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Saint gathers himself, turning back to the monitors. “Servers. Got it.” He clicks a few times, pulling up different feeds and zooming in on different faces. I shake my head each time until I recognize the one from earlier.
“Stop,” I say instantly. “Him.”
Saint zooms in further on his face, and I stare at it for a long time.
Then my stomach feels queasy. “I know him,” I whisper. “Fuck.”
“Lucia? We don’t have time for this,” Angelo snaps at me. “Who is it?”
“One of Capone—Al Ricci’s men,” I correct myself. “I haven’t seen Al Ricci though. I know I haven’t. And Angelo…” I brace myself. “Freddie told me my father sent him to get me. I didn’t—”
“What?” Angelo explodes, his face bright red with anger. “Why the fuck didn’t you tell me that, Lucia? Didn’t you think it was a little important, given the circumstances?”
“Hey!” Saint cuts in. “Your turn to fucking focus, Angel. Yell at her later. Deal with this shit now.”
Angelo balls his hand into a fist, and I’m terrified he’s going to punch me. I remember what it felt like to have his arms around my neck, choking me. Last time he’d only thought I’d fucked Al. This time, Al is potentially in the house.
He makes a frustrated sound and stalks to the lockers in the corner of the room. I sigh in relief, then watch as Angelo unlocks it and takes out several guns. He loads them all and holsters three of them. One he passes to Saint. “Here. Keep on security. Lock all the fucking doors. Don’t let anybody leave. And warn Victor.”
“On it,” Saint says. He pulls his phone out, while one of the security guards clicks through menus on the main screen.
“What about me?” I ask Angelo.
“You—” Angelo snaps, but he pauses to take a breath. “You stay right here, Lucia. I’m going to find Ricci. I’m going to fucking end him, and so help me, if you’ve been hiding anything else—”
“I haven’t!” I promise. I’m secretly relieved that he hasn’t told me to go back to the guest room. I’d rather face Angelo’s anger than isolation, especially with Freddie’s corpse on the floor.
Angelo stalks out without another word. For a few moments, nobody says anything.
Then Saint snorts in amusement. “He’s pissed, kitten. Better hope he manages to find Ricci.”
“Yes, I sort of noticed he was pissed,” I say, exasperated. “Thank you for pointing out the obvious.”
Saint shrugs. “Just thought I’d make sure. Now sit down. We’re gonna be here a while.”
28
Angelo
It’s all I can do to control my rage as I storm out of Saint’s security haven. I want to throttle Lucia for keeping something so important from me, especially when I was so gentle with her, but more than that, I’m just pissed that someone has managed to invade our home without us knowing about it. Freddie was a rat within the organization, which meant there might be more rodents, and I’m going to exterminate all of them.
First, though, I’m going to find the one who was decidedlynotsupposed to be there. I return back to the room, and while I can’t force a smile back onto my face, I manage to look solemn and distracted rather than outright pissed off. Good enough.
I start to work my rounds with the servers, watching for the one Lucia had identified. There’s a chance he’s already abandoned his ruse, especially if he’d recognized her too, but this is the only lead I have.
I grab the head caterer to tell him to stop distributing the food and call back in all the servers, not wanting them easily mingling with our guests, and he obeys.
Every time one of the servers comes back to replenish their trays, he keeps them there. I’m getting antsy. It’s all taking too muchtimeand I don’t know how much of that I have.
I start grilling the lead caterer on how exactly he hires people and what kind of vetting he does, and to his credit, he stays calm while he explains the series of background checks each individual has to go through. Somewhere during his explanation, though, I spothim.
He sees me, too, and he turns to bolt, dropping the tray.
I’m on him in seconds, though, grabbing and twisting his arms until I have him submitted on the floor.
“Everybody out,” I shout, and no surprise, everybody quickly files out of the kitchen. That just leaves me and the intruder.
“Let go! Help!” the guy shouts. “What—what the fuck’s your problem, I’m just—”
