He demanded I had a place to take his calls without risking being overheard and I needed to stay on premise to get my fucking work done. So here I am, a grown ass man and one of the most feared fixers in the Western world, hiding amongst the cleaning supplies as I run through every excuse for why I’m failing.
Failing the head of the family. Failing the war against the Paganos, the surveillance on Lena.
Fuck!Just…Lena.
The woman has me twisted in knots. I want to protect her, and I want to fuck her. I have to figure out who the hell wants her dead, and I need to know if she really is colluding with the Paganos. God help me, I think I want to keep her, but I don’t dare trust her.
These wants, theseneeds, go around my head like a carousel from hell, never letting me off, never letting me have any peace. Not unless I have her in my arms, her body hot and willing beneath me.
An excuse I couldnotgive Aldo when trying to explain why I haven’t made any progress in my search.
I have to make headway. When Aldo returns to Chicago, I need to be able to give him some real answers or I won’t be able to look him in the eye. Failing is not an option.
Staying in the closet a few minutes longer, I send messages to two of my best freelance hackers. I don’t have a lot of information to go on, but tax records might just give me the lead I need.
“Boss, you gotta get out here.” Johnny’s voice comes through the door, tension audible. I unlock the door and step out, finding him staring down at his phone in the dark hallway.
“What is it?”
“There’s been another attack.”
I can tell from his stance alone it’s bad. My best friend’s jaw is ticking in a way that puts all my senses on high alert. “Who? Where?”
Johnny opens his mouth, but nothing comes out. A second later he just holds up his phone. It’s an alert message from one of our guards.
911 Bianca Lena Milk Stop Cafe
“How long ago did he send it?”
Johnny checks the time stamp. We both pretend we don’t notice how his hand shakes. “Forty seconds.”
“That cafe is on the other side of town. We need to be gone. Now.” I grab the car keys from his hand.
I turn, about to run down the hall when Johnny stops me. I look from his white-knuckle grip on my arm to his face. He’s alarmingly pale. “Bia…she’s pregnant,” he says, his voice catching on the word. “She thinks I don’t know. She’s waiting to tell me. But I know, Rem. I know. Bia is pregnant and if anything happens…”
I don’t care what preconceived notions anyone has about men and women. I don’t care who you love or how. I’ve seen love build a person up out of nothing, and I’ve seen it bring some of the strongest humans on this planet to their knees. When someone you love more than life is in danger, a different type of fear takes hold. The kind that warns of annihilation.Because, heaven forbid, if anything happens to that person, you might not survive.
That’s the fear staring out at me from Johnny’s eyes. I’ve seen him cut down countless enemies without batting an eyelash. But the idea that his wife and unborn child could be in danger is almost too terrifying to face, even for one of the strongest men I know.
“We’re running out of here, Johnny,” I tell him, dragging him down the hallway until his legs start to function and he’s running faster than me. “We’re going to get to them in time, brother. There’s no other choice.”
There isn’t.
Not for Johnny and Bianca and their baby.
And, I’ve realized, swallowing back a hint of the same fear, not for me and Lena either. Logic and family and duty be damned.
“Bianca! Baby!”Johnny pounds on the elevator door. We hear a muffled response but can’t tell who it is or what they’re saying. “Sweet girl, it’s me,” he continues. “We’ll have you out in a second.”
“It has to be them.” I’m looking at my phone screen and Johnny’s, both open to the tracking app. The signal from Bianca’s phone and Lena’s ring are pinging from almost exactly where we’re standing. “The two of them are in the elevator, I just can’t tell more than that.”
“You LoJacked your fake fiancée?” Johnny asks while trying to pry open the doors.
“You LoJacked your wife, so shut the fuck up.”
Any hesitation about Lena being my fiancée, fake or otherwise, jumped off a cliff when I realized she was in danger. She’s been headlining my thoughts for weeks, months. I’ve beenfollowing her every move, studying her every breath, and I can’t think of her as anything but mine. I’m done wasting time pretending otherwise. A truth she and I are going to discuss fully once I get her out of here and punish her for sneaking out of my fucking penthouse in the first place. The enjoyment we’ll both get from the sensual torment stamps a twisted smirk on my face.
Which is why I’m smiling when some asshole sweating through his balaclava comes racing up the stairs, bloody hand pointing a Glock at my chest.
