“Do you have anything to report?”
“I’ve been tracking Viktor. He’s been showing up at a coffee shop near the strip. Same place every day this week. Yesterday, I saw him corner a woman outside. Grabbed her hard enough to bruise.”
Lorenzo’s expression doesn’t change. He has a face like carved stone, hard and unreadable. Twenty years I’ve known this man, and I still can’t tell what he’s thinking most of the time. “And?”
“I had Shaw run her. Sierra Dixon. She’s his ex.”
That gets his attention. “Viktor’s woman?”
“She was. She ended it. He’s not taking it well.” I think of the fear in her eyes. “She’s a lead. But I don’t know how useful. They’re not together anymore. I can tail her, but there’s no guarantee he’ll come after her again.”
Santino speaks first. “Did you know I knew Viktor’s father?”
That catches me off guard. I didn’t.
“Boris Ilyin. Arrogant bastard, but effective. I see the same pride in his son. The kind that makes a man reckless.”
“Prideful,” Lorenzo repeats thoughtfully. His gaze settles on me. “And you think he still wants this woman?”
“That’s my read.”
“Then she’s your way in.” He steeples his fingers. “I’m done chasing Viktor. It’s time to make him come to us. Get close to her. Close enough to draw him out.”
I frown. “You want me to date her?”
Lorenzo’s mouth curves into something that isn’t quite a smile. “No. I want you to marry her.”
My body does what it does before a fight—goes quiet, shuts everything down. Except there’s no threat here. Just Lorenzo watching me like he didn’t just say something certifiably insane.
I wait for the rest of it. The actual order. The part that makes sense.
It doesn’t come.
“Marry her,” I repeat flatly.
“Yes.”
“You’re joking.”
“Do I look like I’m fucking joking?”
He doesn’t. Lorenzo never jokes. In two decades, I’ve seen him laugh maybe a handful of times, and it’s never been about something funny.
“Why?” The word comes out harder than I intended. “That’s extreme, even for us.”
“This is an extreme situation.” Lorenzo’s voice turns cold. “Lightning is a problem. The lab we destroyed was a setback, not a solution. Viktor is connected to the production and distribution. We need him alive long enough to get information, which means we need to flush him out without killing him on sight.”
“And you think marrying some random bartender is the way to do that?”
“I think marrying his ex-girlfriend will drive him out of whatever hole he’s hiding in.”
My hands curl into fists under the table. “Dating her would accomplish the same thing.”
“Dating is temporary. Easily dismissed. But marriage?” Santino’s smile is knowing, almost cruel. “Marriage is permanent. Final. It tells Viktor he’s lost her forever.”
Forever.
The word sits in my chest like a stone.
