Chapter 61 – thiago
Sixty-One
thiago
The burn in my muscles is a welcome distraction.
I finish my last rep on the bench press, rack the bar, and sit up. Sweat runs down my temples as I reach for the water bottle at my feet and take a long drink.
The only sounds in the gym are the steady hum of the air conditioner and the occasional clink of metal. Santino and Athena Leone keep this place overlooking Biscayne Bay for whenever they’re in Miami. When Remi suggested we stay here, I didn’t argue.
After seeing Athena again, I had questions I couldn’t let go of. The biggest was why Helios had never mentioned her.
Every member of the Cain family had a file, as did everyone Helios considered a known associate. They had spent years documenting, yet Athena and Santino Leone didn’t appear anywhere in the intelligence I’d received.
It took some digging before I understood why.
The Cain brothers once had a younger sister who was declared dead decades earlier. According to every official record I could find, Athena Cain died long before Helios began compiling intelligence on the family.
Except she never died. She disappeared for years, then returned as Athena Leone.
There was no paper trail linking one woman to the other, which explained how Helios missed her.
Helios had presented its intelligence as exhaustive. Names, photographs, relationships, businesses, properties, histories. They knew enough about the Cain family to make me believe there wasn’t a corner of their lives they hadn’t uncovered.
But they never found Athena.
Santino was even harder to trace. I found whispers linking the Leone name to the Italian mafia and enough scattered references to suggest his family once held considerable power, but nothing I could verify. Whatever history Santino has, someone made damn sure it stayed off the books.
A few months ago, I would’ve assumed Helios knew something I didn’t know.
I don’t make that assumption anymore.
I catch Remi’s reflection in the wall of mirrors behind me, standing on the opposite side of the gym, tightening wraps around her hands before stepping up to the heavy bag. She throws a sharp right cross, then another, each punch rattling the chains overhead.
She hasn’t said much since we left the cemetery, and neither have I. I assumed some of it was due to everything that happened there until I started noticing the same distance I saw in her at the airport.
Whatever has been bothering her since yesterday is still there.
Maybe that’s why we ended up here instead of exploring Miami. Neither of us was in the mood to wander the city or pretend we weren’t distracted, and exhausting ourselves together sounded better than sitting in the penthouse with too much time to think.
She meets my eyes in the mirror and gives me a small smile before turning back to the bag, where she lands another combination.
I’ve given her space because she asked for it without saying the words, but I can’t keep watching her work through something alone while I’m standing ten feet away.
“Fera,” I call out across the room.
She doesn’t hear me over the impact of her gloves on the bag, so I push to my feet and walk over, sliding my arms around her waist from behind.
“Remi.”
She startles, then relaxes against me, her breathing still heavy from the workout.
“Talk to me.”
Turning in my arms, she searches my face instead. “Are you okay?”
Of course, she asks about me. I brush a sweat-slicked strand of hair from her face.
“No, but this isn’t about me. I’ll be okay. My father has been gone for twenty years, and I’ve learned to live with missing him.” I study her face. “You’ve had something on your mind since yesterday. Tell me what it is.”
Her eyes look away from mine. “It’s nothing.”
“Bullshit.” I cradle her face in my hands. “You canceled on me the night before our flight, you’ve barely been yourself since, and whatever happened is still bothering you. Talk to me.”
She watches me for a few seconds, then reaches for the wrap around one hand and slowly unwinds it. “I didn’t want to tell you because the last thing I wanted was to ruin this trip. I knew how important it was.”
My attention drops to her hands. “Tell me what happened.”
“That night, I was at the range with the boys. We were closed, yet somehow two cops got inside.”
“Cops?”
She nods. “From your precinct.”
Every thought of my father disappears. Knowing they could be men I’ve passed in the halls or worked beside makes the whole thing feel suddenly personal.
“What did they want?”
“They claimed someone called to report hearing gunshots.”
“At a shooting range?”
“Exactly. We knew it was bullshit, and we were armed, so I tried to de-escalate.”
I know Remi well enough to hear what she isn’t saying.
“What happened?”
“They drew on us.”
I stare at her in disbelief.
Police officers from my precinct entered her closed business and pointed loaded guns at Remi and her family.
My gaze drops again just as the last of the wrap slips free, revealing purple bruises around both wrists. I take her hands before I even realize I’m moving, then turn them carefully in the light.
“What the fuck happened to you?”
“They stormed the place and cuffed us, Thiago. More officers were waiting outside, and the second we put our guns down and stepped away, they came through the door.”
I run my thumb along one of the bruises, careful not to press on it. “How long were you in handcuffs?”
“Long enough.”
“Fuck, Remi,” I bite out, my voice tight with anger.
“I’m okay.”
“You have bruises around both wrists.”
“I know.” She looks down at them. When she speaks again, her voice is quieter than before.
“They didn’t actually hurt me. It was everything else.
I’ve never felt that helpless before. We were inside our own business, and we hadn’t done anything wrong.
I put my gun down because Gio, Matteo, and Madden were there, and I was trying to keep everyone safe.
