Page 61 of Devil’s Reign

My heart tugs. My first instinct is that he found something on Melani or Luciano. But I have him digging into a couple of things, so it could be anything, really.

I text him back.

Come up to my suite.

Once he confirms he’s on his way, I decide to return Aleksei’s call first—I’ll call Dima right after. Aleksei answers on the first ring. “Where the hell have you been?”

“Is that Vanya?” Dima’s voice bleeds through from somewhere in the background, and my spine goes rigid. If Dima is with Aleksei in person, it’s worse than I thought.

“I had a prior engagement I couldn’t get out of,” I answer gruffly. “What’s happened?”

“I’m putting you on speaker so Dima can participate in the conversation,” he says. A brief shuffle of sound, then, “James Salvatore was shot at his rally tonight.”

My grip on the phone tightens. “Is he dead?” If we lose James now, finding another mayoral candidate strong enough to stand against Daniel Salvi will be almost impossible.

“Thankfully, he’s alive,” Aleksei says. “The injuries weren’t critical. Good thing we placed our own security detail on him. They acted fast and got him out of danger.”

“The shooter was a rookie,” Dima adds. “His aim and timing were off. No way it was a professional, and definitely not one of the families. Someone outside our world sent him. My money’s on Daniel.”

“Now, let’s not jump to conclusions,” Aleksei says. “It could be any number of politicians on the ballot this season.”

“Any number?” Dima scoffs. “None of them has the balls to go after a man who’s running for us. The only one loud enough about his hatred for us is Daniel.”

“Did you find out who all his sponsors are?” I cut in before he can spiral. Dima can be like a dog with a bone once he locks onto something, and if he gets stuck on Daniel being the culprit, it might make us miss something important.

“I did. But I know there’s at least one secret backer. I’ve been tracking his movements lately. His phone calls, who he meets. The fucker must know I’m onto him because he hasn’t been going anywhere except his rallies and interviews.”

“So he’s been having meetings at home?” Aleksei asks. “Do we have access to them?”

“He’s been seeing people there, yeah. But I don’t have access to the security cameras—if he has any.” Frustration creeps into Dima’s voice. “I’m working on it, though.”

A short knock at my door pulls my attention, and I glance up as it opens. Luka sticks his head inside, his face blank. “Vasily is here.” He’s still pissed at me. I’ll deal with him later.

“Give me a couple of minutes,” I say, and he nods, closing the door behind him.

“What was that?” Aleksei asks.

“Vasily is here. He texted me that he found something.”

“On Daniel Salvi?” Dima. One-track minded as always.

“I won’t know until I talk with him.”

“Let me know what he found as soon as you’re done with him,” Aleksei orders. “Dima and I will continue looking over the Salvatore situation here.”

“Of course. As long as James survives, we still have a fighting chance. We’ll tighten surveillance around him to make sure this doesn’t happen again.” I pause. “Do we have the shooter?”

“No.” Dima’s frustration thickens. “The fucker shot himself the second he realized he was cornered.”

I sigh. A fucking dead end. “And the port? Have we regained control?” Since Jordan and Harvey were taken out of the equation, we’ve lost our hold there.

“I’m handling it.” Aleksei’s voice is tight in a way that tells me he is very much not handling it yet. “Go hear what Vasily has to say. We’ll talk later.” He ends the call before I can push further.

I stare at the phone for a moment, then drop it onto the desk with a curse. We have a shipment at sea scheduled to arrive in a couple of weeks. Without a mole in the port’s chain of command, moving it will be a nightmare.

I shove the thought aside. It’s a worry for another day. Today has given me enough.

I text Luka to bring Vasily in, and a few minutes later, my office door opens. Vasily pauses inside the threshold, taking in my wet clothes. “Got caught in the rain?” His tone is neutral, no concern at all.