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Liam shook his head. “Silvano’s surrounded by his mafia family right now. Got the whole fucking army in town. He knows we’ll come at him and hit hard, but he wants to send out his Oparid shipments before we get a chance. Right now’s not the time.”
“Then when? We wait too long and he ships. Then the war’s on whether we like it or not.”
Liam grunted, shaking his head. “I don’t have a good answer. But my forces aren’t prepared.”
“Alex, I think he’s telling the truth.” Melanie tugged on my arm and I lowered the gun. “I need to go check on Laurel and Uncle Cedric. If Silvano’s coming after his enemies, they’ll be next.”
I grunted and let my problems flit in and out of focus. Cedric, Laurel, the pills, the war. Silvano had lost his damn mind, and we needed to bring him down before he could do something we’d all regret.
“Tell Griffin,” I said to Liam. “Get him involved. The three of us can handle anything Silvano can cook up.”
“I’ll head there now.” Liam turned and walked into the night.
“What the hell is an Oligarch doing walking around?” Melanie asked quietly.
“You don’t know Liam very well, or else you wouldn’t wonder that.” I turned from the gate. “We’ll get some men together and go check on your cousin. This is going to be a long night.”
“I know.” She slipped her hand through my arm. “Especially if you keep threatening people with that gun.”
“I suspect Liam won’t be the last person before the week’s done.”
Chapter 22
Melanie
We drove in a caravan of three Range Rovers. Nervosa and I sat in the back in the middle. Palmira was in the lead vehicle. Armed men, sworn to Nervosa and prepared to kill on his behalf, filled out the remaining seats.
My stomach was a mess. I never should’ve left Laurel with her father, especially when he was in that condition. I knew something was wrong, but I let Nervosa drag me out of there, and now I was terrified I made a horrible mistake.
We rolled up the long driveway and parked in front of the house.
All the lights were off. It was dead quiet. Nothing stirred, nothing moved.
I went to leave the Rover but Nervosa put a hand on my leg.
“Stay,” he said and got out.
He walked to the front door flanked by two men. They knocked once, twice, then pushed open the door and disappeared inside. My stress went insane, and I leaned forward, looking out the front windshield over the driver’s shoulder. He didn’t comment on my hard breathing. I wouldn’t have cared if he did. Sweat rolled down my back and I kept thinking, come on, come on, like that would help.
I’d just found Laurel. She was cool and sophisticated and smart and worldly. I wanted to be more like her, or at least to get to know her. I had so few people in my life that I genuinely cared about, or that cared about me, and I wanted Laurel to be one of them.
Now she was gone and I was so afraid I’d gotten a good person killed.
“I can’t take this,” I said and shoved the door open.
“Wait, miss,” the driver said, but I was already outside. I stormed toward the house, legs pumping. Another door opened and Palmira jumped out. She sprinted to me and grabbed my arm, but I wrenched away.
“Let me go,” I hissed. “I can’t sit around and let you all fix this mess for me.”
“Melanie, if this is a trap—”
“I don’t care,” I said, glaring at her, but it did make me pause. There was no noise inside the house, but that didn’t mean Nervosa and his men were safe. “I did this, Palm. Laurel never would’ve been hurt if it weren’t for me.”
Palmira’s grip loosened a touch and she sighed. “Honey, all this has nothing to do with you.”
I bit my cheek hard. “That’s not true. I started poking around. I got involved and made things worse between Nervosa and Silvano.”
“This is your uncle’s fault. He got involved with an Oligarch and this is the result. This would’ve happened whether you came here or not.”
I let that sink in. On some level, I knew she was right—Uncle Cedric was involved long before I ever came here, and he was the reason Laurel was in danger, not me. But I still couldn’t help think how everyone that came near me ended up hurt or in trouble, like I was a curse and a bad omen. I wanted to do some good for once in my life and help Laurel, but I was powerless. I didn’t have a mafia family at my beck and call, I didn’t have years in training, I didn’t have endless cash.
All I had was myself, and I wasn’t enough.
Tears stung my eyes. I wiped them away, feeling like an idiot. All these men and all these guns, and there I was, crying like a little girl.
