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It had always been that way with Cole — and with Damian, too. They found pleasure in the action of the business, in building wealth at an extraordinaryrate.
And yes, in random women they planned never to seeagain.
Back then, there had been no warm embrace waiting for Damian, no lights on in the windows of the Westchester house. There had been no quiet dinners at the little table in the kitchen, no nights by the fire in the study with a woman that Damian felt in hisbones.
It had been a shell of an existence. He just hadn’t known it at thetime.
Damian studied him a moment longer before returning his attention to work. “Any hits on the security cam cross-reference?”
“One.” Cole moved into the room and handed Damian the paper in his hand, then sat in one of the chairs across from Damian’s desk. “Appeared in three of the locations Aria named as frequent haunts ofGatti’s.”
Damian looked down at the piece of paper: Danny Galanos, thirty-four years old, born in Queens, current residence inBrooklyn.
There were three photographs of the man, each taken from one of the security cams near the sites flagged by Aria. The pictures depicted a lanky man with angular features and an aquiline nose under a shock of darkhair.
Damian tossed the piece of paper onto his desk. “I assume we’ve checked the Brooklynaddress?”
“Affirmative,” Cole said. “It’s clean, but it doesn’t look like he’s been gonelong.”
“Run him through the facial recognition software and cross-reference all the available cams in and around the city,” Damiansaid.
“You got it,” Colesaid.
He glanced at the picture still on his desk. He should have been happy they might have identified Gatti’s courier, that he was on the run. Instead a deep vein of dread ran through him like a toxicriver.
“What are you thinking?” Cole askedhim.
Damian sighed. “I’m thinking if Gatti’s money man is MIA, Gatti will be moredesperate.”
“Good,” Cole said. “He’ll make a mistake, do something stupid as he tries to fortify his resources, especially since Anastos’ men are probably out of thepicture.”
“Or he’ll get desperate enough to make a bigger play,” Damian said. “One we don’texpect.”
Lines formed on Cole’s forehead. “Likewhat?”
Damian thought about Aria as she’d looked that morning, asleep on her back like a child, hair splayed out across the pillow, drawing breath through slightly partedlips.
He didn’t have anything else thatmattered.
Gatti had already bombed the Franklin Street shelter, had already hit the Tribecaapartment.
Aria had to be next on his list oftargets.
“I don’t now, but send five more men out to the house tonight,” Damian said. It seemed excessive even to him. The guards assigned to the house in Westchester were armed to the hilt and already covering some of the same ground. But there was a reason Farrell had men in the woods, and it wasn’t just to make Jenna comfortable. “Assign them to the woods just to besafe.”
“I’ll come too,” Cole said. “I can stay awake in the house in case Gatti’s dumb enough to make thatmove.”
Damian nodded and rubbed his hand over his face. “There’s something else you shouldknow.”
“What is it?” Coleasked.
“Aria’s pregnant,” Damian said. “I just found out lastnight.”
He tried to temper his pride as he said the words, aware that Cole might need time to get used to the idea, but Cole’s face immediately broke into agrin.
“You’re going to be a father?” He stood, extended his hand. “That’s incredible. Congratulations. You must be over themoon.”
Damian stood to shake his hand, finally allowing himself to display the grin he’d been suppressing since the nightbefore.
