Page 148 of Savage Don

She told Domenico that she knew about a new leaker who could get her harmful information into the right hands. They both agreed to meet him here, at their shitty little meat packing plant in New Jersey.

By the time I’m done with them, they’ll be hanging from the rafters with the rest of the dead meat.

“Is everyone ready to go outside?” Leonid grumbles into his radio one last time.

I don’t hear the response, but when the Russian prince gives me a nod, I know everything is in place.

“Let’s do this shit.”

Up ahead, we hear another metallic clang. It’s followed by the distant sound of voices. I can’t make out what they’re saying, but it hardly matters.

Reaching behind my back, I pull the flare out from beneath my belt and get ready to light it.

“There’s the opening,” Leonid whispers.

Just past the last row of hanging carcasses, there’s a long open floor. Tiny slits of daylight slip in through the closed windows above, illuminating just enough to confirm where we are.

On the other side of the opening is a towering wall. Two metal staircases wind up the sides, ending at a barred balcony. Those are where the offices are. The room in the center is the only one with any lights on.

Inside, I can see movement.

Something feels off, but I don’t give that feeling much attention. Everything has felt off since the moment Leonid and I broke into this place.

No. Scratch that. Shit has felt off since long before then. But it has nothing to do with this mission.

It’s Francesca.

I left her a note this morning, right on the bathroom door. I’m sure she’s seen it by now.

My message was vague, because I only wrote it to try and give her some sense of comfort. All of this was coming to an end, and when it was over we were going to live the lives we deserved to live. She didn’t need to know the details. They would only drag her down.

But through all of the vagueness, I felt compelled to make something very clear in the final line.

I love you.

That’s what I wrote, before coming to my senses and scribbling it out.

Fuck. What was I thinking?

She didn’t want to hear that, no matter how true it was. There’s enough on her plate as is. The last of her family is about to be obliterated. Her life is on the verge of being flipped upside down, again. And she’s still not sure that she’s ready to do what needs to be done to secure our future.

Love is too intense of a thing to reveal at a time like this. And it’s definitely not something that should be said for the first time on a sticky note.

So, I didn’t keep in that last line. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t mean it.

I fucking love her.

It’s a relief just to think those words. I love everything about her. Her eyes and her smile and her laugh and her innocence, her intelligence and her fire and her ambition. The naïve bits and the dark bits. They all mix together into the perfect package.

If Francesca is going to get the life we both deserve, then I’m going to have to destroy the part of her past that refuses to let go.

This is for you, kitten.

“You go left, I’ll go right,” I mutter to Leonid, taking out my lighter.

I’m ready.

Domenico will have brought security with him. Exactly how many men we’ll have to fight off isn’t clear, but it shouldn’t be too many. I may have spooked the two traitors last night when I brought up Artuzov, but by the end of their car ride home, they’d convinced themselves that I was the fool. Not them.