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I lead her up the stairs, and she stays close behind me until we get to the suite she’d first stayed in.
“Now behave,” I tell her. “Victor and Angel will get pissed if you don’t, and you don’t want them pissed at you.”
She shudders at that, shaking her head. “I just want to bathe and get warm for a little while,” she promises. “I won’t go wandering off anywhere.”
She had to have learned her lesson the last time, so I only hesitate a moment longer before kissing her lips briefly. “Be a good girl,” I tell her.
Her eyes flash with irritation, and I smirk at her, unable to help myself.
I can’t keep stalling, though, no matter how much I want to. I let myself out of the suite as she walks into the bathroom, and I close and lock the door behind me. She’s safe enough in there, and she can’t get out to cause trouble.
I head downstairs, finding Victor in his office. Angel is there, too, sitting on top of Victor’s desk—much to Victor’s general annoyance, but he doesn’t tell him not to do it anymore.
I take a deep breath. I don’t have a clue how to start this conversation.
After a few moments of silence, Victor sighs loudly. “Do you have something to say or not?”
I have something very fucking important to say, but I don’t want to say it. My eyes go to Angel. Victor may be the one visibly irritated with my silence, but Angel is the one who’s going to go off when I start talking.
“What?” Angel asks. “Did Lucia do something?”
“She helped me figure out why I couldn’t get the routes to add up,” I say slowly. “And she recognized someone from the footage I got from one of our cameras heading to a drop-off.”
“And?” Victor’s voice is dripping with annoyance. “One of her father’s men, I assume. It’s no surprise she’d recognize them.”
“Not one of her father’s men,” I say, squirming. “One of Pavone’s.” Fuck, things are about to explode. I take a deep breath, then I plunge into the deep end. “Alfonso Ricci is in town.”
Victor doesn’t react, barely even blinks in surprise.
But Angel? He slams his hand on the desk, sending things vibrating and scattering, and snarls at me. “Alfonso Ricci? And you’re only mentioning this now?”
“I just found out less than fifteen minutes ago,” I tell him, keeping my voice even so I don’t set him off even more. “I have a picture of him screen capped. It’s not the best quality, but we can put a face to the name now.”
“Why the fuck did it take you fifteen minutes? You have a nice, leisurely fuck with Lucia first?” Angel stands up and approaches me. I tense when he grabs me and pushes me to the couch.
“I brought her upstairs so she could bathe and get warm,” I say, looking up at him. I’m not afraid of Angel, not really, but in this moment… I wouldn’t be surprised if he punched me. Fuck. “She was fucking freezing down there. Then I came right here.”
“Jesus,Santino, she isn’t our guest! She’s Bellini’s daughter, if you’ve forgotten. And she’s been in bed with Alfonso Ricci? That fucking bitch—” Angel grabs my shirt collar and shakes me. I tighten my hold on the laptop, because if Angel is pissed now, he’ll be even more angry if the data gets lost or corrupted. Everything is backed up automatically, but it’s only been fifteen minutes.
“Angelo,” Victor says flatly. “Let go of him. This is valuable information, even if it’s fifteen minutes late.”
I don’t know if that’s actually helping, but Angel makes another frustrated sound and shoves me back onto the couch. Then he storms out, slamming the door behind him.
Well, fuck.
“Should I go after him?” I ask. “Or do you want to see the picture?”
Victor waves me over. “The picture, and the information on the routes. Did Lucia say anything else about Alfonso Ricci?”
“Just that he apparently likes to call himself Al Capone,” I say with a derisive snort. “And that if he’s in town, it’s probably because Bellini is planning something.”
I pull up the photo of Alfonso Ricci alongside the maps. Victor zooms in on the photo, then closes it in favor of examining the routes.
“That’s good to know.” Victor points to a spot on the route. “Send somebody to intercept them here.”
“There? But won’t that give us away?”
“No. I want a car accident, and cops on the scene five minutes later. If the police find the product, that’s fine, and a few deaths are acceptable.” Victor taps his desk for a moment. “Not any of our men. Have an outsider do it.”
