The girls disappear into the bedroom with a bunch of bridal magazines, giggling excitedly, and I wish Lili was also looking at dress ideas. The more I think about the double wedding suggestion, the more I like it.
“So, you set a date?” I ask, pouring two cups of fresh coffee and handing one to my brother.
He nods and smiles. “Gia wants to get married on New Year’s Eve.”
That gives me plenty of time to propose to Elisa. Propping my elbows on the island unit, I eyeball my brother. “Would you be opposed to a double wedding?”
He arches one groomed eyebrow. “Have you proposed and forgotten to tell me?”
“Not yet, but I’m planning to do it on Lili’s birthday. I’m taking her to Paris.”
“Canada and now Paris? You’re turning into quite the romantic, little brother.”
I shove my middle finger up at him. “I’m making Lili’s dreams come true, and you can’t throw shade because you’re as gone for your woman as I am for mine.”
His features soften. “I’m happy for you, Caleb. Elisa is good for you. I have never seen you so at peace within yourself.”
“She was the missing piece, J.” I sip on my coffee as I consider how the answer to my unhappiness was always right under my nose.
“I’m not opposed to a double wedding,” he confirms, “but it’ll be up to the girls. Whatever they decide is fine by me.”
“It’d be cool to get married together though, right?”
“Seems fitting because we’ve always pretty much done everything together.”
“Love you, broski.” I round the island unit and pull my brother into a hug.
“Love you too.”
We separate, and I return to my side of the counter. “Tell me about last night.” I was in bed, doing all kinds of naughty things with Lili, short of full sex, when everything went down.
“The lockbox was at Barron Financial and Investment.”
I roll my eyes. “Typical. We should have just called Charlie Barron and asked him to check.” A friend of a friend introduced us to the CEO of the bank years ago, and though he’s older than us and married with a family, we’ve become good friends. Charlie is based in Boston, where the bank HQ is, but he would have made arrangements to get us into the branch here.
“It’s a moot point now. We have the box and the goons Cruz hired. They were saying jack shit when we ambushed them, so they were taken to the bunker. Ben and Massimo are going to question them today.”
“What was in the box?” I ask, peeling an orange from the fruit bowl.
“A USB key. It’s password protected, so Fiero took it to see if he can crack it.”
“I’m sure it’s only a matter of time. I doubt the tech Gino used is anywhere near as sophisticated as the tech we have now,and Fiero keeps his skills updated.” I pop an orange segment into my mouth.
“Agreed. It must be something special if he went to so much trouble to hide it.”
I shrug, not really caring now it’s safely in our grasp. “Cruz must know by now we’ve thwarted him. What’s his next move?” I muse out loud.
“Nothing good, I’m sure. But one thing we definitely know is he won’t back down.”
We’re two blocks from Lili’s apartment when her cell pings, cutting us off mid-conversation. I’m keeping one eye on the road and one eye on my sweet, sexy girlfriend so I see the moment all the blood drains from her face. “What’s wrong?”
“Pull over.” Her voice trembles, and her hand is shaking around her cell.
I spot a loading bay parking space on my left, outside, ironically, a bridal dress store, and I flick the blinker and drive into the spot. As soon as I kill the engine, I unbuckle my seat belt and swivel in my seat. “You’re scaring me, angel. Show me.”
She hands the phone over without hesitation, and my blood instantly boils when I see the threatening text message.Sluts deserve to dieis the caption beside a montage of photos of Lili and me. One was taken last night as we exited the restaurant where we had dinner with the Salerno family.
“Who sent this?” I ask though one suspect instantly springs to mind.
