“Stay here,” Wynn said to Leona as he and I approached her side by side. Ryuji followed from the other direction.
“Keep your weapon on her and I’ll search her,” Wynn said as we got close.
Her eyes were keen and careful, but she didn’t move. Wynn reached inside her jacket pocket to pull out a phone. He turned toward me to hand me the device, but the moment his attention shifted from her, the woman dropped. Grabbing a knife from her boot, she lunged toward Wynn’s exposed side.
“No!” I reached forward, shifting him, blocking him however I could. A slice of jagged pain tore through my hand. Did I block him in time?
It took all of an instant for Wynn to right himself and tackle her. The phone clattered to the ground between us. The screen was lit up, an outgoing signal clearly displayed on the screen. I stomped on it without hesitation, destroying it. Fuck.
“Ciel!” Wynn gasped as he finally got her subdued on the ground. Her face dug into the concrete; her arms pinned behind her back.
“Vaffanculo,”she spit, struggling while Ryuji grabbed her other arms.
“Fuck you, too,” Leona hissed right back, grabbing my hand. She sucked in a breath. “Ciel.”
“Wynn?” He had to be okay. She didn’t slice him, did she?
“I’m fine,” he grunted as he and Ryuji yanked Lucia to her feet. She stopped struggling, but the glare she leveled at each of us could wilt flowers.
“Ciel,” Leona said again, clutching at my arm.
The three of them stared at my hand. I looked down to see the knife still protruding from my palm. As soon as my eyes locked onto the blade, the injury screamed up my arm—like my brain had finally caught up and realized there was a fuckingknifesticking out of me.
“Shit,” I hissed. Blood dripped to the ground. My entire hand was red. Sirens sounded in the distance. Onlookers watched from a few hundred feet away. “We have to get out of here. She called for backup and the cops are close.”
“We have to patch you up,” Wynn said, eyes wide, and tone frantic. “You’re fine. Everything’s going to be fine.”
“I know,” I responded, jerking my head to the van. “Let’s go.”
I can’t move my fingers.
“Obi, Cas, we have her,” Ryu said in the comms as he and Wynn tossed Lucia in the back of the van. He secured her arms behind her back with zip ties. She spit at him again, throwing more curses at us. He found a roll of duct tape, pulled a long piece, and stuck it over her mouth.
“Caspian, contact Giulio and confirm his men can guard her,” Obi said in our ears. Leona’s eyes were locked on my hand, pants racking her chest.
“Done,” Cas said.
“I will contact the Camorra and inform them she is under our protection and will not be harmed. We will return her under the terms of a truce,” Obi added. “Ryuji, please relay that message to her.”
“All right.” Ryuji turned to the woman. “Listen up, Lucia Greco. We are not going to kill you. You’re just going somewhere quiet for a while because we just need you and your pesky hacking out of the picture. So behave, and you’ll be totally fine. We’re gonna send you home if your grandpa agrees to a truce. Got it?”
The woman glared at him but said nothing.
“Great, now keep quiet,” he said as he climbed out of the back of the van. “We have to get our stuff and get out of here. Wynn, take your motorcycle back. I’ll follow with mine. Leona, you have to drive. Ciel can’t with that hand.”
“Should we call Willow?” Leona asked Wynn, both of them focused on the blood still pouring from of my hand.
“I’m fine,” I responded.I can’t feel my hand.I was much more concerned about wiping the footage from that encounter. At the very least, we needed to get our contacts in the police force to cover up what happened. Too many people saw. “I’m not going to bleed out. We can patch it up back at the penthouse. Go get the motorcycle and let’s leave.”
We had Lucia. We did it. That was all that mattered right now.
Wynn gulped. “I don’t want to damage the nerves if we pull it out.”
“Wynn,” I said with enough force to gain his full attention. His eyes locked on mine. “Listen to me. I’m fine. Wrap a bandage around it for now, and we’ll deal with it when we get home.”
Wynn stared at me for so long, I felt blood heat my cheeks. Without warning, he grabbed the back of my neck and leaned his forehead against mine. “I’m sorry.”
As quickly as it happened, he leaned away, and handed the stack of bandages to Leona. They secured the knife in my hand and stanched the bleeding. All the while, my forehead burned from his touch.
