She’d barely seen Rocco before his fist crashed into her face. It didn’t knock her out, but she fell to the ground, dazed.

Before she could even get back up, some sort of ski mask was thrown over her head, backward so she couldn’t see.

“Careful, Rocco,” someone whispered in a voice she didn’t recognize. “It’s got to look like an accident.”

A gun cocked right beside her head.

Rocco dragged her forward. “Accidents happen with guns. Crazy ex-boyfriends or people trying to steal someone’s money.”

“You can’t kill her here. It will draw too much attention to this place. We still need that last code.”

The code she’d just seen? Charlie wasn’t going to wait around for them to talk this out. Rocco had a grip on her arm, so she threw her elbow as hard as she could into his belly.

Then she ran like hell, ripping the mask off. She made it to the edge of the parking lot before she was tackled, her arm scraping painfully as she hit the ground. This time, Rocco not only put the mask on her but also zip tied her hands behind her.

Charlie cried out at the burn in her shoulder as he pulled too hard.

“I don’t see why we have to hood her if she’s going to be dead in a few minutes anyway.”

“Just put her in the trunk. Unlike Stellman, I understand the value of keeping people alive in case things don’t go the way you planned.”

Stellman? That was the guy Finn and Aiden had mentioned.

Rocco laughed. “Good idea. Plus, I’d like to have a little taste of this” —Charlie tried to jerk away as Rocco groped her breasts, but he wrapped an arm around her waist to keep her close— “before we get rid of her.”

“Let’s just get inside. I’ve got information Stellman is going to want about some potential leaks in his organization. Not everyone is who they say they are. I just want to do the trade and get out of here.”

She heard the trunk open and Rocco picked her up. If she didn’t fight now, she was not going to make it out of this alive. With everyone all caught up with Jade’s death it might be a long time before anyone even realized Charlie wasn’t around.

She threw her body weight to the side, causing Rocco to drop her. He cursed as she got to her feet as best she could and started running again. She had no idea which way she was going but she hoped it was back toward the building.

The sound of sirens had her running faster. She prayed the police would be coming to The Silver Palace, although she had no idea why they would.

She couldn’t see, all sounds were muffled, touch wasn’t an option. Charlie struggled not to panic. Her head whipped around as music suddenly blared out into the night—the door to the club must have opened. She turned in that direction, yelling through the mask, trying to get the attention of anyone she possibly could.

Then people began yelling, both in front and behind her. She kept running, her abs tensed for when she inevitably crashed into something.

The siren was louder now, obviously pulling into the parking lot. She let out a shuddery sigh of relief.

Until she heard gunfire.

She couldn’t make out where it was coming from, so she ducked to the side, getting low on the ground, hoping they weren’t shooting at her. She strained to see something through the ski mask, trying to make herself as small as possible as another gun went off.

There was a war going on and she was caught right in the middle of it, not sure which direction, if any, would lead her to safety.

Before she could decide, she was tackled from the side. Her shoulders screamed in agony as she rolled, trying to get as far away as she could. Was it Rocco? Had he decided to finish her off like he’d been instructed?

The hood was ripped off her, but she didn’t stop her fight, kicking and bucking her weight against the man who held her down.

“Charlie, stop! It’s Henry.”

“Henry?” Not Rocco. “Oh, thank God.”

He pulled a knife out of his boot and cut through the zip tie, dragging her behind a car. Charlie peeked around it to see what was going on.

The police car had stopped. Two officers were behind it, using it as a shield, their weapons drawn and pointed toward The Silver Palace.

“What are you doing here?” she asked Henry. “I thought you guys were supposed to go to The Lion’s Den.”

“I came by to see Jordan, and then I saw someone in a mask being dragged to a car. I didn’t know it was you.”

“That guy I was telling you about, Rocco, he and someone I don’t know were going to put me in their trunk and kill me later. They pulled me out of the club when I opened the door to make a call.” She jerked her glance away from the police, looking behind her. Were Rocco and the other guy still out here behind them? “We have to be careful, they could be anywhere.”

“One of them I took care of. That guy was about to shoot you. Rocco, I think.” He pointed to a body lying on the ground by the car they’d been trying to put her in. “The other . . .you’re right. He took off when shots were fired, but he might still be around.”

They both ducked down as two more shots came from The Silver Palace, even though they were aimed at the police car, not them. The two officers yelled for the men to lower their weapons. A second police car came speeding into the parking lot.

She grabbed Henry’s arm. “That Stellman guy you and Aiden have been looking for is inside the club right now.”

“Can you identify him?”

“No. I’ve still never seen him. But Henry, there’s some sort of code . . .Symbols. Aiden showed me some earlier tonight. He didn’t know exactly what they were. He was going to ask the major.”

“Symbols?” Henry’s eyes narrowed. “Yeah, Aiden mentioned those.”

Another shot rang out in the darkness, followed by a third police car squealing into the parking lot. Sheriff Nelson got out, staying behind it.

“Sheriff,” Charlie called. “Henry and I are back here. Some of the guys Aiden is trying to bust are the ones shooting at you.”

“Guy named Stellman?” the sheriff asked.

“I don’t know for sure, but I think so.”

The sheriff didn’t turn around to look at her but held up a hand to show he’d heard her. “We’ve got help coming, but it’s not going to be in time if this escalates.”

Fortunately, no innocent people were coming out the front door and getting caught in any crossfire, but that wouldn’t last long.

There was nothing to stop Stellman or whoever was inside from taking hostages—one of the dancers, or even Jordan. The sheriff was sending an officer to cover the front door, but it wouldn’t be enough.

