The blonde, with the short bob and bangs, wearing a too-tight dress is Marlena. The smileslips off my face as one of the women guards the door and the other heads for me.
I don’t have a gun.I back away.
Bodyguard outside. I open my mouth to scream and Marlena moves with impressive speed, yanking a revolver out of her purse and pressing it to my forehead like she’s trying to drill right through my skull.
“Shut your mouth or I’ll blow a hole through that empty fucking head of yours,” my Wicked Stepmother hisses.
“I’mmarried,Marlena. You’ve got no sacrificial lamb for this alliance unless you’re willing to step up to the plate.” I lift my chin. I’m not cringing in front of her. An odd, shamed expression flits across her face and I wonder if she offered and got turned down.
The woman behind me grabs my arm in a seamless motion, pulling it up behind my back and I grit my teeth against a scream. She’s going to rip it out of my shoulder socket if she pushes any harder.
“I’m not going back,” I say between clenched teeth. “Don’t you get it? The MacTavishes and the Taylor Mafia will not let you live if you try to take me.”
Marlena scoffs, “Marriages are annulled all the time.” Her wig’s crooked and her eyes arebloodshot. This last week has not been good to her. “You ungrateful bitch! You will do your part. This is your father’s dream and we’re going to build it back up.”
I want to claw at her face. Rip her stretched too tight skin and fake swollen lips right off her skull. “Don’t you dare talk about my father! You killed him, I know you did. You’ve made the Banner Syndicate the laughingstock of our world right now.”
She doesn’t seem upset. “We willownthe East Coast by this time next year. Now, unless you want me to have your friend Morgan dragged out into the street and shot, you will shut up and come out the kitchen exit.” I knew this woman was disgusting, subhuman, but I underestimated her. “Maybe I’ll have her hanged, just like in the 1600’s.”
“You do not touch her.” My fingers curl into claws. “I will make sure Wallace burns your entire life to the ground.”
“If you want her alive…” She shows me a video, Morgan moving back and forth in her apartment above the spellshop, shadows dancing on the walls. “Close your mouth. We’re going.”
This can’t be happening. Will they kill Gio when we walk out? Could they spray bullets across the restaurant, hurting my new people?
I can’t let Morgan die. I clench my teeth against a scream as the woman behind me yanks up my arm again. She’s short, but it must all be muscle.
“Move!” Marlena shrills, and I take my first, reluctant step toward the door… as it explodes inward, Wallace striding through the debris like my avenging angel for the second time.
“Put your gun down!” Marlena snarls.
The woman who was guarding the entrance is face down on the floor, unconscious after Wallace kicked the door in. The one behind inches my arm up and a moan escapes me. How it felt when I’d landed on the grass after that two-story fall from the office building wasnothingcompared to this. My tendons are swelling and stretching and my muscles screaming in agony.
“You’re not getting out of here alive if ye hurt her.” Wallace is deadly calm, almost conversational. Behind him, I can hear the multiple clicks of safeties released on guns and there’s got to be a hallway full of guards surrounding him. “This was fecking stupid, Marlena. I dinnae like killing females. But if ye dinnae get that gun away from my wife’s face, I will send you through all nine levels of hell before I finally let ye die.”
An unholy grin fights against Marlena’s facelift. “Maybe. But your sweet little wifey here willstillbe dead.”
The woman behind me leans closer to her. “Hold her hostage. Safe passage out of this building. We’re surrounded, we’re not shooting our way out.” This one’s a professional, she doesn’t even sound concerned.
Sweat’s dripping down Marlena’s face. From the corner of my eye, I can see her finger tightening on the trigger. Oh, god. She’s going to do it. She hates me more than she wants to live. Shaking all over, I look at Wallace. I want to see his face.
With a growl, the woman behind me releases my arm and jams her weapon into Marlena’s back, knocking her hand holding the gun away from me. “MacTavish, I didn’t know this job involved your family.”
She sounds remarkably calm for a woman with maybe eight guns pointed at her. Wallace takes two big steps forward and pulls me behind him.
“They told me it was a simple extraction. I’ll tradethisone-” she pushes the gun harder into Marlena’s back, “-for safe passage out of here. No harm, no foul. I just saved your wife’s life.”
“I know you.” It’s Gio, moving into the bathroom, his gun still up. “Russo, right? You’re moving up in the world.”
Russo snorts. “No interest in a chat. Give me your word, MacTavish.” Now that she’s holdingMarlena hostage, I can see that she is short, but probably just as heavily muscled as any of the guys here. Brown hair in a ponytail, the kind of woman who can fade into the background.
Wallace’s hand tightens on his gun, I can see his knuckles whiten. “Send Marlena back as a warning,” I whisper. “They’ll know they lost.”
“Ye dinnae want her to die?” It sounds torn out of him.
“I just don’t want you to do it.” I wrap my arms around his waist from behind. “I don’t care what happens to her. But you don’t kill women.”
“I’ll do it.” Kenna shoves her way past the guards, mouth tight and furious.
