Violent Triumphs (White Monarch 3)

“Let her rest,” I said, despite my demanding need to look into her eyes and hear her tell me she was all right. “What happened?”

“Belmonte-Ruiz. They’ve claimed responsibility for your attack and for the one here. They targeted every woman in the house.”

My wife’s blood-curdling screams echoed through our bedroom. A room where, until recently, I’d never felt anything but safe. Anger roiled through my chest like a Mack truck. “Natalia. Someone put his hands on her?”

“She fought back. She survived. Not everyone was so lucky. I’ll fill you in later.”

I closed my eyes to steel myself against a pain far worse than some stab wounds. Some of my people had paid the price for what had started as a personal vendetta. It’d grown into much more over the years, and Calavera had the support of everyone in the Badlands—but I’d let them down. “I’m sorry,” I said.

“We’ll arrange a service for them,” Alejo said. “Once you’re recovered, that is.”

With Natalia’s safety established, and my immediate concerns eased, hazy details from the attack at the hotel came into focus. My wounds announced themselves, tight and throbbing. Tension in the bridge of my nose made my head feel on the verge of exploding.

I’d experienced worse, but this particular strike had me on edge. I wasn’t sure how many times the attendant had stabbed me, but even once was too many. I hadn’t been able to stop it. The assault had seemed to go on forever, delivering me slowly to death’s doorstep. What had kept Max and Daniel away?

“Why aren’t I dead?” I asked.

“Because your attacker is.”

“Max got him?”

Alejandro hesitated. “No.”

“Daniel?” I asked. “I think I heard a gunshot, but I was out of it.”

Alejandro glanced at the ground, taking too long to respond.

“What?” I asked.

He raised his eyes. “Daniel’s dead. Found around the side of the hotel. His body’s in transit so we can give him a proper burial with the others.”

Fuck. My throat constricted. It’d been some time since one of my immediate team had taken a bullet for me. Things had happened so fast, and at the same time, they hadn’t. This had been an organized attack. My final moments with Daniel played through my head—him teasing me for being overly protective of Natalia. The insinuation that I was paranoid. And yet, he’d always done exactly as I’d asked, up to his final moments. “And Maksim?”

Alejandro inhaled, his chest expanding. I tried to brace myself for the same news, but there was no preparing for that. Daniel had been a good and loyal man, but Max was more than a comrade. He was as good of a friend as I’d ever find. We’d been together since the start and had defeated many who’d like to have seen us both dead.

Finally, Alejandro exhaled. “They have him.”

It took a moment for his words to register. And when they did, the heart rate monitor beside me went haywire. “What?” I asked. “What are you talking about?”

“Belmonte-Ruiz captured Max. The good news is, he’s still alive, which means they need him. I’ve seen proof of life.”

Blood rushed in my ears as I sat up. “Then what the fuck are we sitting here for? We have to go after him.”

Alejandro’s brows furrowed. “We will. But first, we need a plan. And in order to make one, we’ve got to figure out why they tried—or didn’t try, according to Sosa—to kill you and not Max. If he’s bait, then they must’ve known—”

Despite the way my torso protested, I swung my legs over the side of the bed, nearly knocking over the monitor. “If you think I’m going to sit here while Max is in trouble”—I yanked an IV from my inner elbow—“then you don’t know jack shit about me, Alejandro—I’d do the same for you.”

“Ay. Tranquilo. You need rest—”

“Don’t tell me to relax.”

Alejandro shoved me. Already out of breath, I went down easy, and the resulting pain was enough to remind me I could still make things worse. “I wouldn’t ask that of you, and neither would Max,” Alejo said. “You’re useless to us dead, and that’s what you’ll be if you go after him at anything less than a hundred percent.”

“You underestimate me,” I said, failing to control the volume of my voice. My face burned at the thought that Max had been gone for over a day, and we’d done nothing.

“You’re a danger to yourself, but also to those who go with you,” Alejandro reminded me. “We’ll get him. But not today.”

“We don’t leave men behind—”

The air in the room shifted. I looked past Alejandro, and my anger immediately fell away as my gaze landed on Natalia.

Long, dark hair in disarray, breathless and pink-cheeked in a white satin robe, she stared at me as if she’d seen a ghost. “You’re—you’re awake.”

“You’re alive.”

Natalia drew toward the bed. Did she also feel the magnetic pulse beating between us? She scanned me head to toe. “And you’re bleeding.” She looked to Alejo. “Why is he bleeding?”