AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You’re his underboss,” she said. “Like Malcolm was forPrimo.”
“No,” he said. “Not likethat.”
She immediately regretted her choice of words. Malcolm hadn’t cared about Primo. He’d seen Primo as a tool for his own agenda, had manipulated her brother to his ownend.
In contrast, Cole’s deep loyalty to Damian wasobvious.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “That’s not what I meant. I know you’re not like Malcolm. I just meant that you’re his first-in-command.”
“Yes,” he said. “And that means my number one priority is to protect Damian and hisinterests.”
She turned her cup in her hand. “And I’m one of his…interests.”
“You’re more than that, and you know it.” She looked up and met his eyes. “You’re his primary concern now, the only thing that really matters tohim.”
There was no point demurring. Cole was right; Damian loved and needed her as much as she loved and needed him. She saw it every time he looked at her, felt it when he wrapped his arms around her, when he smoothed her hair or kissed the top of her head as she was falling asleep in hisarms.
“What does that mean for you?” she askedhim.
“It means that in the context of my position with the Cavallo organization, you’re my primary concern too.” His eyes were like chips of blue ice. “I won’t lie, I’d prefer to be on the streets with Damian, but it’s not a downgrade to be entrusted with the protection of the person he loves most in the world. It’s anhonor.”
She was moved to silence by his words. This was loyalty — the kind of loyalty she’d once felt for Primo, the kind of loyalty she now felt forDamian.
It was loyalty that demanded everything of you, that could empty you out if you letit.
Loyalty born oflove.
No one but Damian had ever displayed that kind of loyalty for her. She was temporarily overcome by the fact that Damian felt it for her, and that by virtue of his loyalty to Damian, Cole felt it, too. She had to fight against the feeling that she didn’t deserve it. That she was unworthy of so muchdevotion.
“Thank you.” It didn’t seem like enough, but it was all shehad.
“No thanks required.” He glanced at the open computer on the patio table. “Anyluck?”
“Not yet,” shesaid.
Damian had been true to his word, tasking her with shaking the bushes in New York for news on Malcolm’s whereabouts. Damian had his men on it, too, but he reasoned that Aria might have a better shot at flushing out the man who had been so closely tied to her brother. She knew Malcolm’s habits, his favorite haunts, his weaknesses andpreferences.
It might not lead to anything. If Malcolm was smart, he would have left New York after the shooting at Velvet two months earlier. If he was dumb enough to stay in the city, he should be deep in hiding, avoiding all the people and places Aria might associate withhim.
But cornered animals sometimes acted against their own self-interests. Overcome with fear, they were likely to makemistakes.
Their job was to capitalize on thosemistakes.
Aria had spent the morning calling a few of the establishments she knew Malcolm frequented. Not everyone was intimately connected to her brother’s business, and she’d been careful to ask casually after the health of the people on the other end of the phone, to make a show of catching up before mentioning Malcolm inpassing.
It was still risky, but she was emboldened by the distance between her and New York and the encrypted phone Damian had lefther.
To say nothing of the men aroundher.
She pitied any man who tried to breach the house on Kythnos. Damian and Cole alone would have been formidable; together with Locke and Derek, they would be a force of utterdestruction.
“Think he’s still in New York?” Coleasked.
Aria thought about it. “He shouldn’t be — he would be foolish to stay — but my gut says yes. New York is his town. What’s it all for if he relinquishes his hold onit?”
“You don’t think he could be holed up in Greece withAnastos?”
“We don’t even know if Anastos is here,” Aria said. “But I think Damian is right — animals return to their den when they’re wounded. That would place Stefano here and Malcolm in New York. Plus, there’s the question ofmotivation.”
