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I didn’t want to push Leda away. I tried, and realized the pain was worse than anything else in the world. It was hell sleeping on this yacht without her, with the only consolation being the knowledge that she was safe in my penthouse.
I hadn’t resorted to watching the live security feeds of my place yet. But another night alone, and I might be turning them on.
A knock outside of my bedroom door demanded my attention and I took a deep breath, swallowed two Advils to deal with the pounding headache, and grabbed my suit coat from the bed where I had laid it earlier.
I was all business when I opened the door, and found Rocco standing there.
“What?”
“Emil is here,” Rocco said dryly. “He says he needs to talk to you.”
I shrugged on my coat, adjusting the cuffs. “Then by all means, let’s talk.”
If Emil was here, something was wrong, and my gut twisted at the thought. I would bet this yacht that it was something I wasn’t going to like.
Rocco showed me to the upper level of the yacht, where Emil stood at the railing. Another summer storm was brewing in the distance over New York harbor, and the air felt heavy with the threat of rain.
“Emil,” I greeted him.
“Don,” he replied as he turned to me and dipped his head. “I went to the penthouse, but the guards said you were here.”
“This couldn’t have been a phone call?” I asked.
“I figured it was best to tell you this news in person.”
Well, fuck.“All right,” I said. “What do you have to tell me?”
Emil’s jaw clenched. “Someone has been in the vault.”
I felt a chill cut through me. The vault was just a name for a locked storehouse deep in the city that I kept a small surplus of money and weapons in. It was my last-resort stash, in case I needed some reserves in a deal or bribe. The cache was also meant to be an emergency fund.
“How much was taken?” I asked lightly.
Emil swallowed. “All of it.”
“Are you sure?”
Emil nodded. “I went there myself to check. There’s nothing left.”
I turned away from the railing, my fists clenched tightly. I wanted to hit something. The vault wasn’t just money. It had plenty of weapons too.
Adrian.I immediately thought.It had to be Adrian. He knew I caught onto his little operation and now he was hitting me where it hurt the most.
Well, almost where it hurt the most.
“The cameras were disabled,” Emil continued. “And the memory wiped from the access panel. Whoever did it was thorough. The discs were burnt to a crisp and sitting on a pile of magnets. No way to recover them.”
His voice trailed off as I stared at the city in the distance. A streak of lightning flashed in the distance. War was coming. I was sure of it.
“Who else knows?” I asked.
“Just the three of us,” Emil stated. “And whoever pulled the shit. I haven’t made my rounds yet, but if I had to guess, I’d say Adrian and the boys in the Battery as well.”
So it was going to be like that. Maybe I should’ve taken Rocco’s advice from the get-go. Cruelty rather than leniency.
“That’s not all.”
I turned to face him. “What?”
