Elodie lifts her head then, and my old friend grinds to a halt. She reaches out to pat his broad shoulder. “I’m okay. Truly.” Her lips lift slightly. “I knocked the son of a bitch on his ass with a roundhouse kick you’d have been proud of, Sasquatch.”
I huff a dark laugh, my eyes raking over her beautiful face with pride bursting inside my chest. “Then she made him eat a bullet.”
Emiliano’s eyebrows practically hit his hairline, and he glances around us toward theSoldati-filled labyrinth at my back. “Now this, I have got to see.”
CHAPTER 24
RAFE
Having drawn her a bath,I press a kiss to Elodie’s temple and leave her in privacy. Once I’ve ensured that Emiliano and his nephew, Romeo, are stationed at her door, I venture back downstairs to confer with Enzo.
The compound has been emptied of all guests, with Salvatore the very first to leave, an exceptionally irate Gabriela at his side.
I find him in my office, wading through security footage on an iPad from earlier in the day. He lifts his dark head, his jaw clenched tightly before he snarls in frustration. “I can find fucking nothing.Lessthan nothing.Figlio di puttana.”
Then he bangs his fist against the desk in frustration. “There’s nothing to indicate Fabiano was anything other than loyal to this family, damn it all to hell.” He scrubs his hands up and down his face, muttering angrily, “I vetted him myself, for fuck’s sake.”
I cross the space, sitting down in my desk chair with a heavy sigh. “We’ve thought there’s a traitor in our midst for a while now,Fratello. Let’s just be grateful we discovered him before he could carry out whatever he had planned.”
A shudder wracks my body at the thought of what Fabiano had planned for Elodie, and just how close he had gotten toexecuting. “Elodie mentioned that Fabiano said something that made her think of Conti.”
Enzo’s head perks up immediately, and I continue. “He said that once she was found…” I trail off, inhaling sharply through my nostrils at the thought of that cocksucking son of a bitch, and what he’d intended to do to my woman.
I blow out the breath and grit out the rest of the story. “He said that the peace among the Five would be broken. Just likehewants.”
“And you think he was referring to Conti?”
I shrug with a weary sigh. “I don’t fucking know at this point. But Elodie said she often thought Conti only did the shit he did to provoke. It’s a possibility.”
Then I push myself out of the chair and reach into my desk drawer for the details Salvatore had left behind before I pass them to Enzo. “If we can deduce where he’s holed up, we can ask him that question ourselves, hmm?”
Enzo accepts the documents with a nod, and with a tersely murmured farewell, he leaves through the door leading onto the decking, apparently making his way toward the security bay to get started.
I grab the iPad that he left behind, dragging today’s footage to the bottom of the screen to flick over to a real-time view. Enzo had been able to get it back up and running almost immediately once he’d deactivated the EMP jammer.
I do a quick run through the compound, noting the labyrinth appears to be devoid of all memory of what occurred there barely two hours past.
Satisfied that we’re safe from the most recent threat, I shut off the device, and make my way back up to Elodie’s suite.
My chest constricts when I find Emiliano sleeping across the threshold of the door into the suite, and I tug his blanket up around his shoulders before stepping past him with a wry smirk.
Fine guard dog you’d make,Fratello.
I close the door with a softsnickand quietly make my way to the open ensuite door. The tension I didn’t realize I was holding in my shoulders lessens when I see Elodie, still in the tub, washing the evidence of the evening from her creamy skin.
For long minutes, I watch her in silence until she glances over her shoulder. “Are you going to just stand there all night?”
One side of my mouth lifts in a shit-eating grin as I walk closer and step around the side of the tub. She looks up at me with a sweet smile, holding up two very wrinkled palms. “I think I’m all pruned out for now.”
I grasp her outstretched hands and help her to stand before leaning closer to gather her against me. She stiffens suddenly, her eyebrows shooting skyward. “You’ll get all foamy.”
“Then I guess I’ll get all foamy.” I chuckle and bury my nose in her bubble-covered neck, holding her even closer as she shrieks in surprised delight. When my eyes find hers once more, she closes the gap between our faces to drop a light kiss on the tip of my suds-covered nose as I carry her across to the bathroom counter.
Once her ass hits the marble top, I grab a towel from the heated wall panel and drape it over her shoulders before pressing our brows together. Cupping her cheeks, I stroke my thumbs lightly across her cheekbones.
“I thought I wouldn’t get to you in time. The thought of losing you…fuck—” I stop suddenly, pulling her roughly into my embrace, and she shivers before nuzzling closer.
“You have me, Rafe. I’m yours.” She lifts her face to mine, and I frown when I see those navy-blue eyes brimming with pain. “I don’t care if you’re marrying that girl. I’ll take you however I can have you?—”
