“Don’t tell me what to do when it comes to her.” His voice takes on a dark edge. “I protect my family. Always.”
“I can keep an eye on her as well.”
The words are out of my mouth before I think better of them. That’s often been an issue for me. Both my father and brother only wanted an obedient soldier and I couldn’t help myself but talk back and take a beating rather than stay quiet.
The man in front of me growls with menace. In front of me is the Don whose reputation precedes him, not the ally and friend I’ve grown to know and respect.
“Let me make myself clear, Kovac. Lucie is none of your concern. Keep your eyes to yourself or I’ll let Irina pluck them from your skull with a spoon. I’ve heard Giulia Moretti taught her how to do it with a heated one, too. On a live subject. Am I making myself clear?”
I grind my teeth. I couldn’t care less about his threat. I’ve survived The Butcher. Dante Ventura is no match for the horrors of my past.
Silence stretches between us, tension ripe and ready to explode.
“Crystal,” I finally answer. A little white lie is better to keep the peace with the only ally I have.
“Thank you for your concern, Toma,” Dante says, relaxing a bit. “I appreciate everything you’ve done for me. But you’re not family. And she’s too good for you.”
The words sting. They ring true.
I have no power or family to protect her. Only my skills and my life for hers. But thinking of Lucie Ventura protected by low level officers from Dante’s team is a hard pill to swallow. I’ve proven that I’m valuable. I tracked the man who held him prisoner. I coordinated the efforts for his rescue. I watched in awe when Lucie aimed her weapon at his captor and shot at him. He’s too wrapped up in his bullshit family motto to see that my concern is justified.
The Ventura-Dobrev have enemies all through Europe. I would know, my own brother is one of them. If he ever gets his hands on Lucie, it will kill her family. It will kill me. But not before I bathe in his blood.
I’ll never allow that to happen. Which means I’m the only one who can protect her. Because I’m the only one who knows the depravity my soulless brother is capable of. Petar isn’t a black soul, he simply doesn’t have one. Humans are commodities for him and any pain is good to use for his own benefit.
Dismissed, I exit the Ventura mansion and head over to my place.
Firing up the multiple screens and computers I have in the small living room, I start planning. When I put a tracker on Lucie’s phone, I didn’t do it to look at her private conversations. What I did was install a program that alerts me to big changes in patterns, like texting people she doesn’t usually text, and internet searches that could lead to danger. Or in the case of the one popping up on one of the screens, a link to a flat in the middle of Edinburgh.
The only other flat available close by is in the same street but that’s not near close enough for my liking. I’ll have to cheat my way to the place right across hers. I crack my fingers and laugh at how easy it is. A short hacking and I’m the new owner ofthe place, the current tenant notified he has until the end of the month to move out. Not my fucking problem that it’s tomorrow.
I searched into the names of the other tenants in her building and though I can’t find anything of significance, I decide to vacate each flat, too. Anyone from my brother’s team could infiltrate her neighbours’ families, slowly weaving their way into getting to know my Lucie and maybe even snatch her to send her off to Croatia.
Paranoia is a disease slowly making me see every catastrophe scenarios in vivid details in my head but I can’t be too careful. I’m only one man. I know my limits.
Another ping alerts me to Lucie’s activity. She just downloaded a new monster romance to her e-reader. Something about mail-order brides and cowboys. I download it as well.
Before settling in for the night with my new book, I pack. Lucie will be heading north in two days, and I want to make sure I’m ready and settled before I can start my protection mission.
It takes me twenty minutes. Besides my tech equipment, I own few clothes and no trinkets. Everything has always seemed unnecessary when I could be dead by morning, whether because of my family or their enemies. After all, my mother decided to find my dad because we were struggling with money, and he killed her on the spot. Everything is fleeting.
I look around. This flat was the first place I could call my own, yet I did nothing with it. The walls are stark white, the furniture standard, there’s no books of mine lining up the shelves. I don’t even stock food in the kitchen, always cooking with fresh ingredients or opting for delivery. If I left this world now, my belongings would fit in the duffle bag at my feet. And none of what’s inside would matter.
The painful reminder of how small my life has been eases when I follow along Lucie’s book pick for the evening. Her scent is everywhere in my bedroom but her absence is a living thing. Iignore it and pick up the e-reader, connecting however I can to the only ray of sunshine in my life.
Unfortunately, before I can fall asleep dreaming of my thorny little rose, an e-mail comes through from an unknown address my system immediately tracks to Croatia. I already know the words in it, but I open it nonetheless. It’s rare The Butcher finds ways to contact me since I left six months ago after sabotaging one of his first flesh deals. He’s furious and wants me back so he can spend our miserable existences torturing me and making sure I regret the day I crossed him.
The London Bratva and Cosa Nostra won’t protect you forever. I’ll annihilate anyone you’ve ever been in contact with and make you watch before I slit your throat and piss in it. Unless you come back.
The threat is graphic. But common. And something he already did to me, though not to my throat. He did piss on me after stabbing me in the stomach when I was fifteen, for not managing to kill one of his best officers who had deserted. That shit stung but not as much as the humiliation and the snarky laughter of his lieutenants.
It was the last time I failed a mission.
I spend the evening breaking his route to my data, and sending malware and Trojan horses to his known acolytes. It won’t keep him at bay forever but for now, it will have to be enough.
One more reason I need to protect Lucie Ventura myself.
FIVE
