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“Of course they are,” Emmie scoffs.
“Definitely a girl,” Stella agrees, not looking at all put out by Calli’s confession about both of their brothers already knowing.
“Well, I guess that deserves a toast,” Emmie says, finally ripping the foil from the bottle in her hand and popping the cork.
She fills five glasses, one much smaller than the rest, which gets handed to Rhea. She looks thrilled until she sees the contents compared to ours, and then Emmie opens the bottle for Calli and pours her a glass too.
The six of us find ourselves seats on the unbelievably comfortable sofas surrounding a coffee table that’s bigger than most dining tables, and we fall into easy conversation, mostly surrounding Calli’s pregnancy, but also drifting to Nico and what happened last weekend.
It’s nice. It’s easy. But as time passes and the champagne goes down, the tension surrounding us becomes heavier and heavier.
Everyone’s concerns are growing, and we’re all utterly helpless to do anything about it.
I know this isn’t their first rodeo. They’ve experienced this before, but honestly, I don’t know how they do it. My nerves are shot. Every noise that comes from outside the suite startles me and my eyes jump to the door like they’re about to crash through it.
But it never happens, and as night falls, all we can do is sit there, trying to distract each other while we continue drinking as if it’ll help drown out the concern and unease of what’s happening right now in another part of the city.
23
NICO
“Well, this is… an anti-climax,” I sulk to Theo as we sit in the dark, waiting for these motherfuckers to show their faces.
We were early, wanting to make sure we were in position long before the Italians’ expected arrival time, but shit. This is fucking boring.
Theo glares at me. He’s in full-on soldier mode—hell, I am too, but his comes with a heap load more patience than mine. Especially tonight.
“It’s going to happen,” he assures me. “Enzo said the intel was vague. That his brother was talking in riddles to stop this leak from getting out. But they will be here.”
“You know, if this goes wrong, then they’re going to know they’ve got a leak. This might be our only shot.”
“We’ll get it done,” he promises before pulling his phone out and staring at the screen, the light illuminating his face like a beacon in the dark.
“Still nothing,” he sighs, making me wonder if he’s doing as well with this waiting game as he makes out.
It might have been my dad we lost that night, but I know he feels his loss almost as deeply as I do. He wasn’t just his uncle, he was almost as important as his own father. He wants this justice just as fiercely.
“Anything from Daemon?”
“Nope, still clear over there too.”
“If they already found out that this is a set-up, then we could all be fucked.”
“They haven’t. Only the most trustworthy of soldiers know about this mission. It would not have got back.”
“How do we know they’re trustworthy, though? Someone has been spilling our intel despite everyone being looked into and monitored. There’s no reason to believe that—”
Theo’s phone buzzes and he quickly lifts it once more.
“Movement,” he states, making my heart jump into my throat.
“Yeah?” I ask, hope filling my veins that tonight really is going to be the night.
“Get ready,” he says, getting to his feet and pulling his gun from his waistband.
We’re inside the warehouse that we’ve tipped the Italians off about. The plan is simple, understated, and hopefully perfect.
We want them to break in, making them believe they’re about to find their two lost prisoners, only our guys are going to follow them in, silently taking out their entourage. And when they get to the deepest part of the building, all they’re going to find when they get here is us with our guns pointed at their heads.
