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"I—I can't. They're really dangerous, Domenic." Her voice rasps, and she sounds miserable as she looks at me again. The moisture in her eyes hurts me. "If they know I breathed a word about them, any of them…."
Loren shudders, but my brain catches up with my anger. She's talking about a group. Apparently a highly dangerous one. Plenty of rings of dangerous hackers take cracks at Las Vegas casinos from time to time. Still, I remember what Vivian told me about the recent security feed hacking of various casinos, including mine, by the Wild Seven.
Is that who Loren is so terrified of? Did she wrong them somehow? That elite, elusive, almost legendary group of hackers is a pain in the ass. They're also really fucking violent, based on some of the messes my family has stumbled upon at their hands.
And that's coming from a mafioso who's made his fair share of messes.
I study Loren as she keeps her mouth shut tight, unwilling to say another word. I'm sure I must be right. And if I am, then this poor, beautiful, brilliant woman really does have something to be afraid of if she had a run-in with that group of psychos.
Her residual terror softens something in me that I usually keep iced over. I almost don't recognize the gentle tone in my voice when I reach out to tuck some of her blond hair behind her ear, careful not to spook her.
"Tell me where you live."
She shakes her head hard. "I already told you it didn't happen at home. It was just—"
"I just want to take you home,il mio fiore di ciliegio," I say as gently as I can, with anger like this burning in my gut.
My cherry blossom.
Loren doesn't look any less tense at that idea. She's putting up a decent front, but I wonder how close she came to being hurt far worse today by the group she's hinted at—or even killed.
That has my hand tightening on the steering wheel, and I have to steady my breath before offering her a small, comforting smile. I only hope it's comforting. This is far from my forte.
"If you don't want me to press you for more answers, you will let me take you home."
"I need to get back to work."
She's quiet. Hugging her chest tightly. Not at all like her regular sunny, bright self.
When I track down the Wild Seven, I will remember this little quiver in her voice and take it out on them tenfold.
"You'll have the rest of the day off."
"But—"
"No. You're fuckinggoing home."
My voice is too sharp, and I exhale before trying again, taking her chin so she'll look at me. God, she's so wary, and I want her to stop looking at me like I might be the next one to hurt her because it physically hurts.
"Loren. Catching whoever is scamming the Golden Flame can wait. Right now, my priority is your well-being. I'm going to take you home, and I want you to run a warm bath, soak and unwind, and drink soothing tea to help your throat. If the bruising worsen tomorrow, you'll have the entire day off with pay."
She blinks. "I… that's too much. I'll be back in tomorrow."
I give up on resisting and let my fingers glide down her jaw to her throat, barely brushing the skin with how light my touch is. "No. You won't. You need to recover."
"But—"
"Argue, and it will be three days. You're not coming back in until the bruising fades. And if at any time while you're at home, you feel frightened or like whoevertheyare might pose a threat to you, you will dial my number and keep me on the phone until I get there and take care of the fucking problem. Understand?"
Loren looks away, whispering, "I can take care of myself."
"I already told you. I can take care of you better."
She's quiet for a long moment. I'd almost forgotten that we're in my car, parked off to the side of the road when I'm running behind on a million things today. But right now, none of that matters. All I can think about is that someone fucking hurt Loren, and now she's scared, and I'm not going to let her brush it off.
"Okay. Thank you, Domenic."
Much better thanMr. Caputoor the other things she keeps trying to call me.
