Page 81 of Maximum Bet

A series of rapid bangs has me reaching for my gun and Nico shooting to his feet.

“It was the door.” Cassandra’s eyes widen as she inhales a sharp breath.

Nico rushes over, flattening himself against the wall. I motion for Cassandra to take her place behind the wet bar as I join Nico.

We share a look as the pounding starts again.

“Ready?” Nico whispers.

I nod and lift my gun.

Nico sets his shoulders, drawing his weapon.

“Jesus Christ, open the fucking door.” The knocking increases as my brother’s irritated voice carries through the door.

“Marco?” Nico calls.

“Yes.” Marco slams his fist against the wood. “Now let me the fuck in before some Russian pricks decide to shoot me in the middle of the hallway.”

Nico twists the knob and opens the door just wide enough for entry.

I grab Marco by the arm, pulling him in front of me. “What’s going on out there?”

“We took the fuckers out on the top level.”

I nod, already aware.

“But there were more stationed in rooms downstairs.” Marco runs a hand over his cropped hair. “Shit, man, they’ve been planning this out for a while. Jonathon grabbed one of the younger guys and got him into a supply closet to interrogate him. Guy broke like a little bitch. He told us that the Medina organization used a shell corporation we didn’t know about to book a bunch of rooms under the guise of their employees attending a conference.”

“Does Leo know?” I ask.

“Yeah.” Marco walks toward the couch, stripping out of his suit jacket. “He’s working on finding out how many men booked that block of rooms . . . and how many more were hiding out in them.”

“Shit,” Nico mutters. “So, where is everyone now?”

Marco works on loosening his tie as he sighs. “Before I came down here, Jonathon and Victor spotted Anatoliy and were attempting to locate him on the upper floors. Leo is still working to get surveillance back up, and we broke up our soldiers to patrol the lower floors.”

Done with the lack of information, I pull my phone from my pocket. “I’m calling Leo.”

I migrate to the bar where Cassandra waits, listening with rapt attention, and place the device on speakerphone.

“Dominic,” Leo answers. “We’re close to getting surveillance back. We had it for a minute, but the Kozlova team intercepted again. Victor’s tech team thinks they found a way to block them entirely.”

“Marco is here,” I say. “He told us Kozlova and Perez’s men were staying in rooms downstairs.”

“Yeah,” Leo grunts. “From what we can tell, they had the fourth and fifth floors blocked off. We’ve got soldiers down there now, but I’m only getting bits and pieces. I think we may have lost control of the fourth.”

I grit my teeth as my hands curl into fists.

“But one bit of good news. We’ve been able to block off the stairwells from the casino under the guise of maintenance, and we’ve programmed the elevators to skip the fourth and fifth floors. So far, no one in the casino seems to know what’s going on.”

“What about the guests in the ballroom?”

“Vincent and Lucas have them waiting.” Leo pauses as commotion builds in the background. “Surveillance is up!”

Marco whistles and mutters, “Thank God.”

“Oh, shit.” The change in Leo’s tone has the hair on the back of my neck standing on end. “You guys have a problem.”