“Zira.” His smile remains warm. “If it makes you feel better, consider that I got to shove my dick down your throat at least three times last night. If you won’t believe my forgiveness, then believe that I got my payback.”
My cheeks instantly flare and Bradley laughs. It’s a deep, warm sound and might be the first time I’ve heard it properly. It’s nice. I want to make him laugh again. Always.
“I’m still… mad at myself,” I admit with another bite of pancakes. “For not realizing Peter was using me. For being so foolish about all of this. And I know it was hard, but I feel like I should have recognized my own brother.”
“It sounds like they went to great lengths to make sure that didn’t happen.”
“Yeah. And I’m so fucking angry at Harris. He’s gotten away with everything and he’ll escape with half those diamonds. I lost my brother, as much of a dick as he was, and my job, probably, and my home, andeverything. While he just gets away with everything.” My fork hovers over my pancake. “Part… part of mewants him dead. And I want to be the one to do it.” My voice softens. “And that scares me.”
I’d never have admitted that out loud if Bradley hadn’t made me feel so incredibly safe with him.
“You won’t have to do that,” Bradley assures me. “He won’t get far.”
“You don’t know that,” I murmur. “He’s such a slippery fucker. He should have been in prison years ago, but he always gets away with everything.”
“Zira, no one can hide from the Mafia, not for long,” Bradley says, and he turns back to the stove, pouring his batter out. “We have eyes everywhere, and the only reason we didn’t go after him full barrel was because of the concern for your brother’s safety. A concern, sadly, that no longer holds us back.”
“Maybe I could call him and set up some kind of deal?” I suggest, lowering my fork in favor of a glass of orange juice. “He did say he wanted me to crawl back to him with the diamonds we have. Maybe we can use them to lure him out?”
“I considered it,” Bradley replies. “But we’re already using what we have to soothe the Irish. Unfortunately, that’s a higher priority right now. The Irish need the diamonds to seal a very important deal that risks many families and a lot more lives. Securing that deal comes first. Harris second.” He flips his pancake. “But that doesn’t mean Harris is any less important. Don’t worry, we’ll find him.”
“Will you be able to track the diamonds Harris has if he decides to get rid of them?”
Bradley serves up his blueberry pancakes and sets them on the table. “To an extent. If he starts to sell them, we’ll snap them up immediately. Raven’s reached out to every black market cutter that we can find, so if Harris goes to one of them to get his diamonds cut and renewed, then we should catch him, assuming none of them get blinded by riches.”
“So you’re relying on the honesty of black market gem cutters or Harris getting greedy and selling them as they are?”
Bradley’s cheeky smile warms my heart. “Exactly.”
“Damn.” Mulling it over as Bradley sits, I return to my pancakes and pop the next mouthful past my lips, savoring the soft, warm sweetness. “I wish I’d done more back at the house.”
“The house with… Adam, was it?”
I nod. “I was so… so shocked. And he just killed Adam in front of me. I didn’t know him. I think he was one of Harris’s friends, but he didn’t even blink when he killed him. I don’t understand how someone can be so cold, but I wish I’d done something more.”
“You just learned that your brother was dead and you were chasing a ghost. I don’t think there was anything more anyone could have expected of you.” Bradley devours his first pancake in two bites and I chuckle.
“Maybe. But if I’d been smarter or… something. I don’t know. I just wish there were some way I could have found out which GPS he uses, or whether the cars were connected or something.”
Bradley’s entire form suddenly freezes. “GPS?”
“Yeah… yeah, sorry. I remember when he was yelling at me, he told me the only reason he wasn’t using the GPS to get the diamonds was that he wanted me to crawl back to him withthem. I get that he’s paranoid, so I bet he would have put one on his own car, y’know? If he could kill Adam like that, then surely, he didn’t trust him. I guess it’s how he also knew I still had the diamonds and hadn’t taken them to the police or something?—”
The abrupt way Bradley drags his phone out of his pocket brings me to silence, and a strange cold sweeps through my chest as darkness descends across his face. He dials quickly and lifts the phone to his ear. The subtle hum of ringing reaches my ears and for a few tense seconds, we just sit there.
No one answers.
Bradley lowers the phone, taps the screen, and calls again.
“What’s wrong?” My gut twists and the lingering sweetness from the pancakes sours in my mouth. “What’s happened? Did I do something?”
“No,” Bradley snaps and then winces as if he didn’t mean to. “No, not you.”
Again, he lowers the phone and taps the screen once more, then he stands as he presses it back to his ear. The darkness in his eyes melts into worry and my heart lurches up into my throat.
“Why doesn’t anyone answer their fucking phone!”
31