But they cuffed us anyway.” She shakes her head, then looks back at me.
There’s defiance in her eyes, but underneath it, she still looks shaken.
“Seeing my brothers detained like that and being unable to do a fucking thing about it was the worst part.”
I release one of her hands and reach for my phone, because nothing about what she just described feels normal.
A report of gunfire at a shooting range might warrant questions, but it doesn’t explain officers entering a closed private business, holding four people at gunpoint, positioning additional officers outside, waiting until everyone was disarmed, and then detaining them.
The more she tells me, the more convinced I become that whoever planned this knew exactly what they were getting into.
“Thiago.” Remi follows me and covers my hand before I can reach for my phone. “Don’t.”
“I need to make a call.”
“No, you don’t. Not from here.” She guides my arm back down. “We’ll deal with it when we get home. Sloane’s is staying closed for the next few days while we get everything together for the lawsuit.”
“A lawsuit?”
“You think I’m letting this go?”
Despite everything she just told me, a smile tugs at my mouth because that sounds more like my Remi.
I sit on the bench and draw her down beside me, but I’m already going through every detail, trying to figure out who would have authorized something like this.
“Did you recognize anyone?” I ask. “Someone from the ball, or one of the guys you’ve seen me train with?”
“I’ve got all their names.” She hesitates before continuing. “But there was one I recognized. That colleague of yours, the asshole who tried to hit on me at the gym.”
I already know who she means before she says his name. “Evan Grey.”
The timing begins to bother me for an entirely different reason.
Grey has never hidden how badly he wants Elena’s approval. I also know how far he’s willing to go to earn it. Then I remember the message on my phone before Remi tattooed my neck.
STATUS.
Elena disappeared for weeks, resurfaced without explanation, and contacted me the night before Grey walked into Sloane’s with his weapon drawn. That could be a coincidence, but I’m not willing to take it at face value.
If Elena sent Grey because I stopped answering her, then whatever happened at Sloane’s may not have been related to a random anonymous call. Remi and her family could have been the reason he was there in the first place.
Because of me.
I keep that possibility to myself. I don’t have enough information yet, and after what Remi went through, I’m not giving her another reason to worry until I know exactly what happened.
“Tell me more.”
I need the rest of the story before I decide what to do next, but the moment we get home, Grey is going to answer every question I have. And if his answers give me even one reason to believe Elena was involved, she’ll be answering mine too.
Remi shakes her head before swinging a leg over mine and settling into my lap. “No.” She moves closer and loops her arms around my shoulders. “This trip is about you, baby. When we get home, you can ask me any questions you want.”
There’s still more I need to know, and my instincts tell me this isn’t something I can leave alone.
I won’t.
But Remi has spent the last forty-eight hours carrying this by herself because she wanted me to have yesterday with my father. If she needs the rest of tonight before we drag Philadelphia back into this room, I can give her that.
“I’m sorry, chama.” I lift her wrists and kiss each bruise. “I don’t want what they did to change how you see me.”
There are far worse things that will.
“I know how you feel about cops, and after something like this…”
“Stop.” Her hands glide up my arms, and one rests against my cheek. “That has nothing to do with you, baby. Those men made their own choices, and I’m not letting them take this from you.” She takes my hand and rests it against her chest, right over her heart. “It’s yours.”
I smile. “Mine.”
She kisses me, and I instantly stop thinking about Grey, Elena, and all the questions awaiting me back in Philadelphia.
When she pulls away, I take her hand and place it over my own heart.
“You feel that, chama?”
She nods.
“That’s all yours.”
Her smile widens, and she kisses me again as I wrap my arms around her and let myself be in this moment without thinking about everything waiting beyond it.
When we finally part, she laughs.
“We’re so gross right now.”
I laugh with her as I stand and lift her into my arms.
“I love…” The words nearly leave my mouth before I catch them.
Her eyes meet mine, but I grin and keep walking.
“I love everything about you, even your sweat.”
“You’re an idiot.”
Her laughter follows us into the en suite bathroom.
“Your idiot.”
“Unfortunately.”
Still holding her, I step into the walk-in shower without bothering to remove either of our sneakers. Water pours over us, soaking through our clothes within seconds.
I look at her and forget what I was about to say.
Wet hair clings to her face as droplets gather on her lashes and slide down her cheeks.
The sight takes me straight back to the side of that road, to the first time I ever saw her in person.
She was soaked through then, too, standing in the rain with a gun pointed at me as I tried to figure out how the woman I’d been sent to investigate had somehow caught me completely off guard.
I had no idea what she would become to me.
“He would’ve loved you,” I murmur into her neck. “My father. I know he would have.”
She leans back just enough to look at me. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” I brush her wet back. “Because I…”
The words are right there.
I love you.
For a second, I almost let myself say them. Remi watches me expectantly as water runs between us.
“Because you what?”
I trace the curve of her smile with my thumb.
“Remi, Remi…” I shake my head, smiling despite myself. “What have you done to me?”
“You said that to me once before.” Her arms tighten around my neck. “Maybe I haven’t been convincing enough.”
She kisses me again.