Page 99 of Her Guardian
Rowan and the rest of Lea’s entourage are looking at us. They spin around, but a couple of muffled shots ring out. Cadence drops to her knees beside me, and I peek past her to see there’s more than one masked man now.
The Morandi family springs into action. Rowan pulls a Glock from the back of his kilt and fires off a couple of shots that are much louder than the ones coming from the guys in black. There are no guests in the lobby, but the woman behind the front desk goes running toward the back. She doesn’t make it before she gets hit in the back and goes down.
“Move, come on,” I say, half-pulling, half-dragging Lea toward the front desk. A black dart hits the counter in front of me and my eyes get wide. “It’s Solitude… or the Bratva! Oh, god, where’s my phone? I dropped my purse.”
“I got mine,” Cadence says, pulling it out of her pocket. “No signal! They’re using a jammer!”
It’s an ambush. Rowan and the rest of Lea’s entourage put up a fight, but I hear the loud gunfire dying out. Every time I dare peek around the counter, more of Massimo’s guys are onthe floor. They’ve taken a few of the other guys down, but not enough. My heart nearly stops when I see Rowan get hit in the neck. He reaches toward Lea before collapsing in front of us.
“Shit, shit, shit,” I mutter, realizing this isn’t going to end well for us.
A few voices echo, but they’re muffled by the masks, and it sounds like Russian. But one voice stands out, because he doesn’t have an accent.
“Find Lea Morandi,” he calls out.
“She’s over here,” a voice answers in a thick Russian accent.
Lea scampers around the desk, and I put myself in front of her. Cadence does the same. We look at each other, silently conveying fear, but determined enough to do what is necessary to protect our friend. I see a gun on the floor, so I reach out for it, but a boot slams into my arm, pinning it down.
“Ow!” I squeal, grimacing when the man grinds his sole into my skin.
I’m trapped. The other guys in black go around the desk. They drag Cadence and Lea out, both kicking and screaming as they’re manhandled and shoved in front of the guy pinning my arm to the floor.
“Profiles on everyone,” the man says. “Now.”
The guy pinning me down is the one who doesn’t sound Russian. He appears to be in charge. One of his guys pulls a device from his pocket that looks like a phone, but it’s a lot thicker. He holds it up to Lea’s face. When she turns away, he grabs her chin and holds it in place, tight enough for me to see blood on her lips.
“Leave her alone!” I yell, hitting the leg pinning my arm down with my free hand, but it’s like slamming my fist into a tree trunk.
“Lea Morandi. Confirmed. Take her,” the man says, turning the scanner to Cadence. She twists and tries to reach for Lea as the man holding my best friend drags her away. Cadence gets punched in the back of the head and it dazes her, then the man with the device scans her face. “Freelancer. She’s not part with the Morandi family. Not one of their girls, either.”
“Then she’s not important,” the leader says, raising his gun.
“No!” I scream, but he fires anyway, and a dart imbeds into Cadence’s neck. Then he looks down at me. “What about this one?”
I turn my face away, watching in horror as Lea is dragged out the front door. She’s slumped in the man’s arms now. I don’t know if she was drugged with a dart or knocked out, but she’s unresponsive. The man pinning my arm grinds his boot into it until I cry out, and they finally get a scan of my face.
“Sarah Parker. She’s with Boyd Sagona. Podcaster. Erica Morandi’s ex-bodyguard,” he says.
“Bring her.” The man pinning my arm pulls his boot away and kicks me in the face so hard I see stars.
I’m stunned from the kick and unable to put up much of a fight as two men snatch me off the floor. They pull me toward the door.
“I got a Capo over here,” another man calls out in a Russian accent. “Massimo Morandi’s bodyguard. Rest of them are low-ranking members.”
“Kill the members of the Morandi family. Leave the Capo,” the leader orders. “We need him to tell his boss what happened here.”
The others say something in Russian, then they start pulling knives. I feel something cold against my neck, then it jams in. Dart? Needle? I’m not sure.
But it’s only a matter of seconds before my world collapses into darkness.
CHAPTER 37
Boyd
I got a hero’s welcome when I showed up at Salvalagio.
But the excitement has worn off.
