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“Roman used all his power to chase me out of Rome. He thought that was the end of it.” His smile disappears. “Now I’m here, and he’s going to pay for it.”

“You’re pathetic.”

His jaw tightens. A spark of fury ignites in his eyes.

“You chose to go to bed with the enemy,” he says coldly. “Now you get to pay for that choice.”

I stare at him in disbelief. “I should have listened to Roman about you. He told me you were a fool. A degenerate.”

“And you know what?” I continue, my fear momentarily replaced by fury. “He was right. Whatever happened to the Luca I knew, this man standing in front of me is nothing but a pathetic, obsessed lunatic.”

His grip tightens around the gun. I hear footsteps behind me. I turn instinctively, but it’s too late as something hard slams into the side of my head.

Pain explodes through my skull. My knees buckle. The ground rushes toward me, and the last thing I see is Luca’s face before everything disappears into darkness.

Chapter 27

Roman

The past few days have been a fucking nightmare.

Meeting after meeting, call after call, every lead taking me nowhere. I’ve been trying to find out who is behind the attacks, who has decided that putting a bullet in my head, or my wife’s, is worth the risk. So far, I have nothing.

Nothing except the growing certainty that whoever is behind this knows exactly what they’re doing.

I should be with Aurora.

Every instinct in me tells me to stay by her side, but I know that keeping her safe means finding the bastard responsible and putting him six feet under. Until I know who we’re dealing with, I won’t be able to breathe easily.

I’ve checked on her constantly these past few days. Every time my phone rings, some part of me expects the worst. I hate being away from her, but I hate the thought of something happening to her even more.

Right now, I’m sitting across from Luciano, the head of the Chicago Mafia. We aren’t friends. We don’t need to be. We’re allies, and in our world, that distinction matters.

Luciano leans back in his chair. “I’ve had my men listening. Nothing so far.”

My jaw tightens. “Nothing?”

He shakes his head. “Not a word. They’ve been keeping their ears to the ground, but whoever is behind this has been careful. Very careful. No loose talk, no careless moves. Whoever you’re looking for knows how to disappear.”

“Don’t I know that.” I lean back, my fingers tapping once against the armrest.

Luciano studies me for a moment before continuing. “If I were you, I’d look inward.”

“I already am.”

“Good.” He pauses. “Because attacks like this usually come from someone close. Someone who knows where to hit and when.”

I nod slowly. That thought has been sitting in the back of my mind for days. Someone close. Someone with access.

Someone who knows enough about my movements, my businesses, and my wife to get dangerously close to us.

“I’ll keep listening,” Luciano says. “If I hear anything, you’ll be the first to know.”

“I appreciate it.”

We shift to the other matters on the table. We go over the latest shipment schedules, the percentages on the shared dock routes, and a couple of outstanding payments that need to be settled before the end of the month.

The conversation stretches longer than either of us planned. By the time we finish, the light outside has already started to change.