He breathed hard but didn’t answer me.
“I don’t know for sure if Sean has anything to do with this.”
“I’ll find out,” he promised. “Right now, we need to get you out of here before anyone notices you’re gone.”
“Alex snuck out of the dressing room. Men ran after her.”
“I found her. She’s with my team.”
“Is Sonny here?”
“Yes. All the Knights. Even Aiden Wellington.”
“His sister thinks he’s dead. Or at least she thought so before she found him.”
“And got herself kidnapped,” Marcello groaned. “Yes, I know. We don’t have time to catch up.” He raised his arm and glanced at an illuminated watch on his wrist. “We have thirty seconds. Then we need to move.”
I turned to face him and stood on my tippy toes. “Thank you, Marcello.”
“No need to thank me. Just doing my job.”
“I’m not a job.”
He sighed. “No, you’re not.”
I slid my hands up his thick chest and hooked my arms around his neck. Then, pressing my lips to his, I kissed him softly. I’d never been happier with anyone in my life, and I wanted to show him my gratitude.
He cupped my shoulders, his fingers digging into my skin. “Not now, Rhi. We have to go.” Marcello squeezed my shoulders, leading me toward the window. “When I tell you to jump, you need to listen to me. Understood?”
I looked up at him, wishing I could see his handsome features in the darkness. “Yes.”
“My men will be here in ten seconds.” His eyes darted to the fancy, glowing watch. “Eight seconds.”
Before I knew it, Marcello had me sitting on the windowsill, preparing me to jump. A few seconds later, two men in dark clothing appeared beneath me. They held out their arms, ready to catch me.
Marcello kissed the top of my head, then patted my backside. “Go, pretty girl. I’ll see you on the boat.”
He left the room before I had the chance to respond. Then I leaped out the window like a jet falling out of the sky.
Chapter Twenty-One
Marcello
Alex and Rhiannon were on my cousin’s boat, floating in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean to safety. It was a close call. If I hadn’t found her wandering the hallway, we would have missed her. And she might not have made it off the island. The compound was in an uproar after the owner sent his men scurrying the grounds, looking for Alex. After all, this was about the Knights.
I waited at the edge of the jungle beside Sonny, Finn, Callum, and a handful of my men from Alpha Command. The others were spread throughout the island, handling the guards, working on extracting the auction girls.
Flanked by Drake Battle, Luca approached us with a duffle bag slung over his shoulder, a gun in hand. I’d left the bag for them on the other side of the house in case they got into a jam.
“Took you long enough,” I said to Luca before I turned my back and walked into the jungle.
Sonny found his place at my side, the others trailing behind. We had little time to waste. I coordinated every second of the extraction down to a science. This was where I excelled and why my family never forced me to handle other aspects of the business.
Swatting at the overgrowth with a knife, I walked toward the sound of the waves crashing against the beach. We trekked through the jungle until we found the hidden seaplane. The pilot waited for us on the beach with a rifle slung over his shoulder, prepared for an attack.
I gave the pilot the all-clear signal, and then we boarded the small plane. It was large enough to fit the Knights, though not all that comfortably. I contacted my men using my watch, issuing the final orders. They stayed behind to deal with security and make sure they didn’t shoot us down from the sky. Before we’d found Alex and Rhi, my team had already wiped out half of the guards.
The pilot coasted away from the island for five minutes before we were in the air, headed toward Key West. I sat beside Luca. My brother was an unbearable asshole, but we had grown closer over the past year. There was nothing I wouldn’t do for Luca or my family.
I gave his knee a reassuring squeeze. Even as a child, Luca couldn’t communicate his feelings. His deficiency had put barriers between us that were slowly crumbling down. Luca turned his head, and our eyes met. We had the same blue irises—our mother’s eyes. He gave me a lopsided grin, which was the same as a thank you. I moved my hand back to my thigh and nodded.
No one spoke a word, all of us still in shock. I was used to extracting assets and taking crazy risks. But my brother and the Knights spent most of their time in boardrooms and behind desks. Not that they were pussies by any means. All of them could hold their own, but this wasn’t what they did for a living. They didn’t spend their days watching surveillance tapes or planning jobs with a team of mercenaries.