Page 63 of Savage Roses
The mansion’s head caretaker answers. She clutches her chest and gasps as they brandish the warrant and flood through the door.
Poor lady. I don’t even know her name—Lucius fired the last one, Xavia.
This one’s fairly new and she looks like she’s on the verge of a heart attack. Considering she’s at least fifty, going by her bun of messy gray hair, she might want to have a seat and calm down.
Through the camera, I’m able to gauge enough of what’s happening with the staff.
The caretaker shows the head of security on duty. Naturally, he gets on the phone, presumably to call Lucius.
Meanwhile, my guys tear his house apart. Shit’s flying everywhere. No different than that afternoon so long ago where Lucius had sent his men to destroy my loft, terrorizing Delphine and the cats.
A petty, vengeful sense of satisfaction fills me up watching it happen.
Payback, Pop. Feels good, doesn’t it?
I switch cameras to where Stitches is. He’s made it to the master bedroom, along with Oscar. The two divide and conquer. Oscar takes care of the drawers in the room, yanking them open and digging inside. Stitches heads for the closet.
As we guessed, Lucius foolishly decided to place it in the nightstand on Stefania’s side of the bed. Oscar holds it up so I can see it in view of the camera lens and then hands it over to Stitches.
Grinning, I congratulate them for doing it in under five. “Nice work, gents. Now time to get the hell out of there. Grab the others and wrap it up.”
My own phone vibrates, notifying me of a text. It’s Delphine checking in. I send back a thumbs up; my way of telling her it’s good and I’ll brief her on more details once we’re officially out of the blast zone.
When it vibrates a second time, I’m thinking she’s textedagain. Usually we’re good at communicating during these type of situations. She should understand what my thumbs up means.
Then I realize it’s not a text that’s come through. It’s an incoming call.
Lucius is calling me.
My stomach muscles clench. I bite the bullet and answer before the third ring. “Afternoon, Pop.”
“Salvatore, care to share your good news?”
I pause. “And what good news would that be?”
“Your victory. I bet you’re already thinking about tonight’s celebrations. I haven’t seen you smile like that since you were a little snot-nosed boy playing with your favorite toy. The question is, will you be so happy when you find out you have something of mine, but I also have something of yours?”
My hold on my iPhone tightens ’til my knuckles go white. I sit up in the backseat of my Audi and carefully glance around, barely turning my head—I’m being watched. How else would he fucking know I just grinned?
“Where are you?” I ask slowly.
“Closer than you think,” he answers, amused. “I do have to give credit where credit is due—asignedsearch warrant. I know a dumdum like you didn’t come up with a plan like that.Shedid. What an asset.”
The inside of the Audi launches into a tailspin. The seats, the ceiling, the luxury carpeting, all of it’s spinning around me. I’m the only thing immobile, stuck in place as it washes over me what’s happened.
How horribly fucking wrong this has gone.
Then everything stops spinning and I’m crashing back down into the moment with a heart that’s beating in an out-of-control panic.
“What do you want?” I ask. “The phone back? You can have it.”
He croaks out a laugh. Husky and mocking. “Who said I’m interested in trading? De Trolio should be on his way with her as we speak. I’m looking forward to finally meeting. My own son hiding his girlfriend from me. Tsk, tsk. I’m thinking I’ll set up a nice dinner, you know, to welcome her to the family. Hopefully she’s not easily spooked. We can be a very… violent bunch.”
“Don’t you fucking dare… if any of you… if you fucking try anything—let her go right now! This is between us!”
I can’t even finish a full sentence, my temper’s got me about to blackout. My men have emerged from the mansion and returned to the patrol cars. I barely register Stitches headed for the Audi with a proud beam on his face.
They have Delphine.