Chapter 28
Dmitri
Pain pulses through my right hand as I step back from Enrico Ferro, blood dripping from his split lip onto the concrete. His groans echo in the storage room in the back of one of my antique stores.
“How many times do I have to break your face before you tell me something useful?” I question him as I pace around him, giving my hand a light shake to soothe the ache.
I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve punched him tonight. It’s already past sunrise now, and he hasn’t coughed up the information that I want. I still think that he’s hiding something.
“I don’t know anything!” Enrico snaps at me as he tries to pull against the restraints trapping him to the chair that he’s sitting in. He spits out blood onto the floor next to my foot, his teeth stained red. “We didn’t order the shooting!”
“But what about the other Italians? There are more than just you, and I know that you work together,” I reply as I stalk closer while my men linger behind me to guard the door.
“We don’t know everything that they do!” Enrico replies. “You’re a moron if you think we’re up each other’s asses like that!”
I grab the front of his white dry-fit shirt, blood stains marking the fabric. “Do you really want to test me right now?”
Enrico flinches as I jerk him forward, his breathing becoming labored. “Just let me go! We weren’t behind the attack! I swear!”
“That area is swarming with you Italians, who didn’t exactly roll out the welcome mat when I showed up in town. You must have an idea of who the shooters could be,” I growl in his face. I still haven’t been able to shake my frustration from my meeting with Artur.
“I don’t fucking know! How many times do I have to say that?” Enrico asks.
“Your crew must have heard something about the shooting. Tell me,” I snap at him before shoving him back into his seat, knocking the air out of his lungs. I put my back to him, shaking my head bitterly. “You really don’t want to piss me off today. I’ve had enough of this already.”
“Sir,” Gabe says from the doorway.
I let out a heavy huff before following Gabe out of the back room and into the small hallway. “What is it?”
“It’s Cara,” Gabe replies as he shows me his phone. “She says that she needs to talk to you about something important, and you’re not picking up your phone.”
I check the time on my watch. I should be at the office at this hour. “I’m not done here. Have someone drive her over.”
I go back into the room, making Enrico tense up at the sight of me. He doesn’t get a word out before I slam my fist against his jaw, making blood fly from his lips and splatter on the concrete floor.
“What the fuck?” Enrico cries out.
“Give me the name of someone who can help me better than you,” I tell him as I grab his jaw, forcing his eyes back on mine.
Blood drips down his chin as he glares up at me, pain written all over his face. “I’m not selling out my own men to you!”
“Give me a name. I don’t care if it’s one of your men or someone from another family,” I say as I tighten my grip, making him grimace in pain. “Tell me the name of someone in this city who can find out information most people can’t.”
Enrico’s breathing quickens, blood and sweat matting his short, black hair. “You’re just going to kill me when I give you a name.”
“If you give me a name, I’ll spare you,” I tell him, not wanting to deal with the trouble of disposing of another body, or starting another war. I have enough on my plate right now. “Try to retaliate, and I won’t come after you first. I’ll start with the people you visit on Sundays.”
“Bastard,” Enrico grits out.
“Do you have a name for me or not? I’ll let you sit in here and rot,” I warn him as I lean closer.
“Fine, okay! Briggs! Evan Briggs,” Enrico tells me, a defeated, exhausted sigh trailing his words. “He’s not part of our family or any of the others. He’s just a regular guy, but he-he knows things.”
“He’s an informant?” I ask, releasing my grip on his jaw so that he can continue speaking.
“I guess you could call him that,” Enrico replies. “He sells information. Highest bidder wins.”
“Where can I find him?” I question him.
“I don’t know where he lives. He floats from place to place, but he’s usually hanging around the Strip,” Enrico tells me with a weak shrug. “He’s a short guy with curly red hair. He’s hard to miss.”
I eye him, making sure that he’s telling me the truth and not lying right to my face. I guess I won’t truly know until I find this Evan Briggs guy. “You’ll sit tight until I find this guy. If he checks out, you’re free to go.”
Enrico’s jaw drops. “How fucking long will that take? You need to let me go now!”
“Keep an eye on him,” I tell Emil as he stands near the door.
Emil nods. “It sounds like Cara is already here.”
