“On it.”
I hang up and run for the elevator. Marcus is in the lobby, sees my face, and immediately moves toward the car.
“Marelli’s. Fast.”
He doesn’t ask questions. Just guns the engine and pulls into traffic.
I dial Savannah again. Still no answer.
Why would she meet Mason? After everything that happened the other day, after I explicitly told her to stay away from him, why would she agree to see him alone?
Because she wanted to handle it herself?
Now she’s sitting in a restaurant with a man who’s been tracking her movements, who grabbed her hard enough to leave bruises, who’s desperate enough to do anything.
A man who’s being backed by the Kozlovs.
My phone rings. Silas.
“I have three men five minutes from Marelli’s. Another four en route. What’s the situation?”
“Savannah lied about going shopping. She’s meeting Mason Porter at the restaurant. Alone. No security.”
Silas curses. “You think it’s a setup?”
“Mason doesn’t have the resources to keep finding her. Someone’s feeding him information. The Kozlovs want access to her, and she just walked right into their hands.”
“We’ll get her out.”
“If anything happens to her—” My voice comes out raw. “If they touch her, Silas, I’ll burn this entire city down.”
“I know. We’re moving.”
Traffic is thick. Marcus weaves between cars and runs a red light. Horns blare around us.
I pull up the surveillance photos from this morning. Mason enters Marelli’s at 11:47 AM. Savannah arrives at 12:15 PM. She’s been in there for over forty minutes now.
Too long. This should have been a quick conversation. Five minutes to tell him to leave her alone, then leave. Unless something’s wrong.
Unless he’s not letting her leave.
My phone buzzes with a text from one of Silas’s men:In position outside Marelli’s. No visual on target yet. Waiting for orders.
I call him directly. “Anton. What do you see?”
“The restaurant is busy. Lunch crowd. I can see through the windows but not the back booths. Want me to go in?”
“Not yet. Watch the exits. If she comes out, you follow her home. If anyone tries to take her, you stop them. Lethal force authorized.”
“Understood.”
Marcus takes a corner too fast. The tires screech. “Five minutes out, boss.”
I should have killed Mason when I had the chance. But I let Silas convince me to wait, to watch him, to use him to find the bigger threat.
And now my wife is in danger because I played it safe.
I dial Savannah again. This time it rings once and goes to voicemail.
