Page 9 of Desperate Victory

She was staring at Karagiani and he was staring at her.

“Ivy?”

“He worked for my uncle…” The paper-thin rasp of her whisper ripped through me. I didn’t miss a single thing crossing Karagiani’s face.

Or the fact that Lainey was between us.

Chapter

Three

LAINEY

Em went deathly pale and her gaze wasn’t on me or Pretty Boy or even Ezra. It was on my bodyguard.

“Em… What’s wrong?”

She said nothing, her eyes seemed almost unnaturally large. My stomach dropped at the clear horror reflected in them.

“Ivy?” Pretty Boy prompted. He and Ezra were both on their feet. Ezra cut his gaze back and forth between Em and me. He seemed nearly as mystified as I was by her response.

I’d never seen her look like this…

“He worked for my uncle…”

The words seemed to rip out of her like we were tearing off a sheet of paper. Ice threaded through my veins at the mention of that vile man twined with Em staring at Karagiani.

He worked for her uncle.

He worked for her uncle.

It was like a dozen scenarios cascaded through my mind, each one going from terrible to worse. Dead almost a year and Bradley Sharpe still inflicted wounds.

Hell. No.

A flash of movement warned me as Karagiani shifted his stance. I had no idea what I intended to do before, but he didn’t give me time to consider any of them. I twisted, caught his forearm as he went to seize me and pushed him past me.

Using his momentum, I pivoted on my heel. There was a stutter of disbelief on his face as he went past me. I didn't have to do another damn thing because Ezra was just on him. He pummeled Karagiani with a series of blows. His fists struck with meaty force and blood spattered me from a cut that opened on Karagiani’s face.

Ezra charged him in the middle and half-picked him up as he slammed him into a table. Something shattered and there was a crack in the wall. Fists clasped together Karagiani drove both down to hit Ezra in the back.

My baton was already out but I needn’t have bothered. Milo caught the next swing of Karagiani’s fists and he wrenched his left arm down and back. Ezra took advantage of the distraction and slammed his fist into the man’s stomach until he doubled over.

Then the bastard staggered Ezra with a blow from his foot right to the center of his chest. I half-caught him as he fell backwards and then slid around him and used the space to strike the baton against Karagiani’s knee as he pulled it back for another blow.

The head butt he gave Milo had no effect, he kept twisting Karagiani’s arm until the man actually let out a scream. Then he pushed it further. The sickening crack of bone echoed into the silence and Milo used the force and the pain to put Karagiani on his knees.

Ezra started forward again, blood in his eyes. Milo shook his head once, I put up an arm to block him. My purse was somewhere on the floor and I had the baton in my right hand.

“I want answers,” I said before Ezra could begin beating the man again. “We need them.”

“We need to secure him,” Milo said, not that he seemed to have any struggle keeping Karagiani on his knees. Pretty Boy’s expression arrested me, however, his glower at the man he held couldn’t shake the worry and the pain in his eyes whenever he glanced at Em…

Fuck. Em.

I pivoted to where she now stood. There was no hiding the violent trembling as she fumbled with what to do with her arms. I collapsed the baton and slid it into the inner pocket of my jacket.

“Em… come on, we’re gonna go get the Zip-ties.”