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I'm not the men I've killed.
I'm not vengeance.
I'm hers.
If I have to bend my knee to her father to get her back, I'll do it.
I'll drag him kicking and screaming the whole goddamn way if that's what I have to do.
Whatever it takes.
"Open up, Alessepo!" I bark, pounding on his door. "We have unfinished business."
The door swings open. Alessepo's hair is a disheveled mess, his gray eyes haunted. The hard lines of his face softened by something I didn't expect to see in this man: fear.
"Karina," I growl as I step into the foyer, not waiting for an invitation.
"Jesus, Coda…" he trails off, his hands tremoring as he shoves the door closed behind me. This isn't the untouchable officer who killed my parents and systemically bullied his way through the ranks to the top. This is a man unraveling at the seams.
"Where is she?" I demand. She's the only thing that matters.
He runs a hand through his hair, his expression hunted. "I backed out of a deal. A gun shipment." The words hang heavy between us. "It's bigger than anything I've been mixed up in before. I knew they'd come after me, but this city doesn't need that kind of problem."
"I know about the deal," I growl, spearing him with a scathing look. "She heard you on the phone the day she moved in with me. You're mixed up with the Alamilla Cartel. Your predecessor was bringing guns into the city for them before we got our hands on him. You were stupid enough to follow in his footsteps."
Santorum was smarter. He managed to keep control. Alessepo never had it. He saw dollar signs and never noticed the fucking yoke waiting for his neck. That's always been his problem. Greed. I'm surprised he stopped to think about what he'd be turning Chicago into if he followed through. That has to be a first for him.
"How does this involve Karina?" I ask.
"They threatened to kill her if I didn't follow through." His voice rises, a mix of desperation and anger. "You think it didn't kill me to know I was the reason she was in that fucking accident? She's my daughter, Passero. I broke her fucking heart trying to protect her. I had to get her out of this house, so I did what I had to do. And I've kept my distance, hoping to shield her. But she was being watched at the university. I needed to get her out of there. I knew she'd go running back to you."
"Running back to me…" Is he saying he wanted her with me?
"You were supposed to keep her safe," he growls, answering that question before I can voice it. The accusation in his tone is clear, but the underlying worry is louder.
"Maybe you shouldn't have told her that I was using her then," I mutter, eyeing him coldly.
"She wouldn't have believed an apology. She needed to think I was there to cause problems. I know my daughter, Passero."
"Not well enough. All you managed to do was send her running right into whatever fucking trap they set."
In the silence that follows, we're not enemies. We're just two men, bound together by fear for the same woman.
"I may be a lot of things, but I never wanted any of this touching Karina," he rasps. There's an edge of sincerity to his confession that I didn't expect, a flicker of something paternal that surprises me. He's a bastard, yeah, but he's a bastard who loves his daughter. And right now, that love is the only thing I can count on.
"We work together," I grunt, the words tasting like acid on my tongue. "We'll bring her home and deal with Alamilla. But once she's safe, you're done. You leave the force and Chicago. I don't give a fuck where you go, but it won't be here, fucking up her life ever again." I meet his gaze, mine cold and unrelenting. "You won't use your position to fuck up her life ever again."
Miles bows his head, expelling a breath. "Agreed. What's the plan?"
I smile, a vicious, deadly smile. "First, we find her. And then I kill everyone standing between me and her." If they wanted to live, they never should have taken her.
Chapter Eleven
Coda
The small pockets of the city that street gangs and cartels have carved out as their own are some of the few places where our reach doesn't extend. We stay out of their business. They stay out of ours. That's how it's always been. Until now.
If Alamilla didn't want us in his business, he should have left Karina alone. Now, his business is Valentino business. And his life is forfeit.
