His phone rings and he only takes a step away to get it out and press it to his ear. "Joe here," he practically yells into the receiver. "Oh, yeah, I can handle that. I'll be right there." He hangs up and claps his hands together. "Well, I've got to jet, baby doll. Rest up, we have a wedding to plan." He plants another kiss on London's lips, not caring at all that she isn't reciprocating and points to me. "Sarah, baby, I'll see you at the wedding."
"Wouldn't miss it," I tell him because if it comes to it, I'll be the one putting a bullet in his fucking skull as he waits for his bride to walk down the aisle. Anything to get her away from this sick man.
The second he leaves, I reach for the bottle of hand sanitizer and pump some into my palms, scrubbing aggressively and offering some to London. She gladly accepts, going as far as to rub some of it onto her face, too.
"He was..." I fall short of words to describe that man.
"Disgusting, repulsive, unacceptable."
"Yeah, that."
"Why wouldn't someone hot agree to marry me?"
"I heard," I lean in closer and lower my voice. "That it was part of a business arrangement between your dad and his dad, Vito."
London seems surprised at my knowledge. "What? How did you figure that out?"
"Well..." I scoot my chair toward her and speak quietly. "It's kind of a long story, but some guy working for your dad told us, last night."
"Last night?"
"It's probably better if we don't discuss details," I tell her.
She nods. "Yeah, you're probably right." London meets my gaze, hers growing more serious with each passing second. "You really weren't lying, were you?"
"About what?"
"About trying to find a way out of this?"
"I wasn't."
London stares at me for a long moment like she's assessing which path to take next. Finally, she says, "What can I do to help?"
And for the first time in a great while, I actually feel something bubbling inside of me that resembles what I can only imagine is hope.
36
SILVER
Idrive to a place that doesn't belong to me because inside it is the woman who has stolen my heart.
Ideas of how to navigate this situation consume nearly every single one of my thoughts. Never in all my years have I been this fucking determined to solve a problem than I am now, and the fact that it's taking this much effort to figure it out is driving me fucking insane.
There are so many variables I'm not often faced with. Casualties I cannot disregard just for the sake of saving Cora from her doomed fate with Ricardo.
Her life is obviously at the top of my priority list, but then there's her parents to consider too. She doesn't have a great relationship with them yet they're the reason she's in this mess to begin with. I must determine how to keep them alive, along with Miller and Alec, too. If she loses any of them, I will have failed her.
Then there's the added variable of her new friend London, who happens to be the enemy's daughter. A complication I never accounted for that will pose a great risk to this entire fucking mission. It's clear he doesn't give a fuck about his daughter, and she's only alive as a means to procure him more money on his endless pursuit of whatever it is he's hoping to achieve.
It's laughable that he thinks he's going to overthrow Dominic. The likelihood of that happening is quite literally slim to none, but it still muddles business in a way that is not tolerable. Some disruption is expected, but what Ricardo is doing is downright pestilent.
And now that Cora's enemy is also Dom's it massively fucks with the whole keeping this a secret thing she's sworn me to.
I'm not supposed to know that Miller is dealing with this on Dom and Johnny's behalf, and Cora doesn't want us discussing things with anyone other than ourselves, so that leaves us all spinning our feet as we navigate the situation to the best of our abilities.
However, if Miller tells Dominic that he hired me to help him with the shipment situation, maybe that will allow me to discuss things with Dom, without telling him about Cora's involvement. If I can eliminate Dom's problem, using his resources, maybe that would, in turn, save Cora from her deal with Ricardo.
I'll have to talk to Cora and see if she's okay with me pursuing this option, because I'd love to get her permission first instead of begging for her forgiveness later. But, if she says no, that's exactly what I'll be doing, because this is the only way forward that I can settle on.
