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I rub at my chest, seeing her in that angelic white sweatsuit, fiery hair up. No make up and looking tired and small. Like she needs support and protection. But instead she got me.Fuck!
“Good morning,” I say, handing her a coffee with sugar. She smiles and takes it. Good. Smiles are good. “Can I show you something?”
“Sure,” she yawns the word. It’s adorable.
I tilt my head for her to follow me. We walk silently through the house to my study. It’s weird. Everything feels weird. I open the hidden door and punch the combination into the keypad. I head to the far chair and pull the second one out for her.
“This, this is what you found for us.” I point to the screen. I’ve pulled up a series of warehouses and maps. “For years, we’ve been trying to figure out which locations have the most security. Which are legit. Your uncle never texts or emails, never says any locations or coordinates out loud. He is a genius that way, as much as I hate to pay the fucker a compliment.” She winces.Shit!“Sorry. I know this is still hard to wrap your mind around. But this, Eleanna, this is the key. These were feeds of feeds, from bouncing IP addresses and double encrypted. That’s why we couldn’t hack in to see ourselves. In—what, five minutes?—you changed everything.”
“Wh-what’s in there?” She asks, pointing at one of the buildings.
“We don’t know what product is where, so we’re planning recon at each host spot. But I’m serious, you’re… you’re like our hero now. We’re, uh, thinking of making shirts with your face on them.”Shirts with your face on them? The fuck?
She smiles. “Well, good, I guess.”
“Yes, good. We will be able to put trackers on the actual packages, see where they go, when. We will save kids from getting more drugs. Stop criminals from getting new weapons. Stop the syndicates from gaining more power. It’s huge, Ellie. It’s everything.” I say, my voice getting soft with the weight of it. Hoping she understands what she did. Not for me or for the Cave, but for innocents around the country. She just stares at the monitors in awe.
“Your uncle took no convincing. Anyone as powerful as he is has to be paranoid to stay on top. He suspected the other clans were conspiring against him. The border wall situation is the new shiny toy everyone wants to play with, so there wasn’t even a hitch.”
“And now there’s going to be war? Because of this?” She meansbecause of me.
“You didn’t start a war.” I tell her. “We’ve been planting seeds of unrest for a decade, and even now, everyone will try to focus on the main priority. Money. Wars between syndicates are expensive. So now, they’re all playing politics and making demands and threats. It’ll be a while.”
She stands up, clearly overwhelmed. “But it’s over?”
“Yes, it’s over. And you were an absolute rockstar, Ellie, really.”
She puts a hand to her neck. I ball my fists at the memory of the blood gushing there. Her voice is shaky when she says, “And how long do you think until we can do the whole scandal thing.”
“Scandal?”
“Whatever public ordeal so we can justify divorce to my family and I get out of all this.” She takes a step back as she says it. I’m not sure if that’s her subconscious saying she doesn’t want what she’s claiming to want, or if she’s backing away from me because she does want it. To get away from me, to get out.
It’s definitely the latter, fuckhead.
I pull on the back of my neck. “Um, a few months probably.”
She shakes her head. “A month. And you start working on Mia and my brothers like we talked about.” Her coffee cup is trembling in her hand. I hate this. She doesn’t deserve any of it.
“Alright. A month.”
“Good. Great. Well, Mia is in town to see me, so I better get ready.”
“Remember you—“
“Can’t tell her anything or look at her wrong or even breathe funny. I know.”
“Hey, you’ll be fine.” I stand and reach out to put my hands on her shoulders. “You went through hell. She is expecting you to be shaken up.”
“Right. No acting needed there. I’ll be back later.” She pulls out of my grasp and basically runs away. That feeling happens in my chest again.
Damn it!
CHAPTER 44
Eleanna
“I mean, what did I tell you! Kidnapped! Your husband isn’t even mafia!” Mia rants. At least there was a long, welcome hug before the yelling began.
