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Arianna flipped her the bird without breaking contact from Matteo’s mouth. Becka laughed, the sound rich and happy. I held her tight watching her face light up.
Breathtaking. Mine.
“Ready to go home?” Becka asked hopefully. I knew today had been awkward for her.
“Yes, let’s go.” I swatted her on the butt as she pulled out of my arms, making her jump and squeak again. Then she threw me the cutest evil eye. “Matteo you need anything else?” I called as the couple were just coming up for air.
“Naw, man. We are on our way out too.” He palmed Arianna’s butt, the message clear.
“See you in three days then?” I joked, remembering his comment earlier.
He laughed. “I wish. See you tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow,” I threw over my shoulder as Becka and I made our way down the steps.
“Bye Arianna!” Becka yelled.
“Bye girly!” Arianna replied.
As we made our way through the parking lot, Becka doing her best to fight off my roaming hands, the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.
My steps halted mid stride. I got the overwhelming feeling of being watched, or followed, and not in a casual kind of way. I looked around the parking lot pulling Becka in close.
“Luca, whats wrong?” She asked, going still in my arms. I didn’t answer, swiveling my head, looking for the reason my sense of danger flared.
“Hey Luca, you alright?” Steven asked as he approached.
There was nothing that stood out in the vicinity that gave my feelings any merit. The hot sun beat down on the asphalt making my feet feel hot but that wasn’t what was causing me to sweat. Someone is watching us. When I failed to see a reason for the uneasiness I shoved it off and chopped it up to my nerves still being on high alert about Petrov.
“Yeah, I’m good Steven. Just a… feeling.” Steven looked nervously around us. My hunches were rarely wrong. “Let’s go.” Becka scrambled to keep up beside me as I powered the rest of the way to my car. As we pulled out I still couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched until we were miles down the road.
* * *
“This is bullshit! There is no way that bastard is this good at hiding. Someone is lying! Jasper is holding back, I know it. It’s been three weeks. Someone has to know something!” Nico’s yelling flew across the full table in my office, working my last nerves.
“What do you want us to do, Nico? We have run down every lead. Every rumor. We’ve left nothing unchecked or to chance,” Amelio countered.
“We press harder.” Nico banged a fist on the table. “Talk to everyone again. Get bloodier. Whatever it takes. Press the Irish and MC. I guarantee they are sitting with their thumbs shoved up their asses watching, while our men get taken out one by one and our labs get hit.”
In the past two weeks a member had been taken out every couple days. A drive by, a home invasion, even a hit at one man’s favorite drive through fast food joints. Always attacking when our men were alone. Three labs had been hit as well. The bastards didn’t take anything, just torched the properties and killed everyone they found.
Bodies were piling up, the ruckus was getting harder to keep out of the news. Everyone felt frustrated and wanted a chance to get revenge— like yesterday—but what Nico suggested was just plain stupidity.
“You want us to accuse our new partners of betrayal with absolutely no evidence to prove it? Do you have your head shoved up your ass for the warmth? We cannot cover the streets in more blood and cause more discord, putting everything at risk, until we have firm information to go on. Are you that fucking stupid?” I was done repeating myself and getting tried of hearing the same shit spew from Nico’s mouth. Damn hothead. We’d been hitting the streets hard with an iron fist, showing no mercy to anyone we suspected of withholding information.
“Fuck you, Luca.”
I sprang from my chair, prepared to fly across the table and shut Nico’s runaway mouth permanently. Nico shot up out of his seat as well.
WHAM! A hand slammed on the table top.
“ENOUGH!” Matteo roared. His eyes blazed with frustration and annoyance. “Both of you sit the fuck down! Nico, show your superior the respect he deserves. Until someone has something intelligent or useful to say, shut your mouths.”
The room went eerily silent as men shifted uncomfortably in their seats.
I lowered myself back into my chair, giving Nico a death stare. All the men around the table were burnt out and just as aggravated about the situation as the others.
Three weeks since Lorenzo’s death and not a single reward to show for our efforts. Matteo was holding on by a thread, I could see it in his eyes. It burned me to no end to see my friend feeling the weight of failure.
