Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 65112 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 326(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 217(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65112 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 326(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 217(@300wpm)
It’s a strange picture. Me barefoot in his bathroom, pregnant and still a little scared. Him behind me, dangerous and steady and too handsome for anyone’s good. Neither of us looks like we belong in a normal domestic fantasy.
I want a partner. That’s the part I keep coming back to when I’m brave enough to think about the baby longer than ten seconds at a time. I don’t want to do this alone if I don’t have to. And lately, when I picture someone beside me, it’s Sebastian.
That’s dangerous enough, but what’s worse is that I don’t just picture him as the father of my child. I picture him as my partner. When I’m not carefully guarding my thoughts, I imagine walking down a long aisle with him waiting at the end. These are my deepest, darkest secrets. I don’t even tell Gia.
I can’t admit that I’m falling for him. The second I do, it’ll all come apart. So I guard that feeling as fiercely as I can and pray he never finds out.
24
SEBASTIAN
I’m in the security office at Bellissimo when Matteo sends the footage of a suspicious black sedan to the large monitor on the wall. The angle is bad but not useless. I don’t need to look closely to know it’s Adrian.
The plates belong to a Toyota registered in Glendale, not a luxury car idling behind one of my clubs at 1:17 in the morning. The sedan sits near the service entrance for less than four minutes before pulling away.
Four minutes is long enough to be seen. He wants me to know he’s here. He’s taunting me.
Matteo stands beside me, arms crossed, jacket off, with his sleeves rolled to his elbows. He’s been in the same shirt since yesterday, which tells me he’s been working all night.
“That’s Dolce Monday, Prime Vida Wednesday, and Bellissimo last night,” he says. “Same car, same pattern.”
“He knows the weak spots.”
“Yes.”
“Then we have a leak.”
Matteo exhales through his nose and looks back at the screen. “Most likely.”
I don’t like that answer.
“He knew the service schedule. He knew when the alley camera would be blocked by deliveries. He knew which door had the light out for two days because maintenance dragged their feet.”
“I’m pulling access logs,” Matteo tells me.
“Why aren’t they already on my desk?”
Matteo glances at me. “Someone’s moody today.”
“Someone’s going to be dead today if you don’t find my leak.”
“I’m on it.”
That’s the only answer I want.
He taps through a few more screens. Still images from other properties come up one by one. A man in a black cap near Dolce. A delivery van idling outside Prime Vida. The same sedan caught at an angle near one of our hotels downtown. Nothing clean enough to grab him on. Everything close enough to irritate me.
Adrian is smarter than I gave him credit for. Careful. Patient when he needs to be. He knows how to frighten Val without getting close. He knows how to make his presence felt while keeping enough distance to stay alive.
Matteo changes screens again.
“I’ve got three new hires with access to shift rotations. Two contractors with temporary badges. One valet at Dolce who owes money to a bookie with Vescari ties.”
“Start with the valet.”
“I already did.”
“And?”
“He’s scared, broke, and stupid. I don’t think he’s our leak, but he knows someone who might be.”
“Put pressure on him.”
Matteo’s mouth curves. “I wasn’t planning to ask nicely.”
“Try not to have too much fun.”
“I make no promises.”
That’s about as much humor as either of us can afford right now. He sends the list to my phone while I stare at the footage. Part of me wants to go downstairs and handle the valet myself. The smarter part knows I’m too angry to be useful.
I can handle threats. I can handle men testing my properties, my money, my men, my patience. That’s business. But Adrian threatened the mother of my child.
I can’t stop picturing Val in my library with her laptop open. Val in my bed, pretending she isn’t scared of how normal it’s starting to feel. Val in the doctor’s office, her fingers wrapped around mine while our baby’s heartbeat filled the room.
“What’s coming from New York?”
“Enough to be annoying.” He picks up the tablet from the counter. “Adrian’s making calls through old family channels. Nothing official. His father’s people aren’t openly backing him, but a few still take his calls.”
“So he’s acting alone, but not completely.”
“That’s my read.”
I rub my thumb along my jaw and look back at the sedan. “Lean on them.”
“How hard?”
“Quietly, for now. I don’t want a war with his father unless his father decides he wants one.”
Matteo nods. “Money first?”
“Money, licenses, shipments, anything that can bruise without drawing blood.”
“I’ll send men east.”
“Send men who understand the word quiet.”
He gives me a flat look. “I don’t usually send idiots to New York.”