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Nico’s phone rang. He stopped talking and pulled it out of his jacket.
“What is it, Gabe?” he asked as he turned off the highway.
I couldn’t hear what Gabe was saying, but with every passing second, Nico’s countenance changed. He seemed distracted a moment ago, but now he was alert. His spine was straight and his shoulders back.
There was an energy radiating from him.
“Finally,” he said. It came out like a sigh.
There was no relief in his expression, though. It was hard as steel, and the dangerous glint flashed in his eyes.
“We move on him tonight. Put out the word: it’s all hands on deck. I’ll be back at the house in an hour.”
He hung up the phone and slipped it back into his jacket.
My heart was beating harder, and my hands felt sweaty. I wanted to pry, but I kept my mouth shut. Not because I was afraid to ask, but because I was afraid of what he would say.
Nico lived in a dangerous world—I knew that even way before I met him. Everyone in this life did. Dom did, Leo, Dad, Dante, Victoria, Vito.Me, and even Greta somehow.
But until this moment, Nico had been this invincible force to me. Not flesh and blood, but impenetrable steel.
“We move on him tonight…”
Suddenly, I was struck with the cold reality that it didn’t matter that Nico seemed invincible to me because to the rest of the world, he was mortal. He could be injured, killed, shot in the chest, kicked in the gut.
He could be gone in the blink of an eye. My mind went into SOS mode as a thousand possibilities flashed through my mind like a slideshow, each one scarier than the one before.
“I have to take you back to your hotel,” he said as my stomach twisted into knots.
Andyoumight not come back.
I opened my mouth, but no words came out. It felt dry, like there was a drought. All the water was inside me, drowning me out, flooding my insides, spilling into every nook and cranny.
“Raven?” he repeated, glancing at me.
“Um, sorry, what did you say?”
“Are you all right?” he asked, putting his hand over mine.
“No.”
The confession slipped out.
“What’s wrong?” he asked. He seemed genuinely perplexed.
“I don’t want you to go.”
His brow furrowed, and he squeezed my hand. “You don’t even know where I’m going.”
“Maybe not, but I know it’s somewhere dangerous.”
He smiled. It lit his eyes this time. “‘I’m the world’s most dangerous predator, Bella,’” he quoted.
I rolled my eyes, but couldn’t keep from laughing. “And everything about you invites me in?”
“Damn right.” He leaned over and kissed me as he turned into the hotel parking lot, but his attempt at distracting me wasn’t working.
“I—”
