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“I had your calendar cleared for the next week. As far as any of your coworkers are concerned, you’re on vacation. Tonight you’re going to pack, and tomorrow you’ll be moved to a safe house and will have round the clock security, including Luca. Your safety is my top priority. This sick fuck bypassed our building’s security, broke into your apartment, and made it very clear that they have violent, disturbed intentions.”
She sighs, using the sleeve of her hoodie to swipe at a stray tear. “You’re right, Papà, but please promise me that when we catch him, my life will go back to normal. Please don’t make me leave Nouva Notte because of this.”
“Your momma wants me to, bambina. She’s scared shitless, but I’d never do that to you. I promised you’d make your own choices about your life, and I’m a man of my word.” He stands, then brings his daughter in for a hug. He whispers something in her ear, and she smiles.
“I love you too, Papà, and look forward to it. I’m going back to my room to start packing. I’m sure Maximo can see you out.”
When she comes back to her room, she’s surprised to see me there, even though I told her I would wait. She turns to eye the door, then twists her lips.
“I’m sure you were listening. Max thinks you’re my stalker.” She pulls a suitcase out of her room and packs the few things she has in the guest closet.
“I’m not scared of anyone, little killer. And no one, not even your brothers, will ever keep me apart from you.” I stand behind her and rub her hips under her sweatshirt. “I noticed you said he thinks I’m the stalker…”
She elbows me in my gut, putting some space between us. “You being the stalker would be the convenient choice. You have the means and skill to break into any building. You’re obviously obsessed with me.” She gives me a hard glare, and I smile at her. “But that’s not your style. We just met, and whoever this is has a long-term grudge against me. My money is on Dmitri.”
Before I can tell her about the information I gathered, Maximo bursts into the room, charging toward me like a mad bull. Lucky for him, I’m already a walking red flag. He pins me to the wall behind me, and I let him. He’ll be easier to deal with if he thinks he has the upper hand.
“Who the fuck are you working for!” he snarls, getting in my face.
“The Brigade, technically, but mainly myself. That’s the beauty of being number two, you get to pick and choose your jobs,” I tease, waving the red flag nice and high for him.
“It’s not a coincidence that as soon as you come into her life, Maddie starts getting fucking death threats. Who the fuck hired you?!”
“Max, hold on—” she shouts.
He tries to throw a punch at me, but I rip my arm free of his hold and block it. Then I flip us, so he’s pinned to the wall.
“Use your head. I saw your sister for the first time when we were both contracted to kill Venza. Her stalker obviously has a deep, twisted vendetta against her. He’s been obsessed with her for years. Would he really hire The Brigade to do his dirty work for him?”
He struggles, trying to work his way out of my hold, but I double down, pinning my biceps against his throat.
“Garrix, let him go,” Maddalena orders me. “If you hurt my brother, you have no chance with me.” She crosses her arms over her chest and leans on the wall.
I begrudgingly ease up, but I don’t let him go. He needs to get on board, because no one will ever stand in between me and my little killer, even her twin.
“Alright!” he concedes. “You being the stalker wouldn’t make much sense anyway, since we allied ourselves with you.”
“We won’t take a contract against the Vettore family since we became allies. Any hypothetical active contracts would have stopped the minute Fox signed the paperwork,” I explain to him.
“Now that you two are done measuring dicks and making up, let Max go,” she chides me, like I’m a naughty kid that got his hand caught in the cookie jar. “We have a lot more important things to discuss.”
I give the kid a hard glare, letting him know that I won’t take his shit just because he’s Maddalena’s brother. That was his one chance. Sitting on the edge of her bed, I watch her pack and tell her about the information I found.
“One of my associates knows someone who spends a lot of time with one of Dmitri’s higher ranking men, Boris Bulyevek. She’s a dancer at Vixen he regularly visits, both in the front and back of the house. The issue is that she feeds him information under a code name, so I’m unsure who she is.”
“Smart. A few of my informants are dancers across our clubs. Hmmm, what’s the code name?” she asks.
“Dancing Diva. Very imaginative.”
“Hold on, let me get my laptop.” Max hustles out of the room, returning a moment later with a sleek Linux. His fingers fly over the keyboard at warp speed. “I’m pulling up a list of all of our dancers on the payroll there and the hours they worked through the employee tracking system.”
Maddalena moves to stand behind her brother, peering over his shoulder at the screen, a smirk on her face. “One of my good ideas put to practice. JC can fuck himself for thinking this was a waste of money.”
“We have twenty seven dancers on the payroll there, with about eight of them regularly working more than twenty-five hours a week. I’m assuming that Boris’ regular girl’s set is at night, since that’s when gangsters and criminals tend to frequent the club.” Max grins, then snaps a picture of the screen. “Honey Trap, Lola Lust, Glitter, Ginger, Thick Leah, and Crystal are the only girls who’ve worked evenings consistently for the past month. My money is that your anonymous informant is one of them.”
“Thank you,” she sing-songs, giving him a side hug. “Can you both leave? I’m going to get dressed and throw some makeup on.”
Her brother leaves, and she pushes me out the door, slamming it behind me. We sit on opposite ends of the couch.
