Chapter 37 Andre
ANDRE
The morning merged into the afternoon. Hours passed into the evening, hectic and busy. To plan and plot how to take out Roberto Giovanni wasn’t a simple little task to cross off my list.
It required meetings with spies. Talking with the Rossis, who were insistent on being included in this fight, then arranging scenarios of how this could go.
Although I was impatient to be with Sofia, to check on her and comfort her and make sure that she understood how vital her safety and happiness were to me, I was stuck in the security room.
Or pacing in my study as I spoke with the Rossis.
Then waited in my father’s office while spies came to us and discussed what Giovanni representatives were saying.
An official communication had been set up. Roberto had demanded that we meet at his nightclub uptown to discuss the matter of our trespass on his property and the kidnapping of his “beloved” niece.
Half of the efforts were to deny or deflect any wrongdoing. We’d come in there to extract Sofia from the situation she was in too carefully, such that no one could know it was us. Of course, he knew it was us. That I had gone to get her. But he had no proof. No video. No fingerprints. Anything.
His accusation of our trespassing and kidnapping a member of his family was a hefty claim, though, and that was why the Rossis were up in arms.
They’d take any chance to ally with anyone who hated the Giovannis.
But letting them participate in this fight would imply future expectations and obligations to repay the favor.
My father handled the diplomatic conversations about all that, and I knew that while he wouldn’t renege on accepting Sofia into our family, he wasn’t going to change his “lone wolf” approach to being the boss.
We could be friendly with the Rossis, and often were, but letting them fight alongside us was a more significant bond than what we welcomed at the time.
After missing dinner, I gave up. The wait was getting to me. The anxiety of all these plans and decisions wore away at me. My stomach growled. I was starving. All my nerves were shot with the inability to go see Sofia myself and check on her.
I stood and faced Oleg. “Tell the Rossis to stand back.” I turned to Sergei.
“Get a crew ready to meet Giovanni at his club.” Facing Roman last, I nodded once.
“And start the process of tracking the dispatch to deter any calls to law enforcement.” I rubbed my jaw.
“This ends tonight. If Giovanni wants to meet tonight, then we will.”
We could nitpick at this all day and night.
But my patience was used up. Fueled by rage and love, I was determined to move swiftly and clear up the obstacles that blocked me from the freedom of comforting Sofia and talking about our future.
One with marriage and a baby on the way.
With her going back to school and being a nurse.
A scene of trust and love and never having to be apart again.
My father rose too, clearly annoyed with the long day or negotiating, analyzing, and strategizing. “You should relocate her, first. Just in case.”
“I agree.” Keeping Sofia here was ideal.
She was surrounded by security. Safe. But shit happened, and with how high the tensions were with the Giovanni threat, it seemed prudent to add another layer of protection.
“I’ve already asked to have the safehouse prepared.
” I’d chosen the building nearest to this block.
Security was already in action, scoping the area and setting up surveillance measures.
“I think Anya and Claire already mentioned the chance of being moved,” he told me as we exited the room together.
“Good. Then she’s got a heads up.” I heaved out a deep sigh.
“Are you ready for this?”
“I’m more than ready to end this.” I cringed. “But I don’t like this suspicion that he won’t show.”
He nodded. “That’s why we’ll have another crew positioned to take him out if he’s hiding.”
While I would hate to miss out on the glory and honor of killing Roberto Giovanni myself, I knew it mattered more that he was dead. We’d get him one way or another before morning dawned.
We parted ways, and I hurried to see Sofia. Claire hadn’t told her to stay in bed with any worry for bed rest, but it seemed that she was still so exhausted that she’d wanted to lie back and give her body a chance to recover from all she’d endured.
To my surprise, she wasn’t in bed when I entered the room. She was packing a small bag.
“Where are you going?”
She faced me, raising her brows. “To… a safehouse?”
I sighed, going to hold her. The sight of her packing intimidated me.
“Anya texted and said—”
I kissed her silent, absorbing all the warmth from her that I could. “Yes. We think it’s safer to move you. Just in case.” I waited, watching her expectantly, half-convinced she’d argue.
“Okay?” I asked, arching one brow.
She huffed lightly with a little smile. “Okay? Yes, Andre. It’s okay. It’s more than okay. Whatever you think is best. And safest.”
I held her at arm’s length. “That’s it?”
She shrugged and smiled shyly. “Yeah?”
“You’re not going to give me a hard time about my deciding everything?”
She let out a soft exhale and framed my face. Pulling me in for a delicate kiss, she made me wish that we had all the time in the world to be intimate and affectionate just like this. Right now.
“I love you, Andre, and I trust you.” She swallowed and blushed. “But I’m not going to adopt this bogus idea that it’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission,” she added with a scoff.
I grinned, pulling her close and kissing her again until we were breathless.
“I’m tired of all this fighting,” she admitted. “Of fighting him.”
That sounded like a veiled form of permission to me.
“Of fighting you.” She kissed me again, tenderly. “Of fighting what’s meant to be.”
“Me too,” I agreed. “Me too.” Stepping back to squeeze her hand, I tried to stay calm and not let this euphoria get to me.
I couldn’t celebrate anything yet. I couldn’t lower my guard and be too optimistic.
Hearing her admit that she loved me was a reward I’d always cherish, but first, I had to remove the threats that endangered her.
