it past Mugsy.
Maybe the car at the end of the path was a coincidence.
Or maybe I’d be caught, dragged away, used up and spit out like a worthless nothing.
I couldn’t let that happen.
I slammed my bloody fists against the door, hoping like hell I could be heard over the chaos of dinging machines, clacking chips, and conversation.
After a moment that felt like an eternity, the door swung toward me, nearly knocking me over.
Someone grabbed my arms, and I opened my mouth. My scream died in my throat and relief washed over me when I saw Ash’s horrified gaze scanning my battered face. “Fucking hell.”
“I’m fine,” I offered, knowing I likely looked worse than I felt.
Which wasn’t hard, really, because I didn’t feel anything.
I was physically and mentally numb.
Pulling a walkie-talkie from his pocket, he said, “I’ve got her. Hall B-9. Search the rear path and delivery alley.” His gaze returned to me. “Who?”
“Mugsy Carmichael,” I said with zero hesitation.
He’d made his bed. He could rot in it.
Ash shifted us inside, closing the door and blocking me with his body. I was about to ask him to get me the hell out of there when I felt it.
Like the calm before a downpour, the room went electric and wired.
My eyes shot to the end of the hall just as Maximo stormed in. There was no cool, calm, blankness to his expression. It was unconcealed rage. Thunderous.
He wasn’t a downpour.
He was a hurricane, ready to rip apart everything in his path.
I stared, captivated by how one man could fill an entire room with his fury and malice. And he stared back, as though nothing else in the room—in the universe—existed but me.
As he neared, I realized it wasn’t only anger that darkened his expression.
It was desperation.
Panic.
Anguish.
Fear.
Unrestrained and raw, his dark gaze moved down me, taking in each scrape. Each cut. Each smear of blood and patch of dirt.
“Little dove,” Maximo whispered roughly, as though the words were forced out through gravel and glass.
He lifted me in his arms, and I clutched the lapels of his suit jacket and buried my face in his chest. I wanted to fall apart, but the tears wouldn’t come.
“Carmichael,” Ash bit out.
Maximo didn’t speak. He just held me tight as he began walking. After a minute, I heard the ding of the elevator before he stepped in and the noises of the casino were cut off. Even when we were alone, I didn’t loosen my death grip on him.
I didn’t do anything but shake.
The elevator slowed to a stop and Maximo stepped off. Only then did I let him go, but he didn’t do the same. Cupping the back of my head, he held me to him. His lips pressed to the top of my head, and we stood like that for long, silent moments.
Just the two of us.
But not in our space.
I wanted our space.
“I want to go home,” I said, my words muffled against his chest.
“Soon.”
The elevator chimed and opened again. I tilted my head just enough to see Marco step off. I didn’t think he could see much of the damage, but the rage in his eyes told me I was wrong.
He went to the kitchen and made a bag of ice, wrapping it in a towel before handing it to Maximo.
Maximo rearranged me in his hold and pressed it gently to my face. “Get Pierce here.”
“I don’t need a doctor,” I tried, but I should’ve saved my breath because they ignored me.
“Ash already called,” Marco said.
“Have security sweep the entire resort. Every fucking corner. Get Miles and Cole to go through the cameras from today.”
“Yesterday, too,” I said.
Both sets of angry eyes shot to me.
“What happened yesterday?” Maximo asked. His voice was low and even, but there was a sharp edge—as if I’d kept something from him.
I’m not the one with secrets.
“He said they saw you drag me through the casino yesterday. They thought you were pissed at me.”
“Did he say who they were?”
I shook my head.
He gently sat me on the kitchen island. Curling his hands around the edge of it, he leaned down so we were brooding eye to swollen eye. “I need you to tell me everything, Juliet. Can you do that?”
I nodded.
“That’s my girl.”
I loved to hear Maximo say that, but right then, the words were hollow.
Empty.
Or maybe that was just me.
How did I let myself get in so deep?
How did I let him break through all my walls?
How could I be so fucking stupid?
Letting people in only leads