Page 93 of The Wildcard

But it was too faint for Kyle to be–

“Switch on the news.” Was all he said before the ringing from his ended call filled his ears.

Angel growled, but it was Mia who moved. She’d stopped talking to whoever was on the phone and was reaching for the remote when she said softly,

“I just got a call from one of our stationed people in Italy.” She started, and Angel’s heart started pounding hard in his chest as she switched the TV on, “He was near the site. Apparently, everything that was set up by the Krafts, all their business holdings – underground and above – everything is currently burning down.”

His heart stopped in his chest.

And Mia switched to the News channel. Utter surprise rendered him frozen as he heard the voice from the TV speak up,

“Good afternoon. We must interrupt our regular news today to inform you about breaking news that currently requires out attention. We are bringing you live coverage of a developing situation that demands ourimmediateattention.” The female anchor said, and turned to her partner, who nodded in her direction, her eyes grim as she continued,

“We have just received news of a fire breaking out at not one, butthreeplaces here in Milan. All three sites were owned by the recently deceased Nathan Kraft. Emergency services are on the scene, along with one of our representatives, Daniel Garcia. Daniel, are you there? What is the situation right now?”

Angel watched as the imaged shifted and turned to a man standing a few miles away from the scene. His breath caught as he saw those flames surging in the sky behind the man. Even Mia remained quiet as the man started speaking. Angel’s attention didn’t divert for a second when his door was slammed open and Luke, Jack, and Christina rushed in. He barely saw Miranda cross the room to head to Christina. The girl just smiled at the older woman and asked her to step into Angel’s room silently. The door closed behind Miranda with a soft click, but Angel’s attention was on the screen.

“–local residents are being evacuated from the area.” The man was saying, his voice muffled by the sirens and the constant chatter around him, “Emergency medical teams are on standby, but according to our sources, there haven’t been any casualties in the buildings. The cause of the fire is still undetermined, but authorities are working diligently to prevent further spread.”

The screen switched back to the two news anchors, “Thank you Daniel.” One of them said, “Reports coming in are suggesting that Nathan Kraft might be a common factor to be considered in each investigation.”

Angel sucked in a breath.A loaded, dangerous statement.

“Investigators are exploring–”

He blinked as the TV shut off and turned abruptly to face his friends. All their faces were ashen, almost afraid at what this meant for the Lions. Forthem.

“Holy Shit.” Jack laughed suddenly, not a hint of humor present in his tone as he turned to face Angel as well, “This is going to blow up in our face.”

Angel shook his head, his mind spinning as he thought of what this meant. Of how they would recover from all of this. Angel didn’t know why Ray had met with Noah Hassan this morning. But he had no doubt Noah was a part of all this somehow. Maybe not in burning down one of their most important headquarters. This blow was exactly like the one Angel had dealt with last year, where business had been difficult with his buildings fucking blown apart.

And now the Lions were facing the same fate.

That only meant there was one group behind all this. Angel’s eyes turned to Luke’s, who looked back at him as if knowingexactlywhat Angel was thinking. He nodded hesitantly, agreeing with Angel’s train of thought.

“What now?” Jack asked softly but it was Christina who responded.

“Now’s perfect.” She said, attracting all their surprisedeyes.

She didn’t balk though, just looked back at them with that hidden gleam in her eyes. Christina Morris might be a good person, but that wasn’t why Angel had chosen her at all,

“Now we get a chance.” She continued, and Angel’s brows shot up in the air, “A chance to prove our undying loyalty.”

A chance to prove they were innocent. A chance to show them that they needed the Ravens to survive.

“Shit,” Luke breathed, rushing a hand through his hair as a small smirk grew on his lips, “Fucking brilliant.”

Angel couldn’t help his light laugh. Mia turned away from all of them, already beginning to work as she pressed her phone to her ear and started whispering furiously. Angel turned to look at Christina, who looked all innocent and kind. But then she saw his stare and winked back at him, her hair swaying with the wind as she breathed out a laugh,

“We’re all such assholes.” She murmured, enticing a collective grunt of agreement.

“Opportunistic assholes.” Jack corrected and Angel shrugged, liking the term just fine as he moved to get out of the room and get to where the Lions were.

“Time for these opportunistic assholes to go do some damage control.”

21

Ray hadneverheard Alessandro’s voice rise. Had never seen anything but that calm storm in his eyes. And now as she saw him roar into the phone with his eyes ablaze and his entire body shaking with lethal rage, she couldn’t help but thank the gods for sparing her.