“Perhaps it is,” I snarl. “Now, your number.”
“You say that like I haven’t got a choice, like I have to give it to you.”
“I’m not going to forget I have a kid. And I’m not going to forget you’re alive. So either give me your number or…”
I stop. Or what? Am I going to threaten the mother of my child, the only woman who’s ever made time stand still for me?
“Fine,” she says. “But I need to make something clear. I’m giving you my number forTheo’ssake. Because when you held him, I could see that it mattered tohim, okay?”
“Okay.”
“And there’s a condition. Answers soon, or I’ll block your number, and you can go back to pretending to think I was dead.”
I swallow a wave of anger. I need to get her some proof as soon as possible.
“Fair enough, Ava.”
I take out my phone. She recites her number. After punching it in, I call it. She gives me a reluctant smile as her cellphone rings from her handbag on the table.
“Had to be sure,” I say.
She laughs. “We’re not all liars,” she replies sassily.
I leave, though I don’t want to. Adrian is waiting for me at the end of the hallway.
“So, it’s you,” he says.
“Hmm.”
He steps forward. “If you had any love in your heart for that child, you’d leave this city and never return.”
“That’s a fucked thing to say, Adrian,” I snarl. “Even for a mob-lackey like you.”
“Ava’s doing well. Her son is doing well. They don’t need you.”
“That’s not your decision to make.” I tilt my head. “Either get out of my way, or call your Hungarian buddies for backup.”
“You think you’ve got it all figured out,” he says, stepping aside. “You think the whole world is as cynical as you.”
After arranging the collection of my pieces, I leave the function hall, walking across the street in search of Nico and Tony. There’s no sign of the car. I look up and down the street. Tony is approaching with a cardboard case of takeout coffee cups in his hand.
“Cousin, what’s up?” he says.
“Where the hell is Nico?” I growl.
“He should be here,” Tony says. “He sent me for coffee, said he’d keep watch. Why, is something up?”
I massage my forehead, temples pulsing, a war drum slamming in my chest. Nico, my most trusted man, my second-in-command, a man who lied about the mother of my child being dead… has disappeared. Did he bolt when he realized I was going to discover his lie? Perhaps he somehow got word that Ava was here.
“We need to find him,” I snarl. “Now.”
CHAPTER 7
AVA
“You were such a good boy tonight,” I murmur, getting Theo settled in his crib. “You weresogood for Auntie Cassie.”
He murmurs and smiles up at me with those amber-gold eyes.
