“Her babysitter’s been struggling to call me,” Julian explained.
“Babysitter?” Salvatore asked, surprise floating in his words before his gaze snapped to me then back to Julian. Salvatore didn’t know Ria had a baby. Shit just got complicated.
“Yes, sir. She has a son apparently.” For a large man, Julian’s voice could dip a few octaves.
“Why am I only finding out about this now, Julian?” Salvatore’s eyes narrowed.
“Can you fucking worry about who’s cock is bigger later after we rescue my fucking wife?” I gritted. Two pairs of eyes snapped toward me. “Yes, I said we because there’s no fucking way, I’m letting you go find her and hide her from me again or my son.” I clenched my fists, a second away from pummeling his face.
Ignoring my rant, Salvatore looked at Julian. “When was she taken?”
“About four nights ago, I was traveling, her sitter couldn’t get a hold of me.”
“Fuck!” Salvatore and I both roared, glanced at each other then back at Julian.
“Who?” Salvatore asked.
“I’m convinced it’s Mendez.”
“Get the jet ready, we leave in an hour. Have the men check the arms,” Salvatore instructed.
“Who the fuck is Mendez and how can you be sure it’s him?” I asked. “And where the fuck is he?”
“I think it's time you left Mr. Morrone,” Salvatore growled.
“The only way you’re getting rid of me is if you shoot me,” I snorted.
He took a step toward me, and Julian stopped him. “Sir, I think he might be able to help. He’s a skilled sniper, which gives us an edge over Mendez. We don’t know how many men he has and if we’re going short-handed into his territory, we need all the help we can get.”
Salvatore seemed to trust Julian’s advice and nodded. “Fine. Annoy the fuck out of me and I’ll put a bullet in your fucking balls, I don’t need a sniper to help me find that,” he hissed at me.
Five hours later, we’d touched down in Mexico City and headed out toward the Mendez compound. Julian had flown to Italy to get Ria’s son. Now I looked at the man sitting next to me, in the back of a rental, his alert gaze on the road. I was intense but Salvatore was someone I’d probably admire if our circumstances were different. Quite clearly, we both loved the same woman and if Ria went off to live on her own, it meant she had feelings for both of us. The problem remained what happened when the three of us walked out of the Mendez place.
“I have a suggestion.” I broke the silence and was surprised when he looked at me, gray eyes, piercing, scrutinizing whether I was fucking with him or not. “What if we sent someone in as bait?” He frowned and waited for me to continue. “When I want to nail a fucker that has more men than we can take down quickly especially if there’s someone, we need to rescue...in this case, someone we both...” I broke off and cleared my throat.
“Someone we both love?” again, his quietness startled me. There was no hint of mockery or anger in his voice and had me wondering if like me he was deliberating what would be the outcome tonight. “Do you love her Mr. Morrone or are you just after the child?” I stiffened but kept my anger at bay.
I looked out the window. “It took a simple hi for me to know I was in love. Close to eight years and my heart never forgot her. I was under the impression she’s been dead for the last five years, so you can understand my fucking shock to not only find out she’s alive but that I have a son.” I glanced back at him and I found his expression strange. “If you love her, why did she leave you?”
He stared at his phone for a moment then looked up. “Because she deserved more.”
“You let her walk away?” I asked.
“Yes.” He was looking out the window again, his expression. “Would you have?”
“No.” While my answer was simple, I wasn’t sure the type of relationship he’d had with her. Ria and I fell in love, he and her were arranged. So, maybe they needed the time.
“This bait you mentioned?” he asked, far more civil than our initial meeting.
“We get someone Mendez would want to negotiate with to walk in and once they’re in and see Ria, they send me a signal and I start taking out the men.”
“You’re confident it will work?”
I grinned. “You can have my trigger finger if it doesn’t.”
“Okay.” His nod was slight. “I’ll be the bait,” he added, again, with the eerie calmness.
Fuck, the man was beginning to freak me out yet there was a subtleness to him that I couldn’t quite figure out yet. And I was usually good at reading people.
