Chapter 26
Twenty-Six
AMARA
T he next morning wasn’t easy. There wasn’t enough coffee to keep my eyes open. It didn’t help that my entire body was sore in new delicious places. Every time I crossed my legs under the boardroom table, I was reminded of how Luka’s thumbs pressed into my thighs, his fingers digging into my flesh. The heat of his breath blowing over my skin. It was an inconvenient time to think about being in bed together, the wine cellar, or the shower. I was in the middle of meeting with the legal team about the Crescent Towers project.
Barbara stood to reach for the pot in the center of the table. She had to stretch for the handle.
“I think we wait until the bill can be added into another one. We’ll tie it with a piece of legislation that can’t fail.” She placed the giant pot on the tray.
“I think you know we can’t afford to wait that long,” I corrected her. “It has to be this bill. This round. We need another vote.”
Enzo’s head was buried in his tablet. I saw a smile spread across his face. I couldn’t remember a time when he had looked happy at the office. I usually tasked him with too many projects for him to display any expression other than constant concentration. His forehead furrowed. His brows angled outward when he tried to solve a problem for me. This was a different look on him. I wondered if it was because of Katya. I still hadn’t wrapped my head around their relationship or helping them. I pushed back when Luka wanted a solution. One crisis at a time.
“What’s the update from Victoria Banks?” I asked.
Barbara stopped stirring creamer into her mug. Her head lifted. “We spoke this morning.”
“And? She told me there were ways to get the votes.”
“There are. She’s working those angles.”
“I need the specifics. Tell her I want an update this afternoon.”
Barbara nodded. Enzo tore his eyes from the screen. “Construction is on schedule.”
“At least there is that.” I sighed. We all knew without the casino licensing, there wasn’t a chance in hell the Crescent Towers would survive the first year. I wouldn’t be the only one impacted by the success of the project. Everyone in this room needed to understand how critical it was the bill passed.
I rose from my seat. Ciro was waiting for me in the hallway outside the conference room.
I tilted my head. “I’m glad you’re here. There’s something I need you to do.”
“I have some information.”
“Oh? Then let’s move out of the hallway.”
He nodded. “In your office.”
Ciro was a fixture at work. No one batted an eye when he walked through the offices. I knew there was something different in his demeanor. He wasn’t going to like what I was going to ask him to do.
He closed the glass door behind him.
“What information do you have for me?” I asked.
He folded his hands in front of his waist. “I think you should slow down with Luka Novikov. I need to vet him before you go any farther.”
I blinked. “Excuse me?”
His expression didn’t waiver. Neither did his tone. “You don’t know what he did the five years he was in France. You don’t know who he was in business with. I want to do a full background history on his time there. A complete assessment.”
I leaned against my desk. “Ciro, that’s crazy. I trust Luka. You can trust him too. I know neither of you is a fan of the other, but you don’t need to look for things to dig up on him. He and I actually had a conversation about you. I told him about the kidnapping. I think it might help things between you two.” It was an event I rarely mentioned to him. “He understands more now. I’m hoping maybe you will too.”
His face muscles didn’t move. “I don’t trust him. You shouldn’t either. At least not until we know everything he was up to in France.”
It wasn’t a conversation I was interested in having with Ciro, or anyone else. Ciro had access to a view of my personal life no one else did, but that didn’t give him the right to interject. Our arrangement worked because he stayed silent. He seemed to want to make a change that I wasn’t sure I could allow.
“What he was up to? That’s absurd. He was busy running his family’s vineyards. He wasn’t allowed to come back to New Orleans. You know that.”
“I could have started the investigation, but I thought you should know I plan on telling you what I find.”
I shook my head. “Even if I order you not to?”
“My job always has been to keep you safe. I’m following those instructions.”
I huffed. He was stubborn. He had a single focus. I paid for the focus to be on keeping me alive.
“I don’t want to know.” He wouldn’t put a dent in my trust of Luka.
“You say that now, but you don’t know what I’m going to find. You’ll change your mind.”
I cut a stare at him meant to injure. “I know I can’t stop you from digging into his past, but I don’t want to see the file. I need you to know that. Leave me out of it.” I peered at him. “Tell me something. Why now? What are you trying to do?”
“Are you asking for my opinion about bringing him back into your life?” I didn’t like his tone. The constant insinuation that where Luka was concerned, I couldn’t make a good decision.
“No. I’m not.”
He nodded, but I had left enough room for him to start sifting through Luka’s life in France. It was a sliver that he would use to create an entire canyon of distrust.
I felt the anger bubbling. This was a horrible time, but I still needed to talk to him about the tracker. I took a deep breath.
“I do need you to do something for me.”
“Anything,” he answered.
“I don’t want the tracking implant any longer.” I pushed my hair out of the way. “I want you to take it out.”
“It’s vital to my security plan. It’s how I keep track of where you are at all times.” He withdrew a small screen from his jacket that could have easily been mistaken for a phone. He turned it around to demonstrate. “See?”
The light blinked green on a grid of the city. I quickly realized the blinking light was me. My stomach turned. Until last night, it had made me feel safe, but the more I thought about how my father had used it all those years made me disgusted. I wanted it out.
“You’re going to need a new security plan.” I looked at Ciro. “I have first-hand accounts that the companies that produce the software for this device have been hacked. They aren’t fail-safe. I’m not willing to put my trust in something like that. I think it served its purpose, don’t you?”
“It’s because of Luka Novikov.”
I shook my head. “No, it’s because my father came up with archaic ways to control me. I don’t want this.”
“Your father only wanted to keep you safe.”
My eyes blazed. “He’s been dead four years. I want the thing cut out. Now.”
Ciro reached in his pocket. I gasped when he flicked his wrist and a blade appeared. He stepped toward me. It wasn’t the time to show fear or to consider letting it take up residence. I wanted this. Demanded it. I trusted Luka when he said the device was dangerous and had been compromised. I inhaled, tilting my head back and to the side.
Ciro pressed the tip of the blade against my skin. “Are you sure?”
“Yes.” I gritted my teeth together.
He jabbed the end of the knife just under my skin and jutted it upward quickly. I grimaced when I felt the blood trickle against my collarbone.
“It’s out,” he reported.
I carefully sat in my chair, feeling dizzy from the abruptness of having the chip removed. Ciro stood in front of me. He handed me a handkerchief from his pocket. I pressed it against my neck to stop the bleeding. He placed the bloody chip on the corner of my desk. It was small. Smaller and more square than my pinky nail.
“I need to go to France.”
I looked up at him. “Fine.” I didn’t feel like arguing.
“I don’t like this. I’d feel better if I was leaving knowing you weren’t going to see him.”
I pulled the handkerchief from my neck. It was sopped with blood, but it seemed as if it had finally stopped. I searched in my desk drawer for a band-aid. I usually kept one or two in case of a high heel blister emergency.
“Let me.” Ciro took the bandage and unwrapped the paper. He leaned over me and fixed the sticky ends to my skin. “You have blood on your dress.”
“Shit,” I whispered. “I’ll have to change.”
“Do you want me to go back to the house before I leave for the airport?”
“What? You’re flying to France today?”
He nodded. “I can’t spare any time. I hope I’m back in three days.”
“Just like that?” I felt an eerie sensation. The last time Ciro had left the city was the week before my father died. The same time I was kidnapped. He hadn’t left my side since. Why did I suddenly feel uneasy? He wasn’t going to find dirt on Luka. I was in confident in that. But Ciro was a consistent part of my life, even if he lived it in the shadows.
“I don’t see another way.”
“What do I do for security while you’re in France?” I asked.
“I do have a plan.”
“Then let’s hear it.”