The door opens, and I look up from the file to see Kage and Tyson, who enter with Luca behind them. The three of them had personally inspected Andrei’s home.
“As we suspected, his house is full of little handmade bombs,” Tyson reports.
“Oooh, did you bring some back so I can study them?” Izak asks, sounding a little too excited.
Tyson shrugs off the backpack he walked in with and hands it over. Although I can’t see Izak's expression behind the mask, I can sense he’s absolutely elated.
“Are you fucking crazy?” Sky demands.
“Relax, it’s not going to detonate… I don’t think,” Tyson replies.
Izak is already too far gone in his excitement to reply, being elbow deep in the bag. From his response, we all breathe a little easier.
“Any update here?” Luca demands. I hate not having all the answers. I hate how fucking long it's taking to pin down one fucking man. Yet slowly we’re killing off his followers. We simply need to cut the head off.
I hand Luca the file on Frances’ Twin. He scans over it.
“Leave us,” he commands the hounds, and they immediately vacate the room. “This is taking too long.”
Luca looks at Andrei, who’s been tortured and revived so many times he's barely a shell. The fact of the matter is, after all these days, he really might not know much about this Fyodor Novikov.
“There’s been no form of retaliation from your stunt in Italy either,” Luca says, unsatisfied, referring to the group of Bratva members I’d killed before flying over. We'd hoped it would draw their attention to me and use me as bait in Manhattan, but besides Novikov, no one else has appeared.
I shouldn’t want a war with the Bratva, but it sounds like a lot of fun. But if they were moving on us, they would’ve done so by now. They were most likely testing the waters to see if investing time, money, and manpower into a territory war was worth it. With no retaliation besides Novikov, it’s fair to say their intention thus far is clear. The ones remaining in New York, however, are nothing but stubborn cockroaches.
Luca’s phone buzzes, and he answers. Whoever is on the phone speaks quickly.
“Now?” he demands, and for the first time ever, I see a flash of uncertainty in his gaze. Another long pause as the other person speaks. “I’m on my way.” He hangs up and pulls his gun out from underneath his jacket, then shoots Andrei in the head. Blood explodes as he pins me with a lethal gaze. “He’s useless. I want this dealt with,” he growls impatiently, and slaps the file back into my chest.
I follow him and stop alongside the hounds as he hurries up the stairs, looking like he’s on a mission.
And I know only one thing that would make him move so quickly and immediately put him on edge. I have the sense that Ara’s due date has suddenly moved up.
35
ROMI
Sienna: You’re dating Dante Moretti? Since when?
That’s the first text message I see when I wake up. How the fuck does she know about that?
Then there’s another from my agent.
Janet: Didn’t think I’d ever see you launch a relationship on your socials, but people are buzzing about it. Also, how are you doing with the collection? Please update me asap. I’m sweating over here.
Social media?What? I rub at my eyes, acutely aware that I’m in the apartment alone. I don’t know what time Dante left, but his side of the bed has since turned cold.
I open my Instagram account, and my eyes grow wide at all the notifications and the recent post made three hours ago, captioned ‘Soft launch’.
“That motherfucker.” I throw the blankets off. Thousands of people have liked and commented on a post of me sleeping in Dante's arms. What the actual fuck? At least you can’t see my face clearly, but still, what the fuck? The balls on that man.
I go to open the text message from Sienna, but the sound of a knock interrupts me. I storm over to the door, preparing for battle. If that asshole thinks for one second this is okay, he is going to learn what a woman’s wrath truly means.
I am going to kick this asshole into the next universe. I might’ve come around to the idea of having him by my side, but I sure as shit didn’t have any intention of publicly announcing it.
In the time it takes me to get to the door, I see a comment from my mother pop up.Yay! I knew it!
I roll my eyes. Fuck me. I pocket my phone, deciding to delete the post later. Dante has absolutely no concept of boundaries. You give him a little slack in the leash, and he runs a fucking mile with it.
