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“That means he could be even closer than we think,” Luca says, giving me a poignant stare.
He was certainly much closer than we thought. In my case, he’d been living in my building for months and I had no clue until the attack. It didn’t matter that Luca had placed men around the city, the danger was already inside my walls.
“The question is, are you in, or are you dead?” Carina asks, looking at each and every one of us.
I’m the first to lift my hand and slice the blade across my palm. A show of solidarity and loyalty to my new family. The others follow.
Carina walks around, snatching up the documents. “Good boys.”
I only met her for a brief moment after the death of her sister, but she seems like a completely different person. That day, she was broken. Today, she is the perfect image of power. It’s the rage. The pain of loss and the need for retribution.
“So I’m confused. Are you our boss or is she?” I ask Luca.
He turns to her and smiles with pride. “If she wants the position, I’ll be the first to nominate her.”
“Men,” she says. “Welcome to the Sinacore Alliance.”
* * *
Emily and I stay for dinner. She and Luca’s wife chatter animatedly while he and I discuss plans to reinforce the east coast.
“Black isn’t going to retreat. He’s just toying with us,” Luca says. “He’s betting that we’ll keep our guard up for so long, never knowing where the attack will come from, that we’ll be worn down by the time it comes.”
“Either way, we can’t back down. And we must get more leaders in on the Alliance. Even more than those involved in Stephen Black’s murder. I hate to say it, Luca. But we are not enough.”
He nods, then glances at our women. “Part of me wants to send Carina away. It’s not safe here.”
“As if I’d leave.” We both turn at the sound of her annoyed tone. “That bastard, Gideon killed Alma. I want him dead as much as you do.”
Luca’s lips tighten into a thin straight line, but he says nothing.
“Emily wouldn’t even let me go an hour away from her.” I look at her. “I doubt she’ll let me send her to Mexico.”
“Mexico,” she huffs. “I told you, we will die together, Noah.”
“Woman of little faith, what makes you think Black will get me?”
Her blue eyes glitter as she laughs. “He’ll never get close enough because I’ll protect you.”
The picture Luca painted when he recounted how he’d found her draped over me in the stairwell, using her body as a shield, touches that part of me onlyshehas access to. The corners of my mouth tug up in the smile that seems a permanent fixture on my face since the day I left the hospital, knowing I’d never be parted from Emily again. “I believe you.”
“What about your father?” Carina asks her. “Where is he now?”
I take a deep drink of my whiskey, and reply in her stead, “He’s with us at Francesco’s. It’s been interesting.”
“At least I was able to convince my sister to leave for California,” Luca interjects. “Sofia is on her way there now. One less thing to worry about.”
Just as he says that, one of his men enters, looking white as a ghost. “Boss.”
“Hansen, what is it?” Carina demands when she sees him.
“It’s Sofia.”
“What about my sister?” Luca grits through his teeth.
“Her driver just called,” the man says, glancing between us nervously. “They stopped at a gas station. When she never came out of the restroom, he went in searching for her.”
“And?!” Carina stands, her breathing ragged as she stares at him.
