Page 100 of The Beast Who Begged Me

“Correct. The alley entrance, the delivery door, and through the underground parking entrance.”

“Show me these trackers,” Dami demands.

Vitali sets a case on the table. He opens it to show us two transmitters and a receiver. One transmitter is flat and dark; the other is a slim, sealed capsule.

“Separate signals,” he says. “The flat one’s for his clothes.”

“Which they’ll take off him,” Dami says.

“Exactly,” I say, picking it up. “If they find what they’re expecting to find, they might decide they’ve found everything.”

Ricky leans forward. “I could sew it into your waistband. Hidden well enough that they’d really have to look for it. Sell the decoy.”

Dami points at the capsule. “And that?”

“Goes under the skin,” Vitali says. “It’s an active beacon. The receiver helps you follow it, and it has a pressure switch so he can send an alert deliberately.”

“Will it work at range?” Dami asks.

“Maybe. Metal walls could block it. But it’s the best we can do at short notice.” Vitali looks at me. “There’s a doctor on his way to insert it. If you agree.”

I look at Dami.

His eyes move to my hair, then he reaches up and touches the nape of my neck in a gesture I usually associate with intimacy. “Here. Under his hair.”

I don’t like the idea of getting tagged like an animal. But three hours without knowing where I am in enemy territory is more than I can ask Dami to bear.

“Alright,” I say. “Show me how to send the signal.”

Vitali demonstrates the pressure sequence: two slow, firm presses. An alert appears beside the capsule’s identifier on the receiver. A casual touch doesn’t set it off.

“You set it off when you need us,” Dami says. He looks at me. “Whether you’ve found Sammy or not. You hear me?”

“The signal will mean ‘come in,’” I agree. “I’ll use it when I’ve found Sammy, or if I can’t safely wait any longer.”

Dami doesn’t look away. “And if something starts to feel wrong out there? I need some fucking leeway.”

“If things change and you need to move sooner, I’ll trust you to make that call.”

The doctor arrives while Fontana assigns people to different groups. Dami himself parts my hair for the doctor to fit the capsule. “Try it,” he says, once it’s in place.

I find the spot beneath my hair and repeat the sequence. It makes me wince—the insertion spot is tender—but the alert appears. Dami’s shoulders ease a fraction.

We test it throughout the club while Nick goes through the plans with the others. By the time we break, everyone knows where to report tonight and who they’re working with, and Ricky has sewn the decoy tracker into my pants.

The first men leave to watch the Obelisk while Fontana follows up on the other properties we know King owns, thanks to Ricky. If we find Sammy before King returns to the Obelisk tonight, we move. Until then, we keep looking.

And I prepare to walk back through those doors.

CHAPTER 32

DAMIANO

Rosa puts another spoonful of pasta on Caligula’s plate, then ambushes mine, too. I haven’t finished what she gave me the first time, but that doesn’t stop her. There’s another pot on the stove, and every time the conversation pauses, she gets up to stir it.

I’ll take the bike to meet up with Fontana and the others once Caligula has left the house with Vito. The rest of our dirty dozen-and-change are already there, keeping an eye on the Obelisk.

Vito has put his shotgun against the wall within reach.