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She says it so simply, it’s enough to make me laugh on that alone. A throaty laugh leaves me before I can control it and I reach for her, planting a quick kiss on her lips.
“You’re fucking amazing,” I say. “You’re… you never stop surprising me. That bad girl side of yours is unmatched.”
But as I’m spending the moment proud of Delphine, thinking it’s great she’s turned the tables on Daddy Adams after what he did to her, I’m alone in my celebration. She’s sitting there solemnly, practically resigned about whatever else is on her mind.
The humor wipes off my face and I grip her thigh. “Phi, what are you not telling me? Why do you look like you’re about to go on some doomsday expedition?”
“Don’t you get it, Jon? The party. I have to go.He’sgoing to be there. It’s the best shot I’ve had so far to get him. A contained environment where he’ll be in attendance. This might be my only chance.”
The room’s darkened. Mymood’sdarkened, and my jaw’s clenched. The homicidal urges inside me stirred the second she mentioned him, a pulse that beats inside me like a second, heavier heartbeat.
“You don’t want me to go,” she predicts. “But this is something I have to do. I’ve been working with Stitches and the computer guy to use my father’s invitation to Photoshop a fake one for myself. We’re creating an alias. Stitches is willing to be my cover for the night. He’ll be my date and be with me the whole time. I’ll be in disguise, and I’ll be as safe as possible.”
I squeeze her thigh, blinking out of my murderous trance. “It’s extremely dangerous.”
“Maybe, but it’s a chance to finally get him. I can’t let this go.”
“It could even be a trap of some sort.”
“I know you don’t want me to do this—”
“That’s where you misunderstand. It’s dangerous and could be a trap, like walking into a lion’s den,” I clarify, meeting her gaze. “That’s exactly why you’re not doing it alone. I’ll be coming with you. The three of us will come up with a plan. We’ll get him, Phi. He’s escaped us for a year. It’s time we come to him.”
She smiles with warmth in her eyes and mouths ‘thank you’ before kissing me.
But Delphine doesn’t need to thank me. I want to make the bastard who hurt her suffer even more than she does.
And he will—I always keep a promise.
salvatore
It’s been botheringme how quiet Lucius has been. So I decide my next deceptive move is to draw him out. Test him a little bit more. Push him a bit harder. See how far he’s willing to go at this point in time.
Something beyond distracting him with false leads to my insurance against him.
Stitches once said I had a real knack for pissing people off. An assessment that I’d say is pretty damn accurate.
I’m a pro at pissing Lucius off—I’ve been doing it from the day I was born, before I even had a conscious awareness of what the hell was going on. My mere existence angered him.
“Thank you for meeting with me today,” I say, shaking Armen Kurchoff’s hand. “I apologize for the short notice. I realize this project is very expansive.”
“It is no bother,” the Russian contractor answers with an easy-going shrug of his muscled shoulders. “We always make time to accommodate the Mancino’s. You, being Lucius's son, of course you are of importance.” He breaks out into a hearty laugh that echoes in my office.
I patronize him with a forced half grin. “Actually, this is a project I’m handling… independently.”
“Independently? How so?”
“It is funded solely by me. My father has nothing to do with it.”
He frowns. “Uh, is that… will he be okay with that?”
“Have you seen my offer?” I slide the sheet of paper across the table and watch in amusement as his eyes practically pop out of his sockets. “Tell me, Armen. When was the last time my father paid you so generously for a project like this? If we’re being honest, he can be a bit… frugal with his wallet. I love and adore my father as much as any loyal son, but at times, I don’t agree with his business practices. I’d prefer this project stay between us. What do you think?”
Armen snatches the piece of paper off the desk and studies the text for another minute. His eyes slide left to right over the paper as if he’s double- and triple-checking the proposal for the job is real.
There’s so many zeroes, he’s enamored by the sight of them.
Once he’s verified he’s in fact not hallucinating, he lowers the sheet of paper, his bushy brows connected and his mouth agape.
