Lawless: Mob Boss Book Three (4 page)

S
he was squeezing
oranges for juice the next morning, dawn touching the sky pink and orange, when David walked into the kitchen. He looked sleepy and disheveled, and she suddenly saw him as he’d been when they were kids; a gentle, quiet boy who’d always been quick to grab her hand, kiss her cheek.

“Hey,” she said, turning to look at him. “It’s early. You sure you don’t want to sleep a little later?”

He slid onto one of the bar stools at the island. “It took me awhile to settle down, but I’ve still been asleep for over twelve hours.”

They’d all slept through yesterday, exhausted from everything that had happened and the long drive to Maine. She rinsed her hands and dried them on a towel, then poured coffee into a mug and slid it toward him.

“I know, but it was a long night,” she said.

He nodded, took a sip of the coffee. “Can’t sleep forever.”

She tried not to think about the note of regret in his voice. She looked at the limp bandage on his hand instead. “Want me to clean that up for you?”

He slipped his hand under the counter where it was out of view. “I can do it.”

She nodded. “Breakfast will be ready soon.”

She turned back to the bowl of eggs she’d been beating for French toast.

“I thought he was dead,” David said behind her.

She turned to face him and leaned against the counter. “Me, too.”

“So?” His messy hair fell over one cocked eyebrow.

“It’s a long story.”

“I have time.”

She filtered through the information, trying to find the easiest explanation for what had happened — for what was happening now. Trying to find an explanation that wouldn’t scare him.

“Dante wasn’t in charge in LA,” she said softly. “Not really.”

He drummed his fingers on the counter, a nervous habit from adolescence. “He seemed pretty in charge to me.”

“Someone else was behind it. Nico knew it wouldn’t end there.”

“So he faked his death?” He barked out a sarcastic laugh. “Seems a little melodramatic.”

She tamped down her anger. Melodrama wasn’t the right word for what she’d been through, for what she’d felt when she thought Nico was dead. But she knew David was hurting, lashing out against the only people still close enough for him to reach.

“Not when Raneiro Donati has a hit out on you.”

“Donati?” His forehead crinkled as he thought about this new information. “I thought he and Nico were tight.”

“So did Nico,” Angel said. “But apparently Nico’s business model hasn’t been warmly embraced. Raneiro has had enough.”

“So Nico went into hiding?” David asked.

“No.” It sounded harsh, and she took a deep breath. “He went underground to protect us, to get a better view on what was happening, who was behind it all.”

“And I’m guessing that’s pretty clear now?”

She nodded.

“So you’re telling me we’re targets, too,” David said bitterly. “What a surprise.”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“We’ve been safe for four months, Ange. Four months that Nico Vitale hasn’t been around. The first day he comes back someone decides to use us for target practice at the brownstone?” He took a drink of his coffee. “That doesn’t sound like a coincidence.”

“Nico came back because he heard about the hit on us,” Angel said. “The only thing that would have been different if he’d stayed away is that we’d be in the morgue right now.”

She turned around, trying to calm down while she added milk to the eggs, beat them together. This wasn’t David’s fault. It was easier to blame Nico for everything that had happened than to blame their dead father for bringing the Syndicate to their door in the first place. Easier to blame Nico than to blame Angel for refusing to walk away when she had the chance.

“I’m sorry, Ange.” David’s voice was soft behind her.

“It’s okay.”

“Hey,” he said. She turned to face him. “I’m really sorry.”

She nodded.

“I just…”

“What?”

“Will you ever be able to put all this behind you with Nico in the picture?” he asked. “Will you ever be happy — or free — again?”

She was surprised to feel the sting of tears in her eyes. They were questions she didn’t ask herself. Answering them meant contemplating a life without Nico, and now that she had him back, she knew that was no life at all.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I only know that the two most important people in the world are here with me now, and I don’t want to live without either one of them. Nico can keep us safe while we figure out a long term plan.”

“And after that?”

“I love him, David.” She shrugged. “It’s all I’ve got right now.”

He nodded, then glanced into the living room. “Where is he?”

“Running,” she said. “He likes to jog on the beach in the mornings. It clears his head.”

She was putting the first slices of egg-soaked bread on the griddle when Nico entered the house through the doors off the deck. He brought the scent of the sea with him, his hair damp and wavy. His T-shirt was soaked, giving her a perfect view of his sculpted chest. She felt a tightening between her legs as she remembered his dark head there, his magnificent body joining with hers.

“Hey.” She cleared her throat. “How was it?”

