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Weirdly, I felt safe. Locked away in here, with him, I was safe from everything outside this room. “Austin. There’s this shop there owned by these bikers. They’re amazing artists.” I peeked up at him.
He was staring down at my wolves now. He slowly traced the shape of the wolf left behind, but his eyes were glued to the three who stood up in the northern lights.
It hit me in that moment. If anyone understood what I was going through, how I felt, it was him. He’d lost his wife and unborn child. Paolo had let me in on that little secret. He’d been trying to help me understand this man a little better.
I don’t know why it hadn’t occurred to me before now that he had lost as much as I had. He hid it better, I guess. I smoothed my hands over his shoulders and down his arms, following the path of his ink.
“Do you miss her?”
I wasn’t looking into his eyes, too afraid he’d shut down if I did. I watched my hands, where they touched him instead, but I saw him swallow hard in my peripheral.
“Yes.” His voice was like sandpaper.
My breath caught in my throat. This was the first true emotion I’d gotten from the guy. “Do you ever wonder what would’ve happened if-”
“No,” he interrupted me. Now our eyes locked. He brushed a strand of hair off my face. “What happened…happened. There’s no taking it back. All we can do is move forward.”
I nodded, my gaze skating off his.
He sighed and brushed his fingers up and down my spine, soothingly.
“You miss him.” It wasn’t a question.
I shrugged, but tears burned the backs of my eyes.
“It’ll never replace what you lost, but we’ll make those responsible pay.” His voice was rough, dark.
“Don’t you want revenge, too?” He always made it sound like he was doing it for me, but he’d been hunting these men too.
“For Maria, yes. She deserves the closure.”
My cheek was pressed against his warm chest, his heartbeat steady and strong. Maybe if I could find that closure, I could be happy again. The constant beat of his heart with the whisper light feel of his fingers on my skin lulled me into a dreamless sleep.
Chapter 26
Nico
Luca and Paolo entered my office. I leaned back in my chair.
“Paolo has something he needs to speak with you about, Boss,” Luca told me.
I directed all my attention to my newest made man. I’d checked in on him a few times over the last few days and he and Havoc seemed to be hitting it off.
“I-” Paolo broke off as Luca flopped into a chair nearby. His brows went up, but he didn’t comment on my underboss’s lack of decorum in front of me. “I found who was responsible for the car bombing.”
Luca sat up fast from where he’d been reclining in the chair. The legs that’d been in the air thumped onto the ground, making Paolo flinch.
I didn’t move. Watching Paolo with a steely gaze, I tried to gage if he was lying to me. It was convenient that only a few days after I hired him he suddenly found the people I was looking for. Not the lackeys that’d done the dirty work, but those in charge.
“Who is it?” Luca demanded impatiently.
Neither of us paid any attention to him. We were locked in a staring match. The fact that he was refusing to back down was an indication to me that he wasn’t lying. Paolo had a skittish personality, if he were hiding something he wouldn’t be so direct.
“Who?”
“Raul Guzman,” he answered. “He ordered the hit on Maria. She was the target that day.”
I already knew she was. I’d also had my suspicions that the Guzman’s had been involved. It was imperative that I found out for sure before I started that war, though. The Guzman brothers had an impressive army backing them. They were spread out in four states and two countries and their manpower was massive.