“I love you, and I can’t wait to show you again how much I do. ”
“After,” she said as she resumed zipping up her bag. “After…”
“After tonight,” I finished for her. “We’re meeting him at his club, and that will be the end of it.”
She winced. “I don’t want to know. I don’t want… any details.”
She never did. She never had. For both of our sakes, she really was a terrible person to obtain intel for nefarious reasons. Her approach was that ignorance was bliss, and I’d grant her that unless she decided otherwise.
Together, we left to move into the other building.
Hopefully, it would only be for the night.
While Anya offered to stay here and keep her company, my father and I shot that down.
Instead, so she wasn’t worrying while I was gone, Sofia would call her cousin and catch up with her.
Esmeralda was getting stronger and more stable, to the point that she wasn’t napping so much and could talk via a video call.
Anxious and impatient for closure, and to make up for the abuse Sofia had suffered at the hands of her uncle, I kept it simple.
“I’ll be back soon.” I kissed her at the door, satisfied that the place was thoroughly guarded.
“Be careful.” She kissed me back.
“Always.” I pressed my lips to her forehead this time. “I love you.”
“I love you too.” She kissed me again.
“I’ll be back tonight, and we can figure out how soon we can elope.” I hurried to kiss her this time, cutting off her squeak of surprise.
“Isn’t that rushing things?” she asked when she parted for air. A huge smile covered her beautiful face.
“Not at all.” I gazed at her, mesmerized by the warmth in her eyes. “I can’t wait for the rest of my life to start with you.”
“I—”
“O… kay.” Oleg clapped twice from where he was pacing in the hallway. “Not to interrupt, but…” He tapped his watch. “Time to move.”
Sofia gripped the front of my shirt and pulled me close for one last kiss. “Tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?”
She nodded and kissed me again. “We’ll marry tomorrow if you want. Just go and be safe.”
With one more I love you and my promise to be careful, I left.
Oleg smirked at me as we exited the building. “Are you going to be able to do this? To concentrate?”
I gave him a wry look. “I was born to do this.” Killing my enemies? Piece of cake. Retaliating for all the suffering my fiancée suffered? My pleasure.
That wasn’t cockiness. I wasn’t talking out of my ass. As we left the safehouse and neared the nightclub, a deep, sinister, bloodthirsty energy commandeered me.
Giovanni was about to pay.
This feud between our families would end now.
That was the goal, at least.
I led the men to enter the club, heading not through the entrance they expected us from, but by coming in through the adjacent building. Our alteration took them by surprise, but it didn’t change their fates.
“Where is he?” I demanded of the Giovanni asshole who greeted me with a gun aimed at my head.
“Fuck you.” Before he could pull the trigger, another man shot him. We’d arranged for our plainclothesmen spies to pose as part of the Giovanni force, and they revealed that deception now.
In a flash, they proved that they’d never intended to talk. To negotiate. To discuss anything. Most telling of all was the fact that Roberto Giovanni hadn’t shown up.
You fucking coward.
My father and I suspected he’d pull a stunt like this. To set me up on his turf to have me killed.
That was why we’d been ready for it. All the Giovannis were killed.
We’d come with too many. We’d already had our men hiding among them.
As the gunpowder settled and I caught my breath from the bullet that had caught me in the shoulder, the same one I had the stitches from when Sofia helped me almost three months ago after I was shot there, I gritted my teeth and assessed the damage.
At close range, it was inevitable for someone to be hurt. I was wounded, but alive.
“All accounted for,” Oleg said after my demand to know how many casualties we had.
No Orlovs were dead, but the groans and winces of pain on my men’s faces proved they weren’t getting out of here unscathed.
“Civilians?” I asked next, limping toward the door.
“None,” Oleg answered, holding his hand against his arm where blood leaked.
We’d had a couple of our soldiers go downstairs and clear out the guests at the club.
It wasn’t necessary, but when I stopped to consider how upset Claire and Sofia likely would be to know that innocent bystanders had been killed by an act of violence that had nothing to do with them, I asked for the building to be emptied when we arrived.
Natalie, too, would appreciate it, since her first husband had been killed when he was innocently caught in the crossfire of a confrontation that hadn’t been relevant to him.
A couple of Giovanni thugs cursed and protested as my men dragged them out.
A thick stream of blood followed them in their wake.
They were hit but alive. Weakened but slowly dying.
I imagined they’d hang on long enough for the men to question them for where their cowardly leader was hiding.
We’d make sure of it, but I wasn’t leaving anything to chance.
“We’ll remain on the lookout,” my father said, connected to the comms unit all of us were wearing.
I nodded, exhaling a harsh breath as Oleg and I got into the car to leave.
“We will.” Roberto Giovanni could think he would get away with tricking us like this, agreeing to meet up then backing out.
But he wouldn’t succeed. He’d written his own death sentence the second he harmed Sofia at all.
“There’s nowhere he can hide on this earth to evade me for good,” I replied as the driver pulled away from the failed meeting that aggravated me to no end.
I’m coming for you.
And you will pay with your life for what you’ve done.
I gritted my teeth and breathed through the anger and disappointment that I couldn’t be coming home to Sofia with good news, with the report that she’d never have to fear her uncle ever again.
I owed her this.
I loved her too much to fail her.
But this time, I wondered if good things really did come to those who waited. My patience to wait for Roberto Giovanni’s death frayed with every passing second.