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“How long do you want to make him wait?” Greyson asked as we stared at our swinging captive, who hadn’t woken yet. I was starting to worry I’d hit him too hard.
“We don’t have time to wait. I’ll take him now.”
It had been a long time since I’d felt blood on my skin, and after the day we’d had, I needed it. I needed the control, needed to know I was the only thing protecting him from death. It probably made me some kind of psychopath, but I didn’t care.
Beating the shit out of an Ace was the perfect way to get my head on straight, which I desperately needed because as the man swung, phantom aches echoed through my fingertips, my ribs. I knew it was in my head, but it was so hard to ignore.
Was that what I’d looked like when Cash had me hanging? Had I really been that vulnerable? I didn’t know, but I made a promise to myself that I would never be that way again. He would never get another chance to hurt me like that.
“You don’t have to do this, Mari,” Nate said seriously. Dominic stood close to him, giving me distance after our disagreement, so Greyson was the one to wrap my hands, finishing with brass knuckles custom made to fit over them. I could’ve worn them alone, but the extra padding meant I wouldn’t break a finger by accident.
Probably.
He kissed my palms before stepping back to stand with the others. “She’ll be fine, Nate.”
Dominic nodded. “Besides, she’s got something to prove tonight.”
“You don’t need to prove anything to us,” Nate told me.
“I didn’t say we were the ones she was doing it for,” Dominic corrected.
Fucker was right again. I had to prove to myself that even though I’d failed more than I’d succeeded lately, I was still Marianna Marcosa, Queen of Seattle.
And no one fucked with me.
I stared at the Ace on my hook, frowning. The longer I looked, the more certain I was I’d seen him before.
I tried to remember, but with everything else, my mind was still fuzzy. “Do we have Cash’s file?”
Greyson pulled out the small tablet he had in his suit jacket, tapping away on the screen. “I uploaded it to the cloud while Nate was getting discharged.”
“You mean while Mari was arguing with the nurses,” Nate corrected.
“They weren’t giving me the right instructions.”
“Like you didn’t already know them.”
Grey laughed under his breath, handing me the device with the file open. It was just pictures of the pages for now, so I flipped through until…there.
Known accomplices. Cash didn’t have many, so the long-timers had caught my attention as people he seemed closer to.
People like Enzo Morelli, the man on my hook.
The photo was definitely old since he looked like a model. In person, he looked very different. Flatter hair, face wrinkled, and a complexion shades lighter—almost sickly. Only the tattoos and the scar across the side of his neck told me the two men were one and the same.
They need to update their photos.
Reading the file, I realized why I remembered him. Good ol’ Enzo was the weapons specialist. The one who had been connected to Cash since they were teens. The one I suspected set the bomb.
I wasn’t naïve enough to think Cash would come for his lifelong bestie, but I had hope Enzo knew more than the others had.
My captive woke as I handed the tablet back to Grey. “Enzo Morelli, I wasn’t expecting you tonight.”
He lifted his head wearily, eyes widening when he saw me. It was just a second before he schooled his face into a frown, but I recognized the look in his eyes.
Fear.
He knew why he was in my cold room, and he knew he wasn’t leaving it alive.
