Page 121 of Pink

See how easy that was? Tell your boss, it read. Jensen and Marco were back, it seemed. Who else could it fucking be?

He crumpled the paper in his fist when Gigi called his name, asking, “Everything okay?”

No.

No, it certainly was not okay anymore.

In that moment, Lev went straight into survival mode—or rather, his switch flicked on, bringing out the side of him that only knew how to handle business. Pink, the enforcer. He shuttered the urge to calm and soothe the concern in Gigi’s tone and the worry in his daughter’s eyes as she stared up at him where she stood at his side.

Turning to find the closest of Gigi’s bodyguards standing just a few feet ahead of the Jeep, he pointed at the man and said, “Take her to the hotel and don’t let her leave until you’re told otherwise. Do you fucking hear me?”

Gigi’s knotted brow dipped lower. “What, why? Lev, I have things to do. I can’t be holed up—”

He didn’t look away from the enforcer. He couldn’t when this could literally mean the difference between life and death if that note meant what he thought it did. “Take her to the hotel and keep her there.”

“Daddy?”

“Lev!”

Gigi didn’t look at all pleased when he turned on her and asked, “Remember what you said to me here today.”

“About what?”

“Us. That it’s important. That even if you don’t know things and it scares you, it doesn’t matter. Remember it. It’s going to matter now, but it’ll be okay.”

A flash of fear replaced her anger. “Will it?”

It had to be.

• • •

Lev didn’t go home. Before the sun had even set, he stood on the front porch of his boss’s large home in the suburbs. Down on the grass, Arely threw a ball for Snaps, Andino’s dog, like the animal didn’t frighten her in the least. He should have taken her home, kept their routine, let Nessa handle her for the night, and then went ahead with business as usual.

Something told him not to.

He couldn’t keep pretending. There was no way he could continue to separate the parts of his life into categories where one existed within the mafia and the other did not. Others weren’t going to let him do it anymore, after all.

So, he would act accordingly.

Starting with his boss.

The home was large enough to be considered a mansion, and while it wasn’t the first time Lev visited the place, he never stayed long enough to impose on his boss or the man’s wife. Until now.

Stepping out of the front door, Andino said something Lev couldn’t hear over his shoulder, but he did understand the name his boss tacked on the end of his sentence. Haven. Andino’s wife.

“She said Arely could come in and have a cookie and juice if she wants,” Andino said, coming to stand next to Lev on the porch. “Or if you want her to, I should say.”

He relayed the message to his daughter who quickly headed inside the house with Snaps on her tail.

“I was being stupid, wasn’t I?”

“Pardon?”

Lev sighed harshly, shaking his head as he glanced to the side where Andino eyed him speculatively. “Trying to act like I could be two different people. That I could somehow keep her and our life separated from … everything else.”

“The mafia, you mean.”

He only shrugged.