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She nodded and took my hand, eagerly following me up to our room.
* * *
The phone rang loudly the next morning, jarring us both awake. We’d spent a long day working hard and a long night of working out the aggravations of the day. The loud, jarring sound was annoying this early.
“Hello?” I asked without looking at the caller id. I launched myself up in the bed.
“Zarellie. What do you have for me?” He had to have found something to be calling me this early in the morning.
Zarellie spoke. “We got some results.”
“Wow!” I jumped out of bed and threw on some pants when I heard what Zarellie had to say. It was nice to have good news be the reason that I’d been jolted awake.
“They finally got some DNA off of one of those guys’ prints that we ran,” Zarellie excitedly spoke into the phone. Bria came up next to me. “There’s one that’s related to some people in South Florida.” I could tell that Bria heard what he was saying when she nodded at his words.
“That’s where Elana is from,” she whispered. As her head rested on my bare arm, she looked up at me.
I listened. “Send over all the information you’ve gathered. It’s going to help us catch these bastards.”
Excited, I was ready to wage war on these despicable men and take them to a new place called hell.
“Thanks, man, I appreciate your hard work. Look for my thank you in the next few days.”
He was paid in cash so that it wasn’t traceable, but we used it as a line item expense so that we didn’t get in trouble with taxes. Everything went through proper channels, but might not be labeled exactly how the IRS would like it to be. No way would we be Al Caponed out of business. Tax evasion was always how they got you in the end.
“What does Elana have to do with hunting you though? Why would someone in Florida want to do that?” I hung up and turned to Bria, puzzled. “None of this makes any sense.” I moved my arm around Bria, and she snuggled into my side.
“My love, these attacks started the day that you were driven over here. Nothing happened in the days before that, correct?”
I appreciated that she stopped and thought for a few seconds, then she shook her. “The day I came here is the day everything started. Nobody was tailing me, no threats, I never felt watched before then. Nothing was brought to my attention by the soldiers or my guards either. Even when I had to go out and work alone, nothing felt off.”
I admired that she did wetwork, but I instantly saw red at the idea of her going anywhere without guards at her back. Even though I knew that wetwork was a one person job, it had to be in order to get in and get out.
“Someone is selling secrets that shouldn’t be told to a mutual enemy. You don’t think your father would have done it to ensure that we’d help protect you, do you?”
“Nah, I don’t think so.” She sighed. I hated how her shoulders dropped, “Then again, I can’t put anything past him. He’d sell his soul if he thought that it would help him to make money. I believe that he wanted you to protect me, but wouldn’t be above trying to get some kind of revenge on your family for what they did to Tony. Even at the expense of myself.”
I could gut Marco for how easy it was for Bria to accept that kind of treatment from her own father.
“While I won’t discount the information, I can’t count on that being a reason for the things that are happening now. There’s not really a link between your father and Florida or human trafficking. Revenge isn’t the same as trying to sell others, although selling information to another family is close.” I ran my hands up and down her back as I pulled her in closer to a hug. “It sounds like we might need to make a trip to Florida though.”
Bria jolted back. “Really? You want to go to Florida when the wedding is only four days away?” She looked offended that I’d even suggest it.
“Well, I feel like that could be the best course of action if we’re going to find this person, but you’re right. There is so much on my plate trying to merge the two families together. It would leave you exposed and there could be all sorts of other issues that might come up in the meantime. Even if I left now, it would put us way behind with the wedding planning. Then there is the extra security that would need to go with me which would leave everyone here unguarded.” I sighed. “This is not how I wanted to do things.”
She eased into my hold as soon as she knew I wasn’t going to go.
“I guess we should just get dressed because going now wouldn’t make sense, being there feels like the right option, but leaving you before the wedding with someone specifically targeting you doesn’t feel right either.” I frowned. There just weren’t any reasonable choices for me to make. My first priority was Bria and her safety, and for once I didn’t know what the right decision would be. I only knew I couldn’t leave her side.
“Don’t we need to visit the distribution center today to discuss the upcoming changes? They’ll need to be introduced to some of our men since they’ll be working directly together.” She tilted her head as if curious about the fact I hadn’t mentioned it, and probably to distract me from the idea of leaving. I took pleasure in knowing she didn’t want me to leave.
“There’s a meeting scheduled for this afternoon of all the principle parties.” I was short with her, and then took a breath. I hadn’t meant to be, but I didn’t want her there.
“Oh, okay, I’ll get dressed so we can go down to eat. I don’t want to miss that meeting.” She started to walk away from me, and I pulled her back into my arms.
“My love.” I cradled her face in my hands and gave her a kiss and headed over to my closet. “I know that you want to go along, but I don’t want you to come with me today. I’d like you to stay safe while I focus on getting our distribution channel up and running.” I could feel her anger bubbling to the surface from across the room.
I fired off a text message to the coordinators to send over the hair and makeup people to her sister’s apartment. She could do that today and make sure all the hair and makeup things were exactly what she wanted for the wedding.
