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“At the safe house. You know the one. With the swing.”
He doesn’t want to mention it explicitly on the very slight chance somebody is listening to us. I can’t blame him for being cautious, considering what happened.
“How did you learn about the attack?” I ask, focusing on business when I only want to rush to Emma, hold her, and tell her about the dream and Rosie.
He didn’t have time to explain before.
“I’ve been playing this Russian fella for a while and got him on a few loans. He’s in deep. I wasn’t sure anything would come of it, but I went to him last night when I was drunk. I found him and scared him. Took out all my righteous goddamn anger.”
He grins, somehow ironic and sad at the same time.
“I fucked up, bro.”
“Don’t worry about that now. It’s done.”
He leans over and gently claps my shoulder. “But I did, and I’m sorry.”
“It’s done.”
“How’s Rosa doing?”
“She won’t talk to me.”
“And Emma?”
I must smile or give another sign about my feelings because Dario laughs softly. “That good, eh?”
“Dario, don’t talk about her like that.”
He holds his hands up, narrowing his eyes. “I wasn’t talking aboutthat. I just meant you and her. She’s your lady. I’d never talk about that stuff when it comes to her.”
I realize my mistake. I’m so on edge when it comes to my Emma that I see demons and threats where there are none. There’s also some irony here. He’d never talk about my lady, but I was married to his lady and had a kid with her, but that was for duty. That was for the Family, alliances, and peace. It had nothing to do with lust or love or this fire that won’t stop burning every time I think about Emma.
“What next?” Dario says.
“I’ll throw half a million at our contacts to find Fyodor. You chase this contact of yours and any others you have. The second we learn where he is, we ride out and kill him. This has to end. He’s gone too far several times. He’s threatened my… my home.”
My future wife.
That’s what I was going to say, and it would be the truth. I stop myself before I voice it.
Dario supports me, but he’s also the one who dropped me in the crap with Rosa. Hell, I would’ve been in the crap eventually.
“We’ve got work to do, calls to make,” I say. “After, we’ll head out to the safe house.”
“Why?” Dario asks.
“To check in on them,” I growl.
Dario leans back, assessing, then nods. “You need to see her.”
He saidneed, notwant. He knows how important she is to me.
“Yes, I do. That’s another reason we’ve got to end Fyodor. He can’t keep getting in the way of us.”
* * *
“Thanks, by the way,” I tell Dario as we drive out of the city. “You saved my ass.”
