Page 90 of Savage Little Secret

We’ll need to finally have a talk once everything has calmed down. If something is bothering her then I want to know.

Once Cara disappears back into her room, I whirl around and hurry out of the penthouse, checking the flurry of messages popping up on my phone as I head out to one of my cars. I hop into the fastest and gun it, tearing away from my place and toward the casino.

It only takes ten minutes of driving for me to see the first signs of a huge fire. Orange light breaks through the darkness in an ominous glow up ahead, and I can already see the faint outlines of plumes of smoke. I can’t count the firetrucks, ambulances, and police cars that blow past me with their lights on and wailing.

“Holy shit,” I breathe out when the casino finally comes into view.

Flames chew through the lower floors, and higher up, windows pulse orange, the smoke rolling out in thick, ugly waves. Debris tumbles through the sky and hits the ground where first responders are quickly working to help people out and figure out how to quell the growing fire.

I pull into the parking lot of a nearby store plaza and park before hurrying across the street to get closer. Countless people stand on the sidewalk and watch, and traffic is nearly at a standstill because drivers can’t help but slow down and take in the sight.

I don’t see how they save it, not before it takes half the block with it.

“Dmitri!”

I look down the sidewalk and spot Leo, then slip through the crowd to reach him. “Where are the others?”

Leo waves his hand toward the building. “Scoping out the area around the casino to see if they can find anything suspicious. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but I heard there were some Bratva men here tonight.”

My eyes lift to sweep up the flame-ridden building, the heat of the fire rolling over us. “If they didn’t already make it out, I don’t think they ever will.”

“I started asking around to see how the fire started, but no one is sure,” Leo tells me as we watch firefighters in full gear rush through the entrance into the smoky lobby. “Some people smelled gas. One person told me that they swore they heard a loud boom.”

“This was deliberate,” I say with a shake of my head, dread souring my stomach.

If these people are ballsy enough to burn down a casino, what the hell will they do next?

A shadow hurries alongside the building and sneaks past the police cruisers as officers talk to witnesses and help injured guests. Once the light of the blaze hits the silhouette, I realize that it’s another one of my men.

Abram nods to me as he reaches us. “The others are still searching, but I wanted to let you know that I spotted two black vans on the street behind the casino. When I came into view, they took off.”

“I wonder if they’re the same vans that attacked our shipment truck that night,” Leo wonders aloud, his forehead creasing in thought.

“When Cara was hit and driven off the road, she said it was a black van,” I say, steadily piecing more and more parts together.

The more I think about it, the more I realize just how much the Italians could’ve possibly been behind. We suffered numerous attacks before Cara was ever kidnapped. There’s a high probability that most or at least some of them were done by the Italians.

“Bastards,” Abram mutters. “We need to stop them before things get any worse.”

Before I can reply, I hear brakes squeal behind me, followed by a loud crash and the crunch of metal. I turn around along with everyone else on the sidewalk to see the front of a sedan crushed into the back of a large truck.

“Whoa! Hey, stop!” someone from the sidewalk shouts just before another car rams into the back of the sedan.

My eyes zero in on the driver in the sedan. A young woman barely in her late twenties.

She grimaces in pain and touches her head as blood drips from a cut on her forehead. She then whips around in a panic and looks into the backseat where I see a boy around ten and a car seat.

“Shit, is it smoking?” Leo asks from beside me.

That’s when I finally notice the smoke rising from underneath the woman’s hood. Something is on fire.

I look behind me to see that the first responders are still so focused on the fire and getting people out of the building that they don’t even know what’s going on. The car’s going to catch fast, the fuel line could go.

“Damn it,” I mutter. I didn’t come here to play hero. But I’m not letting a car with kids burn ten feet from me. “Come on, you two.”

Leo and Abram follow me without question.

“Abram, get her out. Leo, get the kid,” I tell them as we circle the car on all sides. My eyes lower to the window right next to the baby, who peers up at me with wide eyes. “I’ve got you.”