Another vehicle came barreling into the parking lot. This one she recognized. Finn’s Jeep. He pulled up next to Sheriff Nelson, but Charlie couldn’t help it, even though it wasn’t safe, she ran around the car and straight into him.

He tensed as he caught her weight, then pulled her into a bone-crushing hug. “Thank God. I’ve been trying to call you to let you know you were in danger. What the hell is going on here?” He saw the ripped skin of her arm. “Are you okay?”

There was so much she needed to tell him. “I was in trouble. But Henry saved my life.”

The other man had much more safely and discreetly crawled to Finn’s Jeep. Finn looked over at him and stuck out his hand to shake. “I’ll need to know the whole story later but thank you. I don’t know why you were here, but I’m glad you were.”

Henry shook his hand and smiled. “Was just here to see my girl. Nothing more profound than that.”

Charlie grabbed Finn’s arm. “The people shooting from inside, I’m almost positive it’s Stellman. The code Aiden showed us? It wasn’t just something I remembered from tutoring. I saw that exact code when those VIPs with Rocco were in the back room. And then tonight I saw something similar in our liquor storage room. A piece of paper with some similar symbols on it was stuffed inside a small crate of champagne. I saw the symbols, Finn. I think Stellman has been using The Silver Palace to pass along a sort of code to someone else.”

Finn looked at Henry. “Do you know anything about it? Is it Cline? This seems backward to me.”

Henry looked frantic. “I need to see the paper. It’s critical that I see it.”

Finn shook his head. “What’s critical is that we get the situation contained. We are going to need to get inside before things get out of control.”

She didn’t like that. Finn would be leading the charge.

But ten seconds later it was too late. Things were already out of control. People began running out of the doors screaming. It didn’t take them long to figure out why.

The Silver Palace was on fire.

All three men around her started cursing violently. The criminals inside had created the perfect diversion. Since no one knew what they looked like, they’d be able to exit with the terrified crowd.

“You’re going to have to get your bad guys another day,” Sheriff Nelson said. “Right now, we’ve got to get that building cleared.”

Henry looked completely panicked. “The paper with the code. What about it?”

Finn looked at the man like he’d lost his mind, but Charlie touched Henry’s arm. “Don’t worry, I memorized it. Even if we can’t recover the paper, I can write down the code for you.”

Sheriff Nelson and Finn were already running toward the building to help with the chaos.

“What do you mean, you memorized it?”

Why did he care so much? Couldn’t they talk about this later? People might be trapped inside the building.

She glanced over at him quickly. “I work with symbols all the time when I tutor, so memorizing them was easy.” She almost had to yell to be heard over the continuing chaos. “We can talk about this later. We’ve got to help Finn and the sheriff. People might be trapped inside. Jordan might be.”

He finally seemed to snap out of it. “Right. Yeah, let’s go help.”

Henry ran toward the building. Charlie was behind him, heading to the back. If she could get inside, maybe see if the fire could be stopped—

She was near the door when Finn’s arm wrapped around her waist and lifted her off her feet, pulling her back. “Whatever you’re thinking? No. You stay with me.”

“But I know where the fire extinguisher is. I might be able to do some good inside.”

“Then we go together. Someone is trying to kill you, princess. That explosion at your condo was not an accident.”

She didn’t even want to think about that right now. One burning building at a time.

They ran around to the back door. She was glad to see no one was trying to get out that way, given all the smoke pouring through the opening. They were still moving closer when the whole building shook, and the roar of an explosion pierced the air.

“What was that?” she asked.

“If I had to guess, it was the flames hitting your bar or liquor storeroom. There’s no going inside now.”

And nobody else would be getting out. Charlie prayed everyone had made it. Finn took her arm and led her to the front of the building, where everyone in various states of shock were now watching The Silver Palace burn. The fire department was pulling in and taking over, moving everyone farther back and setting up their hoses.

Finn kept his hand on her arm, but he wasn’t looking at the fire like most everyone else. He was searching the crowd, communicating with Aiden using some sort of hand signals.

Stellman might be still out here. But with the increasing chaos—paramedics were showing up now, adding to the noise and crowd—the chances of finding anyone not wanting to be found were slim.

“I want you out of here,” Finn said. “Get a medic to look at your arm and go home.”

She shook her head and glanced down at her shoulder. It was bleeding, but not badly. “My arm is fine, I promise. I want to stay here and help you. Maybe I could identify someone.”

He stood her in front of him and trailed his hands up her arms until he was cupping her cheeks.

“Aiden is here. Zac and Dorian are on their way. We’re going to sweep this area to see what we can find. Knowing you’re safely at home will allow me to focus. Sheriff Nelson has a man who is going to stay with you.”

She leaned her head against his chest. “I don’t want to leave you. I might be helpful.”

“You will be. You saw that code and you know it. That’s going to help Henry and Aiden. But right now, you need to let me do my job.”

She didn’t want to go, but she understood his point. “Fine.”

He chuckled. “You never were one to give in graciously. Do me a favor. I left Peyton at my house with Ethan. Can you relieve her? She’s the only one I know who works as hard as you. She’ll need to be up early in the morning.”

“Sure.”

“There will be an officer in front of the house. No arguments about him, okay? You are a target. I don’t know how long it will take here, but I’ll be surprised if I make it home before dawn. You stay put until I do.”

She reached up on her tiptoes and kissed him. “I’ll see you when you get in. Be careful.”

He kissed her back and walked her to a squad car. His smile was cocky and reassuring.

But despite his smile, she knew the danger was closer than ever.