“Not this soon.”Marco shook his head.“Thought we’d at least have a day.”
“Sooner is better,” I murmured.“Means he’s desperate.”
Marco’s mouth tightened.“He’s not the only problem.”
I gazed up.“Go on.”
“One of our informants saw movement near the Moretti estate last night.A single car left after midnight.The daughter was driving.”
I didn’t move.Didn’t breathe.“You’re sure?”
Marco nodded.“Recognized her by the guard at the gate.Moretti’s men were asleep.Looked like she used a side exit.”
A pulse beat behind my ribs—sharp, unfamiliar.Not anger.Not quite fear.Something that lived in the space between them.“Find out where she went.”
He waited, but I didn’t elaborate.I couldn’t.The image in my head was too precise—Mia, alone behind the wheel, driving through streets that belonged to men who killed for less than a name.Right now she needed to stay home under the protection of her father, since she wouldn’t trust me.
“Double protection on her perimeter.No alerts, no reports to her father.If Moretti finds out, he locks her down.I need to know where she goes before that happens.”
Marco studied me, unreadable.“Understood.”
When he left, I leaned back in the chair and let the silence stretch.I’d spent years mastering every variable—every rival, every territory, every man whose loyalty could be bought or broken.And now one woman—one quiet, reckless woman— slipped past the lines I didn’t even realize I’d drawn.
It made absolutely no sense how drawn to her… like if she was close to me my whole body would be humming.Of course, some parts of me believed it was the thrill of the chase.She had always been slightly off kilter around me.And the sexual tension… TAUT.
My phone beeped.
Marco: I’ll keep the men looking for answers, but Mia is going to be harder to control.She’s damn sure not gonna listen to anyone she doesn’t know.
I shook my head, because he told the truth.My Mia had an attitude and spoke her mind.I loved that about her.Many men would find that appalling, but it made my heart stop.See, I didn’t want a woman that would tell me what I wanted to hear… I had my men for that.The woman that I called my wife, she needed to call me on my shit.And that was definitely going to be Mia.
Me: We’ll figure out Mia.Just focus on the men for tonight.
I’d sent half my men to reinforce the docks and the rest to sweep the perimeter around the Moretti estate.Marco had gone with them.The compound was nearly empty now, silence pressed between the walls like breath waiting to be released.
I lit a cigarette I didn’t want, more for the ritual than the taste.The smoke coiled in the air, gray ribbons twisting into shapes I didn’t recognize.This was getting out of hand.If anything happened to her, I’d burn the fucking world down.
The phone rang once.Twice.I answered on the third.“Di Fiore.”
“Enrico.”
Moretti’s voice—calm, measured, the tone of a man pretending he still held the higher ground.“Your retaliation made quite an impression.”
“I don’t retaliate.I correct mistakes.”
“You call two warehouses a correction?”
He better watch it.“If I meant to make a point, there wouldn’t be anything left to rebuild.”
A beat of silence followed—one of those weighted pauses where both men consider how far to push.I let him fill it.
“My daughter’s been asking questions she shouldn’t.”
So Marco had been right.She hadn’t gone unseen.“What questions?”
“The kind that make me and others nervous.”His voice dropped lower.“Keep her out of the war, Enrico.I don’t want her tied to any of this.”
I ground the cigarette into the ashtray, the ember dying.“If it’s my war, she’s already in it.”