The corners of his mouth turned up into a knowing smile, like he knew exactly what she’d been thinking. “Amazing.”

She wondered if he was talking about the run or something else.

He cut his gaze to David, and his expression grew serious. “Good morning.”

“Morning,” David said.

Nico held out his hand. “I don’t think we’ve ever met properly.”

David looked at his hand a moment before clasping it. “I think you’re right.”

Nico looked into his eyes. Angel loved him for that, for making sure that David knew he was seen. “Is your room comfortable? Is there anything I can get you?”

David shook his head. “I’m good.”

Nico nodded, then came around the island to where Angel was standing over the griddle. She thought he might try to be subtle around David, but she should have known better; Nico would never make apologies for the way he felt about her. He wrapped one arm around her waist and pulled her close, then kissed her tenderly on the mouth.

“Good morning, beautiful.” His voice was hoarse.

She smiled. It was real. He was here. “Good morning.”

He gave her a squeeze and stepped away. “I’m going to take a quick shower. I’ll be down in time for breakfast.”

“
L
uca’s out
,” Nico said, coming out onto the deck.

They’d eaten a quiet breakfast, every topic of conversation either too weighty or too insignificant for the circumstances. Afterwards, Angel and David had dealt with the dishes while Nico went into his study to call Luca.

“Out?” Angel twisted in the deck chair as he came around to sit next to her. “Out of where?”

“Everywhere,” Nico said. “Someone from Rome took over Boston this morning, and all of Luca's permissions have been revoked from the New York servers.”

“Is he okay?” Angel asked.

“Luca can take care of himself,” Nico said. “He’ll see what he can find out and get back to us.”

“Raneiro can do what he wants with the Boston territory,” Angel said, fighting a tide of anger. “But Rossi Development is a private company, and it belongs to David and me.”

“Donati can have it, as far as I’m concerned,” David said, his eyes closed against the sun.

“That’s easy for you to say. You didn’t spend the last four months working there.”

He turned his head, shielding his eyes so he could see her. “Working to dismantle it you mean?”

She hid her surprise. She hadn’t been sure how much David knew, how much he’d gathered from the business calls she took at the brownstone.

“That’s beside the point,” she said. “He can’t just march in and take over a private company.”

“I don’t think that’s happened,” Nico said. “It sounds like the takeover has been Syndicate business only. I’m sure Margaret will handle everything at the office in your absence.”

Angel narrowed her eyes. “How do you know about Margaret?”

She had hired Margaret Nolan as her CFO after dumping the corrupt men her father had on the payroll — her “uncle” Frank Morra among them. Margaret had an MBA from Harvard and was about as far removed from the Syndicate as someone could get. She was young, but she’d picked up the business quickly, and Angel had liked that she was a relative outsider. Nico was right; she would hold things together until Angel could figure out what to do about the business.

A smiled played at his lips. “You don’t really think I just abandoned you, did you?”

“Wait a minute…” She leaned forward in the chair. “Did you get Margaret to apply for the job?”

“Now you’re being paranoid. I’m sure you’re more than capable of handling your father’s business. I just watched from afar to make sure you were okay.”

She settled back into the chair. Protective was one thing. Meddling was another.

“What does it mean?” Angel asked.

“It means we’re locked out of Syndicate business,” he said. “Luca was our inside man.”

“What about Marco and Elia?”

“Luca told them to go dark, too. If Raneiro’s on to Luca, it’s only a matter of time before he connects the dots to Marco and Elia.”

She was hit with a pang of guilt. Luca was like a brother to Nico. He would have done Nico’s bidding no matter what. But Marco and Elia had been protecting her, and now they were in danger, too.

Nico reached for her hand. “This isn’t your fault. Everyone’s a grown up here. They knew what they were getting into.”

“What do we do now?” she asked. “We can’t hide here forever.”

“We have to get to Raneiro. Try to negotiate some kind of exit strategy.”

“What kind of exit strategy?” David asked.

“One that will allow you and your sister to live in peace,” Nico said.

“Can’t we just say we’re out?” David asked. “Let them have the Boston territory?”

Nico shook his head. “There’s only one way out of the Syndicate in a situation like this, and it’s not a resignation letter.”

“So they’re going to kill us?” David said.

Alarm rang through Angel’s body at the calm acceptance in his voice. It was the medication. Making him apathetic. Making him too tired to fight for his life. He just needed to get well. Then he’d want to live again.

“They’re going to try,” Nico said. “But I know Raneiro; there has to be something he wants more than making an example out of us. Out of me.”

“Like what?” Angel asked.

