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When our lips finally broke, I whispered, “I’ll take that as a yes. I’m coming with you.”
He brought his mouth to my ear, coaxing more goose bumps to erupt beneath the hoodie. “I told you, you have power over me, Tesoro. I don’t know how to say no to you.” He let go of my hands, which allowed me to finally touch him.
I fisted his black dress shirt with both hands, and once our eyes met, I begged, “Then don’t.”
THIRTEEN
Enzo
“You’re absolutely certain no one knows you came to see me about the files?” I may have been talking to Jesse, but I couldn’t rip my focus away from Maria inside the private hangar at the Charlotte Douglas Airport. She was talking to her sister, and they were exchanging a few words before we boarded my family’s jet. From the moment we’d shared that Maria was coming with me, Natalia had been trying to convince her to stay. I prayed she could, since I’d been unsuccessful.
“No one, aside from my teammates, is aware I came to you. And before you ask, yes, I trust them all with my life. Hell, with my wife’s life.” Jesse paused, probably waiting for my attention. “The only thing I can think of is someone was keeping tabs on the cleaner, and they picked up on the fact there was a breach. They’d have to be one paranoid SOB to do that. But still, why come after you? That’d only tip you off something is fucked up.”
I surrendered my focus his way. “I considered that, too. And if the attack this morning is connected to the cleaner’s list, that means the real killer is more than likely someone I know. And they’re aware of what I’m capable of if I learn what happened to Bianca.”
“Which is either stupid on their part to give you the heads-up shit is about to hit the fan, or they have an ulterior motive in wanting you to know.”
Fuck if I know what to think right now. “In the meantime, I need the name. I don’t care what Carter wants.”
Jesse frowned. “Even once we track the cleaner down, there’s no guarantee they know who hired them. They kept meticulous records of their jobs, and yet, no names.”
“And why keep those records in the first place unless—”
“It’s also his insurance policy against who hired him,” Jesse finished for me.
Him? Well, I was getting somewhere. The cleaner was a man. Now if I could get a name, that’d be great. “If his clients have power and money, they wouldn’t want any loose ends, and he’d be one of them. He must know that, so he has a way to protect himself from being eliminated as well.”
“He knows someone is after him now, and if word gets out his files have been compromised, if it hasn’t already, he’s going to have a lot of people looking to put a cap in his ass before he can turn on them. Insurance policy or not, they’ll take their chances.”
Maria had given me until Sunday, but I doubted the cleaner had that long, which meant I had to do what I did best. Go hunting. And hopefully get to them before they came after me again. “So ... his name?”
“It’s not just about my team’s concern that you’ll go rogue and try and get to him yourself.” Jesse’s slight scowl didn’t do wonders for my nerves. “Carter doesn’t like your brother. He didn’t tell me why, but he said there’s beef there, and he doesn’t want to work with him on this.”
I know why. No time to discuss that now. “I can’t keep my brother out of this, especially not after some mafioso showed up at my apartment this morning.”
“But if I tell you this guy’s name, it’s my head, and—”
“And you knew that before you came to the restaurant last night,” I reminded him. “You could’ve waited, but you didn’t.”
“Look, I want us to work together.” He looked past me in the direction of Maria and Natalia. “Give me a few hours to convince my team to bring you into the fold.” He held up a palm as if knowing I was seconds away from protesting. “If it’s a no from them, then I’ll go ahead and give you his name and deal with the consequences from Carter.”
I considered the options. And beating the information from an old friend right now wasn’t one of them. “You didn’t invite me to the wedding,” I said instead, knowing he’d understand my lack of arguing about the cleaner was an answer.
Jesse ran his hand across his mouth. “It wasn’t exactly a normal situation. We had to fake the whole getting-married bit, but then we decided to turn in the paperwork later so it was legit.”
“Fake marriage, huh?”
“That’s a story for another day.” He semismiled, putting eyes on Maria, her sister, and Ryan. “Do your brothers know she’s coming?”
“Not yet.”
“No chance your father’s past has anything to do with what happened to Bianca? Your dad’s old organization has had quite the shake-up lately.”
“I don’t think he’s involved, but I’m not ruling anyone or anything out,” I shared, thinking about the change in leadership in Sicily. A woman now ran things there, and from what I knew, she was solid and deserved the role. Married Irish, which turned a few heads and ruffled quite a lot of old-school Italian feathers.
“I really am sorry I had to drop this on you. But I won’t leave you hanging.” Jesse extended his hand, and his ring caught my eye. That circle of damn hope I’d never thought possible for me.
“Yeah, I trust you.” I slapped his hand with mine; then we said our goodbyes before I started for the jet, anxious to take off, but not so eager to do so with two bodyguards on board. Constantine was paranoid and overprotective to think I’d need escorts while up in the sky.
