Cazzo. Like I’m any better. Just picturing her is enough to make my dick swell.
Muffling a curse, I adjust my crotch and mentally steer clear of the darker, more dangerous moments of the night. Like when she cried against my chest, clung to me for all she was worth, and fell asleep against a heart that’s never once had a pang of doubt. Not where my family is concerned.
Not until her.
Lena is a threat. The growing question is: to who?
I clear my throat, pitching the answer so it sounds obvious. “The engagement gets all three. Alive, close, and marked as mine. No one would dare try to kill my fiancée, not unless they’re prepared to watch me skin their loved ones alive before I put them all in the ground. That ring on her finger is a sign she’s under my protection. Protection she clearly needs so she can safely come to work and get on with her criminal activities, not stay locked in a bedroom somewhere. Publicly marking her as mine was the most efficient way of accomplishing everything we need.”
“Fuck, Rem. Of all the women to publicly claim…” I can practically hear my number two shaking his head at me. “She is the definition of forbidden fruit. The poisonous kind. You better hope like hell your brother and uncle don’t find out. Not until you’ve sorted this shit out.” Johnny’s voice takes on a taunting edge. “But also—explain the part about Lena being yours butnotbeing locked in a bedroom. Because I know youfratelloand?—”
“Basta. We have incoming.” All thoughts of Lena and bedrooms and locks vanish when I spot a face in the crowd. “What the fuck is he doing here?”
“Who?”
I’m out of my car and across the street in seconds, eyes glued to the back of a slickly styled head. Earbud in place, I check with Johnny, “You have eyes on Lena?”
“Yes,” Johnny shoots back, in full soldier mode. “What are we looking at, boss?”
I’m already up the stairs of the symphony hall, weaving through bodies as fast as I can without attracting attention. About ten feet ahead of me, the man stops.
I stop too.
He turns over his shoulder, scanning the crowd until he finds my face. Locks eyes with me. The motherfucker winks then makes a beeline inside to where I know Lena is working in the Patron’s Lounge.
Vaffanculo.
“Gotta talk to me, boss,” Johnny says into my ear. “What am I looking for here?”
“TheArkhangel.”
“What the fuck ishedoing here?” Johnny’s just as surprised—and pissed—as I am.
“He’s headed your way. Already up the first flight of stairs. He’s got a scar running through his left eye, from forehead to cheek. The hilt of a sword tattooed across the back of his neck. Ugly fucker. You should see him clear the corner any second.” I’m steps behind the Russian, my hand already on my piece as I watch him breeze up to the heavily monitored door of the Patron’s Lounge. I see one of the ushers look down atsomething the Russian shows her; she lifts her head with a smile and waves him through.
The asshole came prepared. The only way into this VVIP section of the symphony is if you’re a high-level donor or a guest of one. We’re talking hundreds of thousands of dollars high. So, the man has either bought his way closer to his target, or cozied up to someone who can get him in.
Either way, he’s too fucking close to Lena.
Johnny appears at my elbow a moment later. I show the usher my season ticket and she welcomes us into the lounge with a broad smile. With less than an hour to go till curtain, the room is a hive of drinking and brown-nosing and extramarital flirting. The mayor is in one corner, her hand resting on the arm of the second-biggest drug kingpin in the city. The chief of police is in another, clinking glasses with the man responsible for one of the largest money laundering rings in the state.
Both the mayor and the chief nod at me as I stride past. Of course, the Cerreti Family is number one in both categories, and a very generous donor to their election campaigns.
I don’t do the small talk, though. Which is why I’ve barely stepped foot in this gilded room until recently. The fact that Lena has worked as a bartender in the Patron’s Lounge for the past two years has only helped underscore my uncle’s point: she has the perfect opportunity to drug the Pagano’s targets, doctoring the drinks of any of the young and beautiful women who saunter in on the arms of much older, dirtier men.
Since Ari and I started scrutinizing Lena, I’ve haunted the lounge during her shifts, eyes peeled for any suspicious activity. I’ve always kept my distance, far enough away she never saw my face. But today, I part the crowd and head straight for the bar. The Russian assassin is leaning against the highly buffed surface, his casual stance in no way giving away how much of a homicidal maniac he is.
I’ve never had the pleasure of meeting theArkhangelinperson, but I know his reputation. One of the most whispered aboutbratvahitmen on the market. The boogie man mobsters tell their kids about to keep them in line. Mine sure as hell did. Which would make the man in front of me close to sixty, but he doesn’t look a day over thirty-five.
Ari heard whispers a while back that theArkhangelwas not one man, but a title passed down from the head of one particularly cruelbratvapakhanto his son, to mark that he was the next in line for the family throne. Assuming the kid outlived the countless bounties on his head from various governments and crime syndicates.
It was Aldo who mentioned that he’d actually met the mythic man last year while dealing with some business in Columbia. Mycapois one of a handful of people who’ve met the Archangel face to face and lived to tell about it.
Which is a fucking boon for me because he gave me a detailed description of thepezzo di merda. The man at the bar with Lena fits the description to a tee, right down to the wicked scar cutting through his left eye and the bold, black ink on the back of his neck.
Giving up any pretense of civility, I shove my way through clusters of people as Johnny takes position at the nearest exit. Like hell will I stand by as a man with a kill count rivaling my own and a weapon ruining the line of his five-grand tux hunts the woman I just marked as mine.
8