Chapter 187 190

Chapter 187 190
It takes me several minutes to realize what I need.

I need to speak to someone who knows exactly what I’m going through. Someone who’ll understand the choice I’m grappling with.

I need to speak to Vanessa.

I pull out my phone and dial her number.

It takes six or seven rings before she finally answers, and when she does, she sounds out of breathe.

“Babe?”

“Hey, Van. Are you okay? Where are you?”

“I’m just, uh, hanging out in my apartment, that’s all.”

“Oh. Can I come over?” I ask. “I kinda need a friend right now.”

Vanessa laughs lightly.

“What?”

“Nothing,” she says. “Just thinking about all your options.”

“Is that your way of saying I don’t have any other friends apart from you?”

“Your words, not mine.”

“Bitch.”

She laughs again. This time, louder. But I notice that she hasn’t told me to come over to her apartment yet. And it’s not like I can just head over there anyway.

Now that I think about it, I have no idea where she lives these days.

“Vanessa?”

“Hmm?”

I frown, wondering what’s going on with her.

I realize belatedly that I haven’t been doing a very good job keeping up with her life recently. I’ve been too preoccupied with my own.

“I’m sorry, hon,” I say. “I know I haven’t been a very good friend lately.”

“Hey, don’t say that. You’re a great friend. You’ve just been, oh, y’know, caught up between two rival mafia groups. I mean, no biggie.”

I smile. “So can I come over or what?”

“Um, sure.”

My eyebrows knit together as I take in her lukewarm response.

“Wow, had enough of me today, huh?”

“No, no,” Vanessa says quickly. “I just… You know what? Come on over. I’d love to have you.”

Something’s not quite right.

“Vanessa, is something going on with you?”

“I’ll explain when you get here.”

I don’t like the sound of that at all.

“To get there, I’ll need to know where your apartment is,” I point out.

“Actually, you already do.”

“I do?” I ask incredulously.

I know I’ve been in my own head these last few months, but not enough to forget if I’ve been to Vanessa’s new place.

Vanessa laughs guiltily.

“You know where my new apartment is because you lived in it for, like, six weeks,” she admits. “Before you moved back to Lucio’s compound.”

“You’re staying in the apartment?” I ask in astonishment.

“Mhmm.”

I freeze in my tracks. “What? Why? How? Vanessa, what the fuck?”

She laughs breezily, but there’s a nervous lilt on the edge of it. “Like I said, I’ll explain when you get here.”

I check where I am and do some quick math in my head.

“I’ll be there in, like, fifteen minutes.”

“See you soon,” Vanessa says.

Just before she hangs up, I’m almost certain I hear a male voice speaking in the background.

But before I can ask her if she’s with someone, the line goes dead.

So apparently, I’m not the only one with a lot going on.

I just hope that Vanessa hasn’t done something stupid. With someone stupid.

I take a right and start charging downtown. Hoping my friend has more common sense than I’ve had the last several months.

41

Lucio

I pull up outside the sleek, sophisticated building of the upscale motel.

The location was sent to me half an hour ago. A blocked number, of course.

Some things are best done in secret.

I turn down the valet boy to park myself. Then I get out and keep moving—on a collision course with the devil herself.

The lights are on inside the room when I walk up to the door.

I knock twice and step back.

When the door swings open, Sonya stops short and stares at me with shock that quickly swings over to suspicion.

“What are you doing here?”

Then she looks down and sees the gun in my hand and blanches.

I smirk and push past her, forcing my way into the room.

She looks flustered as she slams the door shut and turns to me in her blush pink robe.

It’s coming apart at the waist, revealing the lace bra and panties that she’s wearing underneath.

She’s definitely kept her figure over the years.

But it does nothing for me anymore.

Noticing my gaze on her, she pulls the robe tighter around her body and secures it properly with the front tie-up. Her blonde hair swings loose around her shoulders.

“What the fuck are you doing here, Lucio?” she demands. “And how did you find me?”

“You’re not the only one with friends in high places,” I tell her. I tuck the gun away. I won’t need it.

It feels good to have the upper hand again.

I look around the room. It’s not large, but it’s luxurious as fuck. Gilded sconces holding soft amber lights. A massive television flickering softly with scenes of underwater life. A king bed filled with pillows soft as clouds.

Not exactly what I would’ve expected for an FBI informant trying to keep a low profile.

Then again, Sonya’s always enjoyed the high life.

I walk over to the desk and take a seat.

“What is that supposed to mean?” she demands.

“It means that even the FBI is not without their leaks in the ship.”

She grits her teeth. “You have an informant in the FBI?”

“I wouldn’t call them an informant,” I say calmly. “More like a friend high up the ladder.”

“And he—”

“Or she,” I suggest innocently. “You never know.”

“—he or she gave you my location?”

“Well, I did ask very nicely.”

She takes a moment to collect herself.

It’s amazing to watch, actually. Downright fucking spooky.

Her transformation from flustered and confused to controlled and calculating.

Even her body language changes. She stands a little taller, moves a little more sensuously. She seems much less concerned with how much skin she’s revealing in her thin robe.

I see what I fell for all those years ago.

What Kazimierz must’ve fallen for.

But only now do I realize what lies beneath all that beauty and poise.

Not a fucking thing.

Just a nasty, desperate, clawing witch of a woman.

A shell of a human.

A blackened, shriveled heart that pumps hate instead of blood.

“What do you want?” she crows.

“I’m here because you owe me.”

She narrows her eyes at me. “I owe you?” she repeats. “I think you’ve got a very twisted idea of how things are going to work, darling.”

“You stole my child,” I point out. “Then you dumped her on me just so you could snatch her away again—and try to take my mafia in the same damn motion. You shot me, too. Seems like you owe me a lot, Sonya.”

“Men like you need to be put away,” she snarls viciously.

“And you’re going to be the one to put me away—is that it?”

She shrugs as if it means nothing to her. Even when I know the opposite is true.

“I gave you a choice.”

“Some fucking choice,” I rumble. “Give up everything and flee the country?”

“With Evie,” she adds fiercely. “I was willing to give you our daughter. But apparently, she’s not enough for you.”