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Melissa nods, swallowing hard. I can tell she is starting to understand that this is all really happening.
I don’t want her to go along with this. I want a different plan—one that has zero risk on her part.
It’s then that I call the one person who might be able to talk some sense into the decisionmaker of the organization. My phone rings twice before it connects. “Jessica? It’s your favorite brother. I need your help.”
But it’s not Jessica’s voice that replies, it’s Brunello’s. “And what do you need my help with, little brother?”
My jaw tightens as my teeth grind together. “Fuck you. Where’s your girlfriend?”
“She’s right here, but if you think you’re going to change my mind through her, you’re dead wrong. This is the plan, Gio. We’ll get your girlfriend back before you can finish cursing me to Hades.”
“Wanna bet?” I grumble. I end the call and glare out the front window as we near our destination. “We see Lance, we end him. Got it? If he’s stupid enough to show his face, he dies. The sooner this ends, the better.”
Melissa reaches into the front and grabs onto my hand. “I know you want to keep me safe. After this, will you take me home?”
My jaw tightens. “I’m not taking you to that place, Melissa. No way. You were stalked there. You’re not going back.”
She shakes her head and squeezes my hand. “Not my place. Yours.”
It’s the only thing that releases the tension in my shoulders. “Deal.”
Antonio is the first one out of the car after Domani parks. He holds out his hand for Melissa, treating her like a queen because she is. My brothers know how to behave around women because we all learned to be on our best behavior when Bruno moved Jessica into the mansion. “I’ll have your things moved into our home,” Antonio tells her quietly. “By the time Lance is dead, you’ll have a whole new life.”
She swallows hard, glancing around at the tall commerce buildings that have people filtering in and out, as though this is a regular day. “Thank you, Antonio.”
We wait half a minute before Antonio’s phone rings. He holds up a finger, letting us know it’s Lance. “We’re here. Where are you?”
I can hear Lance even above the clamor of voices conversing down the street and the sound of engines driving by. “See that cab to your right? Put Melissa in the cab. Once she’s out of sight, you’ll have your thumb drive.”
Antonio nods to Domani, because he knows that I will never be able to put Melissa in that cab.
Little does he know that no one puts Melissa anywhere. She marches herself to the cab, turning briefly to lock her gaze in on mine. She touches her lips with two fingers and then tucks herself into the backseat.
No.Whatever logic led me to trust the plan to go this far snaps the moment her face is out of sight. “No!” I lunge, but Domani traps me in his implacable grip.
“That’s going to cost you, Moretti,” I hear Lance say as the cab drives away.
And just like that, my woman is out of my sight, driving towards her stalker.
11
Once Melissa was in the cab and out of sight, Lance gave us the location of the thumb drive. That retrieval is secondary to Melissa’s. She is my only concern, and I’ve made it clear that she should be the sole focus of my brothers, as well.
Antonio sits in the passenger’s seat this time beside Domani while I grip the door of the backseat, waiting to pounce the moment we find her.
“The first tracker is dead,” Antonio confirms. When I pale, he pipes in with a helpful, “But we wanted him to find that one, remember? Lance will think he’s all smart, having found the tracker. He won’t bother to look for a second device.” He holds up his phone so I can see the red dot on a map. “Her cab is still moving. Gio, pull up that list of addresses I texted you on your phone. The properties Lance owns. See if any might fall in the path the cab is travelling. We might beat them there if we’re lucky.”
I want to be helpful, but my mind is a mess. My fingers are fat and clumsy as I type addresses into the bar on my phone and pull up map after map, comparing it against Antonio’s tracker, which he keeps on display for me. “If he gets her, he’s not going to let her go. He’s psychotic. Lance is insane, and we fucking paid for the tools he used to stalk her.”
Antonio lowers his head. “I saw the tech he used in her home, and you’re not wrong. It’s our stuff. I could have accessed the feed, too, but I didn’t realize what he was up to. I’ll conduct a thorough search of my team when this is all over. I’m sorry, Giovanni. This one’s on me.”
“It’s not your fault,” I grumble. “Lance did what Lance did, and you knew nothing about it.”
My words do nothing to absolve Antonio’s palpable guilt. “My guy, my fault. I didn’t have a tight rein on my people. I’ll fix this, Giovanni. I will. I’ll make sure Melissa is safely out of there. Lance will never be a problem again after today.”
Domani nods. “Lance upset my sister. He’ll be dead by sunset.”
I purse my lips as I search one property and then another. Finally, on the third, I lean forward. “Do you think he could be driving her here?” I hand Antonio my phone for him to compare against the moving dot.
