The Next Story Begins
Aria was waiting behind the reception desk when the private elevator opened.
That part wasn’t unusual, but the expression on her face was.
“What’s up?” I asked, already heading past her toward the office.
She glanced toward the hallway. “Nik’s in there with Luca.”
I stopped.
Luca Genovese did not just drop by Xyst.
He’d helped build the underworld network behind it, could walk through every locked door in the building without anyone stupid enough to question him, and still rarely bothered. Luca summoned people. Other people went to him unless he had a damn good reason to come himself.
“How long has he been in there?”
“Almost forty minutes.”
“With Nik that long?”
“Yeah.”
I glanced toward the office. “You heard anything?”
“Not enough to make out what they’re saying. Nik shut the door, told me not to interrupt them, then told me to send you in the second you got here.”
Well, shit.
“He say what this is about?”
“No. But whatever’s going on in there, it’s big.” Her expression tightened. “Nik called Luca and told him to come. He’s been acting strange all day.”
“Nik always acts strange.”
“It’s a different kind of strange today. And he made it clear no one is to bother them except you.”
I slid a hand into my pocket. “Maybe Luca finally discovered how much whiskey we’ve been stealing from his private stock.”
“You don’t steal from Luca.”
“Exactly. That’s why it would be newsworthy.”
Aria didn’t smile.
That bothered me more than anything else because she always got my jokes.
“You’d better get in there.”
“Great. And I’d been worried today might be boring.”
I headed down the hall and didn’t bother knocking on the closed door. Aria had already made it clear I was the one exception to Nik’s no-interruptions demand. If he wanted me in there the second I arrived, then here I was.
I flung the door open.
“—had it rerun twice. Same result both times,” Nik was saying.
Nik stopped talking.
Luca stood on the same side of the desk as Nik, with one fist planted against the polished wood, looking over Nik’s shoulder.
I forgot whatever smart-ass comment I’d planned next.
I’d seen Luca Genovese angry.
Everyone in The Syndicate had.
The old bastard could make an entire room reconsider its life choices without raising his voice. I’d seen him order men beaten and killed, threaten people over dinner, and watch torture with the bored expression of someone waiting for his coffee.
I’d never seen Luca this pale.
Not scared—rattled.
Luca Genovese didn’t do rattled.
But something had knocked the color out of his face, and the way he stared at me made the hair rise along the back of my neck.
I looked at Nik. “What the fuck happened?”
“Close the door.”
“That sentence has never led anywhere good.”
“Gabriel.”
I kicked it shut behind me.
Nik had several sheets of paper spread across the desk. Luca’s attention dropped to them, then came back to me.
He looked like he’d seen a ghost.
Unfortunately, I was beginning to suspect whatever was going on had to do with me and it wasn’t good.
“All right.” I pointed between them. “One of you start talking before I develop an anxiety disorder.”
Nik drew a breath. “There’s something I’ve uncov—
The office door flew open hard enough to hit the stopper behind it.
All three of us snapped our attention toward the doorway.
A woman stood there with a little boy perched on one hip.
Aria appeared behind her a second later, looking more flustered than I’d seen her in years.
Slade came around the corner behind her.
“Before anyone starts,” Aria said, holding up one hand, “Slade stopped her downstairs. She and the boy were screened. They’re clean, and he recognized her.”
My attention shifted to Slade.
He shrugged. “She used to come around years ago. She was a private member.”
Aria continued, “She also showed him a picture of the two of you together that would be extremely difficult for a stranger to fake convincingly. So, I allowed her to come up, and he escorted them personally.”
The woman folded one arm beneath the child on her hip. “Are we finished with my criminal background check?”
Aria gave her a perfectly pleasant smile.
“That wasn’t a criminal background check. If it had been, you’d still be downstairs.”
The woman’s eyes narrowed.
“You told me I could speak to Gabriel.”
“I told you he was unavailable for a few minutes and asked you to wait at my desk.”
“I did wait.”
“You stepped off the elevator, counted to approximately five, and darted past me.”
“My time is just as valuable as yours,” she said, jutting her chin in the air, “and I need to speak with him right away.”
Aria’s smile somehow became even more polite. “Most people find waiting preferable to being tackled by security.”
“Most people haven’t been trying to get one stubborn man’s attention for almost four years.”
That was surprising.
Aria’s brows lifted slightly. “And storming into a closed meeting seemed like the sensible solution?”
“It got me through the door.”
“Yes. I’m still deciding whether to admire that or have you escorted back out of it.”
The woman shifted the boy higher on her hip and met Aria’s gaze without blinking.
“You can try.”
Slade cleared his throat.
“Ladies.”
Neither of them looked at him.
Aria remained perfectly composed. “For future reference, threatening the woman who controls access to this building is generally poor strategy.”
“For future reference, standing between me and Gabriel is worse.”
“Noted.”
“Good.”
They stared at each other for another beat.
Jesus Christ.
I had no idea who was going to win that catfight, but I was suddenly very intrigued.
Then Luca straightened from the desk.
Whatever had drained the color from his face disappeared beneath the old-school mafia boss in an instant.
“Who the hell are you?”
The woman barely looked at him.
Her eyes found me, and my entire fucking day got stranger.
Then it hit me—I knew that face.
Or thought I did.
Something about her tugged at my memory, but I couldn’t place her.
She watched me struggling to remember.
Her mouth tightened, and she huffed, “Wow.”
I frowned. “What?”
“Nothing. Nice to know I left such a lasting impression.”
My attention dropped to the kid on her hip.
Three, maybe four years old. Light hair. Serious little face. One arm locked around her neck while the other gripped the front of her coat.
Behind me, Luca cursed in Italian under his breath. “Whatever history the two of you have can wait. Get out.”
The woman finally looked past me at him.
Her expression changed.
Not fear.
More like confusion.
“Down,” the child demanded.
She tightened her hold. “Not right now, sweetheart.”
“Down.”
“Honey—”
The kid started squirming and kicking with the determined lack of concern for adult plans that came standard at that age.
“Fine.” She lowered the child to the floor. “But stay right here.”
The second those little shoes hit the floor, the kid slipped around her.
“Hey—”
Too late.
The kid marched straight to Luca.
Behind us, Aria sucked in a breath and started after him.
People generally had a healthy survival instinct around Luca. This kid apparently had no survival instinct whatsoever.
Luca stared down as the child stopped right beside him.
Then one tiny hand reached up and wrapped around two of Luca’s fingers.
Luca froze.
I’d seen Luca make grown men sweat by lifting one eyebrow.
Now a preschooler had him by the hand, and the old bastard looked completely fucking lost.
I nearly laughed.
Then the kid tipped his face up.
“Enzo,” his mother scolded from behind me.
He ignored her.
Instead, he spoke directly to Luca.
“I’m Lorenzo, but everybody calls me Enzo.”
Luca continued to stare down at him.
Enzo waited a beat, expecting the terrifying mafia boss to speak to him.
When Luca didn’t, the little boy studied him more closely.
“Are you Gabriel?”
The question hit me square in the chest.
Then Enzo looked at me, and I saw his eyes.
My breath stopped.
No fucking way.
I took a step toward him.
Same shape. Same color. The same eyes I’d been staring at in the mirror my entire life.
My attention snapped to Luca.
He wasn’t looking at Enzo anymore.
He was staring at me.
And just like that, the color drained from his face all over again.
Nik slowly leaned back in his chair, steepling his fingers over his chest. The smug bastard’s gaze moved from Luca to Enzo and finally to me.
“Well,” he said quietly. “Every once in a while, life answers the question before I finish asking it.”
The End
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