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I jerked my gun toward him. “Don’t even think about it unless you want to lose that hand.”
Two more men came barging out from behind the dividers that separated the makeshift bedrooms. One of them lunged toward us with a growl, but then all three of my guys whipped out the guns they’d been practicing with earlier this afternoon.
“Just try me,” Quentin gritted out, his pale eyes flashing with fury. He held his pistol perfectly steady. At my other side, Niko’s and Jasper’s stances were a little more awkward, but determination was etched in their expressions.
They’d blow these goons away before they gave them an opening to hurt me.
And the goons could obviously recognize that too. Four to five, with the four of us already prepared to shoot, it wasn’t any contest.
The one who’d lunged and the one with the knife lifted their hands in a gesture of surrender. I motioned with my pistol at the one who’d reached for his gun, and he echoed the pose, scowling.
I glowered right back at them. “I can see what you were doing here. Get the fuck out of this building and tell my mother I won’t be home until tomorrow. Maybe she’ll be ready to treat me and my associates with all due respect by then.”
Flickers of nervousness passed across a few of their faces. “The boss isn’t going to be happy about that,” one muttered.
“I don’t give a shit what makes her happy. She should have thought about that before she went behind my back. Now get going!”
At the wave of my gun, the five thugs hustled over. We stepped to the side so they could file out the door, keeping our gazes and our weapons trained on them the entire time.
The thud of their feet resounded down the hall outside, and then they were gone.
My shoulders slumped as the tension released from them. Jasper’s arm dropped, a strained chuckle tumbling from his lips. “Holy hell. I can’t believe we just did that.”
Niko set his gun down on a side table as if he didn’t want to tuck it completely away just yet. He glanced at me. “Those were your mother’s people—what were they looking for?”
I sighed. “They probably hoped they’d be able to get at and destroy the evidence I’m using as leverage against her. I should have realized she’d figure out where you’re living and try to undermine me that way.”
“It’s not your fault that you don’t think like that vicious bitch does,” Quentin said firmly, scanning the loft. “Is there any chance theydidget at your stuff?”
I shook my head. “Everything’s online, and I know better than to write down passwords. It’s totally secure.” I paused, giving myself a moment to try to think like the Deadly Rose would. “But we need to search the place for surveillance bugs. They might have planted some during their search so she can listen in.”
Niko rubbed his hands together as if the search sounded like a wonderful game. “What exactly do we look for?”
I pulled out my phone. “I’ll show you some pictures… Can one of you go down to help Rafael get back up here? He’ll be wondering what the hell’s gone down.”
Jasper reached for the door. “I’ll fill him in.”
I took in the mess Mom’s men had left behind and restrained a shudder. We were going to be doing a lot of cleaning as well as bug-hunting.
But what would even be the point of relocating? Mom owned this city—I had no doubt that she’d figure out where the guys had holed up no matter where I set them up in town. And they’d made it amply clear that they had no intention of leaving Austin without me.
“All right,” I said, putting on my best unfazable tone. “Let’s start in the kitchen.”
But as we crunched through the rummaged food that’d spilled onto the floor, my spirits were sinking.
Mom was getting awfully restless in our arrangement. How far would she go in her attempts to regain the upper hand?
TWENTY-FIVE
Luciana
The only upsidethat came with the shitty day was that it gave me an excuse to stay overnight with my guys. Once the confusion around the fire alarm had died down, we ordered in Thai—which had enough options that even Quentin was satisfied with the spread—and settled into the living room together, watching a cheesy old movie playing on one of the cable stations and shouting at the characters’ wacky decisions.
It was so comfortable and cozy that I could almost forget the trauma we’d endured since arriving in this city.
Refusing the guys’ emphatic offers to give up their beds, I took the sofa, pointing out that I was the smallest by far of the bunch of us and so fit it best. The loft had only come with twin beds, so it wasn’t as if I could snuggle in next to any of them all that easily.
And so, in the middle of the night after the light beyond the thin curtains had dimmed and the only sound was the rasp of sleeping breaths from the makeshift bedrooms, I found myself sprawled on the sofa, staring at the ceiling.
