss.”
Gentle? Right now, I could torch the fucking world.
I took long strides, ripping off the duct tape from the asshole’s mouth. “Who are you?” Blood was caked on his face, his eye swollen almost completely shut from where Lainey had smashed the bat against the side of his face, yet he was able to smile. That was enough for me to react.
