Chapter 25
Twenty-Five
Amara
I couldn’t let him walk out of here. Not straight into danger.
I grabbed his hand roughly. “No. Stay with me. Please.” I kept my voice low. I knew Ciro agreed with me. “The tunnels are a labyrinth that very few people can get out of.”
“I know all about the tunnels.” I tried to ignore the bitter tone.
I wondered if the Vieux Carre would always be a point of contention for us. It was our first standoff. The pivotal contract that positioned our fathers against each other. It was the reason Luka was shipped to France. It was the reason my father saw my potential. I was the queen I had become because I negotiated the Vieux Carre out from under Dmitry Novikov. No one in New Orleans had forgotten the maneuver. Maybe Luka never would. Had he forgiven me?
So much of our history was tied up in that building. I didn’t want him to go to it now. It had split us in two before. It had severed us so deeply we still had bruises from it. Scars that told the story of our past and present. My stomach twisted.
“Don’t go,” I begged him. “Stay here. Katya needs you.” I was willing to try any tool I had to prevent this suicide mission.
“She’s asleep. You yourself said she’d be out for a few hours. She doesn’t need me.”
I closed my eyes. “Then stay because I want you to stay. Stay because I need you to stay.”
Ciro clicked the gun in his holster, returning it with the ease of a man who had performed that ritual a thousand times. Luka had retrieved his weapon.
“I can’t.” He had that damn Novikov determination in his eyes. “I’m going with Ciro. Nik and the Bratva will meet us there.”
“You don’t need to do this. It’s exactly why we have security. This doesn’t make any sense. You aren’t making any sense. Can’t you see that?” I was angry. Instead of words of poetry that would convince him to stay, I was attacking him. Driving him away. Giving him a reason to leave.
“If you’re going. We need to leave now,” Ciro snapped. His attitude about this wasn’t forceful enough. How could he let Luka go with him?
I stared at him, imploring him to do something to stop this insane plan. It was dangerous, without logic or planning. Luka liked to plan everything.
Luka hurried toward the door, but I grabbed his arm, tugging him back to me.
“You don’t have to do this.” I wrapped my hands around his neck. I felt the warmth of his skin.
He kissed my palm. “I do. For us. For Katya. I do.”
“But you just came back.” I almost choked on the words.
“I’m going to come back.” He smiled. “I swear to you. I’ll be back.”
I still couldn’t let him go. How did I untangle my arms from his body, when the only thing I wanted was to hold him? Maybe I was the one who was supposed to keep him safe. Had he ever thought of that? Maybe I was supposed to protect him from dangerous decisions like these.
Ciro cleared his throat behind Luka. “Let’s go.”
I wanted a long slow kiss to seal in my memory, but instead it was quick and cruel—cut short by my body man.
They ran out of the house, and I sank into the chair, grasping at its arm so I didn’t crumble into a pile on the floor.
* * *
B arbara arrived, with crates and boxes of files. I welcomed her in my office. I needed the distraction. I needed chatter. I needed the minutes filled with work and a productive goal.
She stacked the files in rows. “I’ve divided the investors here.” She pointed at the table. “And over here are the legislators on board with the Crescent Towers. This stack is the ones voting against it. I’m still not sure why the Lieutenant Governor is involved in this. Did you see the note I gave you on that?”
That was the pile I reached for first. “I did. Normally, I would have Enzo do the background research for me.” My stomach soured. “Seems if we have opposition, then we should start there,” I noted, trying not to think about Enzo.
Barbara exhaled. “I don’t know why the police would have arrested Luka Novikov. Doesn’t make a lot of sense. I get it. The parents need a suspect for peace of mine. But Novikov? He would never be sloppy, and this does not have Bratva organization fingerprints on it. The police are grasping at straws.”
I held my breath. Barbara knew everything about my business. My personal life had intersected with a violent crash. She needed to know. She had always been the maternal presence in my life. I needed to do this. I needed to bare my soul to someone who cared about me as more than a boss.
“Barbara,” I began.
“Yes?” She looked up from a report on Senator McKinley.
“Luka Novikov and I are going into business together.”
She tossed her reading glasses on the table. “What the hell? Since when?”
“Since he came back from France. And, we got back together.” I didn’t want her to feel as if I had kept this from her because I didn’t trust her. It wasn’t like me to share my romantic relationships.
She eyed me. “Got back together? As in, together-together?”
I nodded. “Yes. We were together before Dmitry sent him to run the vineyards. Our fathers had a mutual hatred for each other that kept us apart.”
“I had no idea about you two. Dmitry and Lorenzo hating each other, I know all about that. This whole city knows how much they hated each other. They are probably still trying to find a way to outdo each other in their vaults.” She sounded astonished. “But this? You and Luka? This is something to process.”
“He wants a merger.” I didn’t give her much time to wrap her head around one idea before I jumped to the next.
“No.” She shook her head. “You wouldn’t agree to that, would you?”
“There is a piece of tech he has. For the tech, I think I’d agree to it.” Not only would the take bring in millions, but also it would give us an entirely new legitimate profile to work within. Luka didn’t care about running a legitimate empire, but I did.
Barbara sat back in her seat. She had abandoned the files. “The man is hotter than sin, Amara. Fuck him? Yes. Bu anything else? Come on. You own this town. You don’t need a merger. Why would you consider it?”
“I know what you’re thinking. That I’m going to give up everything for him. I’m not.” I pressed my palm into the table. “It would be a partnership. A complete partnership. We’ll run the city together, and I think our reach is going to be a lot farther than that. He can help Amato Global find new markets. I want those markets.”
“No one has ever done that before. Families usually merge through marriage. And those are silent mergers with stealthy contracts that are full of heavy penalties.” She was referring to Katya’s union with the Petrovs.
“No one else is like Luka and me.” I smiled sadly. The pit in my stomach was hard and growing. My phone was silent. He and Ciro had to have reached the Vieux Carre by now. “We’re unique. We can make the partnership work. We want the same things. We have the same goals.”
“You two? Competitive. Territorial. Alphas. You and Luka Novikov?”
I nodded. “Yes. Luka Novikov and me. We can rule New Orleans.”
“Does that mean you’re going to marry him?” she asked.
There was no ring on my finger. No proposal. Only the hint of what Ciro had told me. Ciro had dropped a lot on me in the car yesterday.
“He hasn’t asked,” I replied. “Not something I have to think about right now. There’s no offer on the table.”
Barbara chuckled. “I’ll take that as a yes.” She winked at me and picked up a cup of coffee. “Thank you for filling me in. This is starting to make more sense.”
I opened one of the folders. “I’m not sure about that. But your counsel is always appreciated, Barbara. Always.”
Bella stepped into the room. I was about to wave her away. We had plenty of coffee, tea, and she had already stocked the bar for cocktail hour.
“Ms. Amato, there are guests,” she announced. Bella looked exhausted. I had realized how the stress of the kidnapping was affecting everyone under my roof.
“Who is it?” There were no meetings today.
“Mr. and Mrs. Barone.”
“Oh shit,” I whispered. “All right. Send them to the sitting room. Offer them something and I’ll be right there.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Barbara looked at me. “Should I attend this meeting?”
I nodded. “It might be best. It could be about the reward fund we set up for Enzo.” I looked at Barbara. “But I need just a minute. I don’t know how to face his mother again.”
“Take your time.” She patted my hand and stepped out of the room.