Page 65 of Maximum Bet

“Engine fire, I think,” the guard says.

“Jeez.” Nico taps the steering wheel. “Well, I hope everyone’s all right.”

With that, we’re through the gate and on the street.

“Holy shit.” Marco laughs, popping up and turning to look out the rear window to see smoke billowing in the air.

My phone rings again, and I finally answer.

With a smug, “Hello,” I greet Leo. He unleashes a string of curses.

“What is wrong with you?” he hisses. “Do you know how dangerous that was?”

“It was necessary,” I counter.

“Dominic.” I can picture him pinching the bridge of his nose. “My entire job is to keep you alive. Why the hell do you have to make it so damn hard?”

We roll up to the meeting place as I cut the call and wait for Leo to climb into the front seat.

He glowers at me, waiting for an answer.

“And my whole job,” I say, “is to keep myorganizationalive.”

Nico steers us onto a main road toward our hotel.

Just as Leo is about to rip into me some more, his phone buzzes with a call. Still glaring, he accepts the call and puts it on speakerphone.

“Lucas,” Leo answers. “What’s new?”

“We got into the safe room,” Lucas says. “Most of the women are fine.”

“Most of?” I snap.

“Amanda was there,” he says, causing Marco to blow out a relieved breath. “But Cassie, Sadie, Natalie, and Cecilia are missing.”

My blood runs cold.

“Where are they?” Leo asks, his frame tense and hand curled into a fist.

“We’re working on it.”

“Working on it?” I scream. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

“Cecilia’s car is gone. We’re tracing it now.”

“What about phones?” Leo asks. “Do any of them have theirs?”

“The only one missing is Sadie’s, but she has an Android, not an iPhone, so I can’t use the Find My feature.”

I scoff. “Lucas, are you fucking kidding me? What about Life 360? You don’t have any way of tracking your woman?”

“I didn’t want to be overbearing,” he grumbles.

Nico snorts. I want to shoothim.

“Wait,” Lucas says. “We found something. Oh shit . . .”

“What, ‘Oh shit’?” I snap.