He ignored me and advanced toward a dark alley. Someone else was there at the end of it, but I couldn’t see who it was.

“James!” I tried again. “Get back here now! That’s an order!”

He looked back at me for a moment, but he didn’t stop. Someone opened fire just as he reached the alley, and my heart jumped into my throat. My men came to a stop next to me and gave me an expectant look. Their job here was to protect me and not James, who was still on his feet as bullets rained around him. The shooters had to be in one of the buildings, and James hid behind one of the trash containers, and then kept going.

“Bring him back to me,” I ordered to my men. Clenching my fists, I realized there was not much I could, so I headed back toward the cars. The cops would be here any minute, and I needed to get out of here. Oswald was waiting for me, so I jumped into the car, and we sped away.

“We got some of their product,” Oswald said. “Most of our men are already on their way to your residence.”

“That’s good,” I said, but my stomach fluttered, and I thought I was going to be sick. “Turn off that thing that’s blocking the communication system. It doesn’t matter now.”

Where the hell was James? Why had he taken off like that? And why was not knowing what was happening to him right now affecting me this way? I closed my eyes for a moment and hoped he’d be fine.

I’d lost so many people in my life. I couldn’t lose him too.

Chapter 20

“PLAY THE VIDEO,” I said to Meg as I sat down in the chair next to her in the tech room. Since one of the buildings in the alley where James had been had cameras and the footage had been given to the cops, one of our spies had gotten his hands on it and sent it to Meg, and I couldn’t wait to see what exactly had happened.

“The good news is that Kendall’s dead.” Meg smiled, but when she glanced at me, her smile faded.

Yeah, except, while James had gone after Romeo Desalti’s second-in-command, he’d nearly gotten himself killed... and my men too, since they’d had to risk their lives to get to him. When he’d been brought to my room, I’d simply walked out and locked the door behind me, because I’d been too mad to even look at him. “Yeah. Can I see the video now?”