He grunts, then continues shoving me toward the stairs.
My nanna always said my mouth would get me in trouble. If it’s the good kind of trouble, I don’t mind. “Are you not allowed to touch the women because your blood isn’t royal? Are you a bastard like the rest of us?”
That stops him in his tracks. “My blood is more regal than any of the men here.”
“Yet, here you are, nothing more than a paid goon.”
His slap is brutal, but it doesn’t weaken my smile. Only scared men act out with violence. Take Eddie’s response to my ‘betrayal,’ for example. Real men prove otherwise.
“There’s still time, you know?”
The grunting, red-faced goon drags me up the stairs like he has no interest in anything I’m saying. It’s unfortunate for him, silence is a battle only the bravest can conjure.
“For what?” he asks with his hand resting on the door that leads to the room the women are in.
I crank my neck so I can peer into his eyes. “To save yourself. Tell Dimitri where I am, and I promise he will spare your life.” I curse at my inability to lie when my eyes rapidly blink during the last half of my statement.
If Dimitri doesn’t kill this man for what he did to me, I’ll do it myself.
“Nice try,” the stranger pushes out with a huff. “If you truly think he’ll come all the way out here for you, you’ve got rocks in your head. He will never come here for you, he will never go anywhere for you because there’s only one person Dimitri Petretti cares about, and that is himself. If you don’t believe me, ask her.” He throws open the door, nudges his head to Audrey in the corner of the jam-packed room, then tosses me into the quiet space. “She chipped away at his arrogance for months. She barely made an indent, so what chance would you fare since you were barely in his realm for weeks.”
His smirk gets cocky when my attempt to shut down the worry on my face is two seconds too late. “What’s the matter, girlie? Did you think we were only watching you the past couple of weeks?” He lowers the volume of his mocking tone to ensure his next set of words are only for my ears. “I would have gotten you off in the alleyway before running you over. Would have been more fun that way.”
On that note, he shoves me into the room, slams the door shut, and twists a key into the lock, leaving me as defenseless as I am shocked.
16
Dimitri
Islap my cheeks when Rocco walks into my office, waking myself up. I have a bag for Roxanne packed and sitting by the door, my guns loaded and ready to go, but I have no fucking clue which direction I should head. My intuition is leaning toward New York. That’s where the gala is being held, and a tower just outside of New York was in Smith’s report on the thirty-second footage we were sent of Roxanne, indicating it was triangulated in his search, but the last time Rimi made a move, he did it in my backyard. Who’s to say he won’t try and fuck with my head again this time around too?
“Did you sleep at all last night?”
I shake my head at Rocco’s question. “You?” The weakness of his shake is more telling than the worry in his eyes. “How’s Alice?”
He doesn’t twist his chair around to straddle it backward like he usually does. He sinks onto it with a sigh before rolling his head around like his neck is giving him agony. “Docs say she will make a full recovery. Word is still out on Luce. She’s giving her grandmother hell.”
He drops his chin to his chest when I ask, “Anything I can do?”
After taking a moment to ponder my offer, he reluctantly shakes his head. “Might hold you to it once Fien and Roxie are back, though.”
“So tonight?”
He smiles a grin I haven’t seen on his face in years. “You’re finally clicking on, D.” Don’t misconstrue. He isn’t asking a question, he is stating a fact. “What’s the plan?”
“Other than a merciless bloodbath, my head is telling me to stay put.”
He twists his lips like he understands where I’m coming from. “And your gut?”
I drag my teeth over my lower lip to hide my ill-timed smile. I’m not smirking about the situation we’re in, I am appreciating that Rocco trusts his intuition more than anything. It has gotten us out of some hairy situations in the past. I can only hope it will have the same effect this time around. “It was on a flight to New York five hours ago.”
Rocco’s grin doubles as he holds his hands out palm side up. “Then, what are we doing here?”
“I don’t know,” I reply, speaking the truth for the first time in forever, shocked enough about the rarity to laugh.
After chuckling along with me for the next thirty or so seconds, Rocco asks, “Can you feel her here?”
“Who?”
