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I’m in a killing mood.
“Got a better idea,” I say as it comes to me in a rush of feverish insight, like maybe all that shit Amelia babbles about how our love can change the direction of fate is true. Either way, I see a chance here, and I’m going to take it. “Let me go in alone. Quietly. Carefully. They’re expecting an all-out attack with a hundred Volini soldiers and serious firepower. They won’t expect a lone assassin to get into their fortress.”
Carlo snorts. “That’s because a lone assassincan’tget into the Romero mansion. Not even you, Zedd. Just not going to happen with everyone on full alert expecting us to strike. You’ll get caught and killed, and everyone knows you’ve been on an exclusive contract with the Volini Family. It’ll start the war anyway. Might even be more dangerous, because it’ll give Ralph an excuse to attack us here in Florida. Right now he can’t start an unprovoked war against us without the other Families coming down hard on him for breaking the Consortium Rules. Nope. Bad fucking idea, Zedd. Look, we didn’t call you here for strategy advice. We just want—”
“Hold on, Carlo.” The boss narrows his eyes at me. “Carlo is right, Zedd. No way you’re getting in and out of Romero’s mansion without being killed. But I’m curious . . . why would you even offer to do it? Yes, I’ve paid you well. We get along fine, have even become friends in a way after years of our monthly meetings. But although I’m a charming guy, you don’t owe me that kind of loyalty. You’re not part of this Family. You’re a lone wolf, a free-sword assassin. You’re already a millionaire, so it can’t be the money. Especially if you don’t get to spend any of it because you’re dead. Why offer, Zedd? This is Family business. Why do you care enough about avenging this insult to risk your life on what’s basically a suicide mission?” He leans back in his Italian-leather chair, tents his fingers, those dangerous eyes flashing in my direction, his voice going soft in a deadly way I’ve never heard before. “Do you . . . do you know my daughter, Zedd? Amelia. My baby girl. Do you know her?”
A chill moves up my rigid spine.
My throat tightens, going dry as I swallow.
Carlo’s face twists in a frown. “Boss, what are you—”
“Shut up, Carlo. Let Zedd answer.” The boss watches my eyes, his hand moving to his desk drawer, his gaze still fixed on me.
My body tenses so hard I almost shatter. My gun’s in my car, just like always. It’s the rule here. Nobody carries a weapon into the boss’s office, not even Carlo. The only gun in this room is in the boss’s desk drawer.
The one he’s just pulled open with that deadly glint in his eyes.
Now my life flashes before me. My fate seems to fade into black. Destiny disappears into nothing.
Anthony Volini’s hand emerges from behind the desk.
Holding a shiny folder.
With the U.S. Open Tennis logo on the front.
“You think I’m a fucking idiot?” he whispers. “You think my instincts are so dulled that I don’t know when a wolf like you has his eyes on my daughter, my baby girl, my . . . my property?”
Now that wolf in me snarls like a savage beast. My fists clench at my sides. Rage roars in my heart.
“She’s not your property,” comes the growling whisper that I cannot fucking stop. “She’smyproperty. Amelia is mine, you hear? She’s fuckingmine!”
Now the room goes still as death.
The silence crackles with violent tension.
Then a smile cracks on Anthony Volini’s lined face. “I know,” he says softly. “Knew it the moment Amelia came in the next day and asked to go to New York. She asked for a VIP pass. But she already had one, didn’t she?”
My jaw clenches so hard it almost dislocates. Somehow I nod, not sure why I’m still alive. Then something occurs to me and I frown.
“If you knew, why let Amelia go to New York?” I scratch my jaw, the frown cutting deeper as I study the boss’s well-lined face. The guy has been a mafia Don for decades. He knows how to play the game.
Nah, more than that.
He knows how to play theplayers.
And I’m one of those players.
“You ever study military history, Zedd?” the boss asks.
I shrug, not sure where he’s going with this.
The boss leans back in his chair. “The Israeli army is famous for having a lot of women soldiers. But they’re very careful about sending women into close combat alongside men. It’s not because women can’t fight as well.” He smiles knowingly. “It’s because when men are fighting in the presence of women, they are far more aggressive, far more reckless, capable of violence that’s so homicidal it becomes suicidal, savagery past the point of sanity. Apparently, there’s a wildly protective instinct in a male warrior that gets ignited when there’s a woman around. He’s way more willing to risk his life, fight to the death, attack without consideration for his own safety.”
Now my face tightens into a grin that’s part admiration part anger. “So I was your insurance policy not just against Carlo but against Ralph too? Your backup plan? You let your daughter come to me because you wanted to ignite this reckless homicidal instinct in me just in case Ralph Romero double-crossed you and you needed to hit him?”
Anthony Volini chuckles. “Yes, but that’s not all of it.” His gaze softens. He shrugs, then sighs. “There was something about how excited Amelia was when she asked for permission to go to New York.” He pauses, face darkening for a flash. “To go to you.” He closes his eyes like he’s trying to control his own anger, his own fatherly possessiveness of his baby girl. He exhales hard, shakes his head gently, rubs his chin and glances up at me. “Just couldn’t say no to her. Couldn’t say no to the . . . to the woman in her. Hell, she was about to get married to a man even I know isn’t worthy of her love. I just . . . just couldn’t say no to her.”
