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“That’s what I thought.”

The sound of an engine and gravel crunching interrupts my thoughts and I glance over my shoulder at Diego. “Expecting someone?”

“Yeah. Smith needed to show us something.”

My stomach drops like a rock at his words and I peel myself out of his embrace as I watch Smith’s truck pull up in front of the house. As he parks, I move to one of the deck chairs and sink into it, mentally preparing myself for whatever news he has to share with us. It feels like I swallowed a handful of sand as he walks up the stairs to the deck and I grab my lemonade off the table, taking a sip of it.

“Hey.”

Diego claps him on the shoulder before walking over to me and sinking in the chair next to mine. Smith follows behind him and sits across from us.

“How are you doing, Iz?” Smith asks and I narrow my eyes as I study him. He doesn’t look too concerned so that’s something but I’m having trouble believing that he’s got good news to impart. Shit. I’m not even sure what good news would look like at this point unless he’s here to tell us that out of the goodness of his heart, Dominic has decided to just let this little issue go and I don’t see that happening anytime soon.

What the hell happened to my positive attitude from minutes ago?

Was I just being naive and sticking my head in the sand?

“I guess that depends on what you have to tell us.”

He nods, leaning forward and clasping his hands together. “Well… honestly, I don’t know if it’s good news or bad but I got a call from Fuzz early yesterday morning to tell me that Gio was at Luca’s apartment. Apparently they left together about twenty minutes later. I’ve been surveilling Dominic’s place and the two of them showed up there about an hour later. Another ninety minutes after that, Gio left and Luca hasn’t been seen since.”

“Okay,” I say, dragging the word out as I watch him. “What does that mean?”

“We don’t know, for sure, but I would say there is a very good chance that Dominic killed Luca.”

I nod, my mind racing. It’s not like I feel bad for Luca since he clearly got himself into this mess but I’m still not sure if it’s good news or not. Is Dominic coming after me himself now? Did he get Luca out of the way so he could make a deal with me like we’ve asked him to? Are the two things not related at all?

“Has Dominic reached out to Tate or Maverick yet?” Diego asks and Smith shakes his head.

“Not that I’m aware of.”

I suck in a breath. “So, we have no idea what this means for me?”

“No,” Smith answers, mashing his lips together as he gazes past us into the trees for a moment. Finally, he sighs. “Personally, I think Luca royally fucked up this whole thing and his number was up no matter what Dominic decides to do about you.”

“But it does mean that whatever happens going forward, Dominic is the one calling the shots now,” Diego supplies and Smith nods. I turn to look at him as he stares down at the deck, his eyes narrowing, and I can see the wheels turning in his mind.

“Just keep in mind that we don’t have a confirmation of death on Luca so this is all just conjecture.”

I nod, my mind snapping to the missing police reports from the night Luca attacked me. “Yeah, but you probably won’t ever get confirmation either. He’ll just be missing like the guy from the alley.”

Smith sighs, nodding his head as he leans back in his seat. “Yeah.”

“Everyone else know about this yet?” Diego asks.

“No.”

He shoves out of his chair. “We should call Storm and meet up at the clubhouse so we can fill all of them in. Maybe someone else will see something we haven’t.”

“Sure,” Smith answers, standing up and pulling his phone out of his pocket. “Meet you there?”

Diego says that he’ll be right behind him and we watch him climb into his truck and pull out of the driveway before he turns to me.

“You want to come with me or stay here?”

The thought of going to the clubhouse right now and socializing with everyone sounds exhausting. I would much rather just sit here in my comfy chair and think about this new information for a little while. Glancing up, I meet his gaze and shake my head.

“I think I’m going to hang out here. You won’t be long, right?”