I listen closely, hearing light talking down the hallway. I head that way, reaching Cara and Gabe in the main part of the antique shop before he can take her down the hall.
Cara starts to smile, but her eyes quickly drop to my right hand. “What happened?”
I glance down, seeing the cuts and bruises on my knuckles. I’m surprised that I didn’t break a finger or two. “Business.”
Cara gives me a pointed look as she moves closer to me. To my surprise, she gently takes my hand in hers, peering down at my injuries. “I’m guessing you found Enrico.”
Smart girl.
Yesterday, she worked quickly and diligently to find as much information as she could about the men that I told her to look into. She constantly surprises me.
I thought she would show some more hesitancy or nervousness, but I suppose being with her criminal ex-boyfriend was enough to get her accustomed to this lifestyle.
Or maybe she just likes being a little bit bad.
“He didn’t have any information for me about the shooting, but he told me the name of a local informant,” I say while allowing her to inspect the damage.
“Want me to look into him?” Cara asks before sliding her hand up to grip my forearm. She drags me to the small bathroom. “You need to clean your knuckles.”
I follow her and shut the door behind us. “I don’t need your help with this yet. I’ll send my men to the Strip to find him.”
Cara nods and holds a folded paper towel under cold water before gently dragging it over my knuckles to clean off the dried and fresh blood. “You should stop getting your hands so bloody. Let your men handle it.”
My eyebrow quirks up in surprise. “Why would I do that? I like getting my hands dirty.”
Cara lifts her eyes once she’s done. “You can use your…talented hands for other things. Better things.”
I tilt my head, holding her gaze as heat flickers deep within me. “What did you have in mind?”
Cara tosses the bloody paper towel in the trash before reaching into the back pocket of the fitted gray work pants that caress her thighs and hips just right.
She pulls out a folded piece of paper and hands it over to me.
“I was going to give this to you this morning, but you weren’t at the office. ”
“I was here all night questioning Enrico,” I reply before unfolding the paper to reveal a number written in black ink. “One hundred thousand dollars?”
Cara nods. “That’s my price.”
“That’s bold,” I comment before meeting her eyes once more. “And what does that buy me?”
Cara brushes her hair behind her shoulders and lifts her chin more, exposing the sensitive skin of her neck that I want to run my lips over again. “Me in your bed from sundown to sunup. Doing whatever you want.”
The pressure in my chest loosens for the first time in days.
I can’t help but stare at her for a few seconds, making sure that she’s serious.
“Whatever I want?” I reply as I reach out and cup her chin with my injured hand, keeping her eyes on mine. Now that she’s here, the pain is nonexistent. All I can focus on is her.
A soft blush dusts her cheeks as she gives me a subtle nod. “Whatever you want. I’m yours for the night.”
I don’t want her for just one night, but I suppose this is a good start. Once I get through with her, she’ll never want to leave my bed.
“Done. I’ll get the money today,” I tell her, ready to head over to the location where I keep the bulk of my cash. There’s no way in hell that I can keep all my money in a bank.
Before I can pull away from her, Cara suddenly grabs my wrist, making me pause. “There’s one more condition.”
I lift my eyebrow at her. “Aside from paying you one hundred thousand dollars?”
Cara nods as a serious expression settles on her face. “That offer is only good if you call off the marriage. Not just the wedding. The whole…arrangement with Annika.”
Even if they put up frustrating roadblocks for me, I can admire that she at least tries to stick to her morals.
“That’s important to you, isn’t it?” I say, able to sense the tension gripping her body. She’s on edge, waiting for my answer. Hoping that I’ll say what she wants to hear.
“It is,” Cara tells me. “I can’t spend the night with someone who is taken.”
The side of my mouth crooks up, and I actually feel proud for putting my foot down and calling off the marriage.
“You’re asking me to burn the bridge completely,” I say as I slip my wrist out of her grip and grab her hand instead to coax her closer. “It went up in flames last night.”
Cara’s brow furrows in confusion. “What do you mean?”
I move her hand to rest on the back of my neck, making her chest press against mine as the space between us grows smaller. She won’t believe what I’ve done. I can hardly believe it myself.
Artur’s threat echoes in my head.
You’ll never be named Pakhan now.
I still don’t care.
“Annika and I are over,” I tell Cara. “The marriage is off.”