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She should have run when she had the chance instead of following me into the dark. Now, she's in my domain. And I've never felt more like hunting.
"They're trying to get you to talk again," Rafe says, seemingly unsurprised.
"Looks that way. Their agent cornered me in my garage earlier this evening."
"Is he going to be a problem?" Luca asks point-blank.
"She."
"She?"
"She is a woman. Athena."
"They only sent one this time?" Rafe's eyes widen. "That's new."
You don't even know the half of it.
"Is she going to be a problem?" Luca demands to know.
"Aren't they usually?"
"Women or the FBI?"
Coda's question earns an amused grunt from Gabriel, though he doesn't look any more thrilled than either of his brothers. No one at the table is happy with the news. Guess we all deluded ourselves into thinking they were done asking questions about Tommaso Genovese.
"What's your plan?"
"Who says I have one?" I lift my gaze to Rafe. "That's supposed to be your department."
"Cut the shit, Butera," he warns me, his expression going cold. "We both know you're a calculating motherfucker. You have plans for your plans. And unlike most, you're actually smart enough to pull them off."
"Is that a compliment or a complaint, Valentino?"
"Depends on whether you feel like getting up to your old tricks." He lifts his glass of brandy to his lips, taking a swallow. "The way I see it, you're either an asset or a problem. You tell me which you plan to be."
Everyone else at the long table goes quiet, watching the two of us as if expecting us to go for each other's throats. They've been watching us the same way for the last year. But like so much else, we're beyond that now. We're two fucking peas in a pod, both headed straight to hell. He doesn't trust me. I'm not entirely sure I like him. But we're stuck with one another anyway.
And shit, at least he's honest about where we stand.
"I have no intentions of talking, Valentino." I lift my hands, flipping them palms up on the table. "In case you forgot, my hands aren't any cleaner than yours in any of this. Might be dirtier, in fact."
"They weren't pristine last time."
"You weren't married to my sister last time," I say bluntly, holding his gaze. "You hadn't risked war to save her life. The minute you did that, you guaranteed my loyalty and my silence."
He eyes me intently for a moment and then dips his head in an approximation of a nod, letting me know he gets it. Shit, maybe he does. He has brothers. He tied himself to an empire he didn't want to free his twin. If anyone understands how far someone will go for family, he should. She may not be my blood, but she's been my sister, my responsibility, since the day Alvise brought her home when she was ten.
"What's your plan?" he asks again.
"She isn't going to give up easily." I barely even know her and I'm already certain of that fact. This is personal to her for some reason. Perhaps because I pushed too far today. I don't know, but I threw down a fucking gauntlet and she couldn't help but to pick it up. She won't back down until one of us cracks.
"So what do you want to do? Make her disappear?"
I turn a lethal glare on Gabriel, who holds up his hands. "Jesus. I was joking." His lips pull down into a frown. "Not even Rafe is that fucked in the head yet."
"Stronzo," Rafe mutters under his breath.
What am I going to do? The answer to that may make me the biggest bastard in this room. She really should have run when she had the chance, but she didn't. Now, I'm not going to let her. I'm going to take what I want. Her.
"She won't be with the FBI for long," I say, running a fingertip around the rim of my glass. "Not when they found out that she's sleeping with the enemy."
Shocked silence greets my announcement.
"Dio Santo," Luca growls. "You're fucking her?"
"Not yet." I lift my gaze to his, keeping my expression as level as possible. They can think what they want to think about my choice here. At the end of the day, it is my choice. And they don't need to know why I'm making it. "But that's the plan."
"It'll ruin her," Gabriel growls.
"I'm aware. But it's better than making her disappear, don't you think?" We don't target women. I wouldn't let anyone put their hands on this one if they tried. But she's already sifted loose more about what happened than she should have been able to find. We can't afford for her to keep digging. If she does, she'll dig us right into a fucking hole, and Rafe will have to make a choice between taking her out and letting us fall.
