2. Tennant
“ D on’t you have better things to do than annoying me?” Hol snaps.
“Nope,” I reply calmly, leaning back in my chair until two of the legs lift from the floor. “Cristian isn’t back yet, and Roman is working with Benji and Dante—I think he dragged Jude along, too. If anyone else needs to be micromanaged, they wouldn’t be working for me.”
“Lucky me, then,” he mutters.
I ignore him, knowing he’s not really bothered by my being here. If he was, he wouldn’t have a problem kicking me out.
In truth, this is the first reprieve I’ve had in a while. Between the Russian debacle Doc found himself in, everything that happened with Jude’s family and the De Luca’s, and the day-to-day things that come with keeping the Family in line, a few hours of peace sitting with my tesoro is a rare thing.
As the thought crosses my mind, my phone rings. The chair legs fall back to the floor with a loud bang as I sit upright, causing Hollis to give me a look . “Sorry,” I say absently, pulling out the phone and staring at the display.
Immediately, everything in me is on guard, and I go from calm lover to alert Second in an instant. I stand quickly, answering with a clipped, “What happened?”
“Sir…” The voice on the other end of the line shakes. “We… There’s been a situation.”
Striding to the door of the office, I grip the phone tightly, hearing the device crack. “What type of situation?” My words are low and commanding, the thread of control I have is there, but barely, as my patience wears thin.
“T–the Boss…is gone, sir.”
I don’t know where my phone ends up as I toss it as hard as I can into the hallway. “I need a ping on Cristian’s location, Hollis,” I snap over my shoulder.
I don’t wait for his affirmative before making my way down to Cristian’s office, hoping that his bastard husband is there because I don’t have the time or inclination to look for him. Slamming the office door open, I ignore Carter’s pointed glare.
“I’m initiating a lockdown,” I tell him, speaking before he does. “I’ll be sending Roman to you, and neither of you are to go anywhere without my say so. Understand?”
He jumps up from behind the desk. “What happened?”
The thin veneer of my humanity is fraying as the guard’s words run through my head over and over. “I’m not asking. This is an order as Cristian’s Second.”
Carter crosses the room as I turn to leave, grabbing my arm and earning himself a hand to his throat as I toss him against the wall beside the door.
“Where’s Cris?” he asks, trying to fight me off. “Dammit, Tennant, you can’t just make demands without talking to me.”
Before I can respond, Hollis rushes into the room. “I’ve sent people to Cristian’s last known location. I've called Leandro down to help monitor the situation, and alerted Benji that Roman is needed.”
Carter goes still, the fight leaving him as he begins to accept what he had to have known the moment I gave the first order…
“No,” he whispers, looking from me to Hollis. “I–it… No. What the fuck is happening, Ten? Where’s Cristian?”
“I don’t know,” I admit. “But I’m going to find out. You will wait here with Roman.”
“Like hell!”
Closing my hand around his throat, I dig my fingernails into the skin there. “You might be a mafia spouse, Carter, but when it comes to safety, my word is law. I should have already been on my way to the scene, but because of you, I’m behind on getting us all the answers we want.”
Carter’s gaze bores into mine, the navy blue almost black with his emotions. “You will bring him back to me, Tennant. He…he’s not…”
“No,” I say evenly. “He’s fine. A pain in my ass because he never fucking listens to me, but fine.” He has to be fine.