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Angelo may thrive on running on empty, but I don’t.
I get up to leave. “I’m beat,” I say, placing my cup down on the side table. “I need to go and sleep.”I also need to call Katiya and see if she’s okay.
“Marco?” Angelo calls when I give Enzo a chin lift on the way past.
I turn to face him.
“I would never have punched you,” he says.
The corners of my mouth turn up. “That’s disappointing,” I reply. “I’m sure it would have gotten us some free publicity.”
I bid them goodnight and shut the door behind me.
Angelo may not be happy with me, but I know what I have to do.
It may cost me everything, but I know I have to have her, and not even he can stop me.
* * *
I tried Katiya’s phone half a dozen times before turning in, but it went to voice mail each time.
I hope she’s not suffering right now. I know her uncle favors her, but I don’t know how far that love extends. The Russians are notorious for their swift and brutal punishment of traitors, and that includes family.
I refuse to believe he’d hurt her, but then again, he is a tyrant who survived his family being overturned and overruled by the Medicis thirty years ago. He doesn’t go away quietly.
Her father, on the other hand, he’s something else altogether.
I didn’t sleep well. I tossed and turned for what’s left of the night thinking about Katiya. This whole situation is intense as well as insane. I try to call her again to no avail.
I decide I have to see her and that Angelo might be right about setting up this meeting sooner rather than later with Aleksi.
When I finally rouse out of bed, I take a quick shower and walk out to see Enzo on the couch texting someone with a big smile on his face. I’m surprised to see him still here, he must have crashed for the rest of the night, or what was left of it. Angelo is long gone.
“You alright, man?” he asks when he sees me stumble in.
“Hardly slept,” I mutter, walking over to the coffee machine. I eye him. “What are you looking so chirpy about? Who you sexting?”
He shakes his head. “Nah, it’s nothing like that.”
“It’s always like that.”
“More importantly, have you heard from the Russian yet since she left?” he asks.
“Katiya,” I remind him. “She does have a name.”
“You got it bad, bro. I’m surprised, though I haven’t seen Angelo so furious in a long time.”
“Don’t remind me. He’s going to be more furious when I decide to go over there this morning.”
He has the good grace to look slightly alarmed. “Marco, don’t do anything stupid. Talk to him first. You know how he gets, and then we all suffer.”
“So, you’re worried about your own hide?” I muse.
“In more ways than one.”
I look at him quizzically, but he doesn’t elaborate.
“I’ll talk to him. In fact, you can come with me since you claim to be such a great mediator and everything.”
