"Or why the hell you didn't just call me. To inform me that you'd been shot. That the job went sideways. That you were bleeding out in the middle of Denver."
"Lorenzo—"
"But I'm not going to ask those questions." His voice drops. Dangerous. "Because you almost died. So I'm going to wait. And when you're feeling better, I'm going to knock you the fuck out myself."
I almost smile.
Lorenzo has always tried to be tough on me. Since we were teenagers. Since his father took me in and gave me a place at the table. He plays the role of the hard boss. The man who makes soldiers piss their pants with a single look.
But the truth is that he can't.
Not with me. Not with the people he loves.
Lorenzo Sartori is built to provide care more than he gives punches. He just doesn't like anyone knowing it.
"I'll look forward to it," I say.
"Don't test me, Dante." But some of the edge has left his voice. "What the fuck happened?"
I shift against the pillows. The wound throbs with every heartbeat.
"Webb was ready for me," I say. "Had a man waiting. Armed. The moment I mentioned the debt, he made a move for the back door. His muscle came out shooting."
"And?"
"I put them down."
Lorenzo is quiet for a moment. "Webb is dead?"
"Should be. Took a bullet to the throat. Bled out on his office floor."
"Should be," Lorenzo repeats. "That's not a confirmation."
"I was busy trying not to die. Didn't stop to check his pulse."
A long exhale on the other end of the line. I hear him shift. The creak of leather.
"I sent a team to Webb's building," Lorenzo says. "An hour after Marina called."
I wait.
"Someone cleaned the place before they got there."
The words hit me like a second bullet.
"What?"
"No bodies. No blood. No shell casings. Nothing." Lorenzo's voice is hard now. All business. "The office looked like it had been professionally sanitized. My men said it smelled like bleach."
I stare at the ceiling. My mind races through the possibilities.
"That's not possible," I say. "There was blood everywhere. Webb's throat was?—"
"Dante." Lorenzo cuts me off. "I'm telling you what my team found. Which was nothing."
Silence.
"Either Webb is alive," Lorenzo continues, "or something else is going on. Someone knew about the meeting. Someone was watching. Someone moved fast enough to clean a double homicide before my people could get there."