“I don’t know,” Nico said. “But I’m going to find out.”

“
I
can’t leave
David here alone,” Angel said. “I just can’t.”

Nico sat next to her on the bed and took her hand. “What’s going on? Talk to me.”

She drew in a breath. “He’s just… he’s not well, that’s all. He’s in therapy and he’s on medication and I just… I can’t leave him by himself.”

Nico rubbed his thumb against her palm, wishing he could take away all her sadness, all her worry. Wishing he could make things easy and beautiful for her. But that was for later — after he’d dealt with Raneiro. After he’d removed every threat to her life. Then he’d do whatever it took to see that she got what she deserved.

“So that means we take him with us or we find someone to stay with him,” Nico said. If Angel said David wasn’t up to staying alone, then they wouldn’t leave him alone. But based on everything she said — not to mention the things Nico had observed for himself — David was too fragile to accompany them on what would undoubtedly be a dangerous bid for their freedom. Nico was already worried about keeping Angel safe; introducing David into the mix was pushing it, especially in David’s obviously traumatized state. “I’m thinking he’d be better off here.”

“I agree,” Angel said. “But it’s not like we have a lot of people on our side, and the three people we still trust are in hiding.”

Nico paced to the balcony doors, looked out over the ocean. Luca would come to Maine if Nico asked, would stay with David as long as was necessary. But they might need Luca in the field, and Marco and Elia, too. Those kinds of resources were hard to come buy — especially now. Nico couldn’t afford to have his best men playing checkers on an island when he and Angel were the subject of a high priority hit by Raneiro Donati. He ran through the very short list of people he would trust with Angel’s beloved brother and came to a stop at one name.

“I think I might know someone,” he said.

“Who?”

“Sara.”

Sara Falco was a hacker Nico had recruited form the FBI training program. She was the best they’d ever had, and Nico had hand-picked her to help them dig through a mountain of raw data to find David in Los Angeles. Angel had seemed to like her.

Angel lifted an eyebrow. “Sara Falco? Won’t the Syndicate get suspicious if she takes off right after they banish Luca?”

“Sara hasn’t been with the family since June,” Nico said.

Angel couldn’t hide her surprise. “What do you mean? Where has she been?”

“Went into private consulting,” Nico said.

“Because of what happened with David?”

Sara had been in an adjoining building during the rescue in LA, monitoring the operation through a live feed connected to body cams and mics on Nico and the men. Nico hadn’t been able to talk to her afterward, but Luca insinuated that the operation — and the resulting deaths — had been traumatic for her. She’d had the same training as the men in the family, but she’d always been behind the scenes on her computer. LA had been her first experience up close and personal with violence, and Nico suspected she was too gentle for it to sit well.

“I’m sure that was part of it,” Nico said. “But in my experience, those kinds of decisions are usually a long time coming.”

Angel chewed her bottom lip. “Do you trust her enough to bring her here?”

It was a legitimate question. Even Luca didn’t know about the island. But Sara had tactical training. She was tough, but she also had the tender touch David would need in Angel’s absence. And it’s not like they were overflowing with possibilities.

“Do you?” he asked.

“I think so,” Angel said.

The fear on her face tore at his insides. She never showed that kind of fear for herself. It was always directed at David’s safety, or toward Nico, who hadn’t realized he missed having someone to worry about him until he’d met Angel.

He crossed back to the bed, took her hand, kissed her palm and pulled her up so he could take her face in his hands. He lowered his lips to hers, pouring all his feeling into the kiss, gently sweeping her mouth with his tongue until she was like liquid heat against him.

“I love you, Angel. It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to say it, but I need you to know it.”

She touched his face. “I love you, too. Just promise you’ll never leave me again.”

He felt a chill as she said the words. He wouldn’t leave voluntarily, but he didn’t know how things would play out with someone like Raneiro. And Nico wouldn’t make promises to her that he wouldn’t keep.

He ran his hands up her shoulders. “I won’t willingly leave you again.”

A shadow drifted in front of her eyes, and her slender throat rippled as she swallowed the words. She wouldn’t beg for reassurance. She was a better woman than that.

He dropped a gentle kiss on her mouth, savoring the velvety softness of her lips under his. “You should take a nap.”

She ran her hands under his T-shirt, up the muscled peaks and valleys of his chest. “I was thinking of a better use of this time than sleep.”

He groaned. “If I had my way, I’d keep you naked in my bed all day just so I could do wicked things to your body.”

She smiled. “Sounds good to me.”

He chuckled. “Tell you what; get in bed, get a little nap. You’re going to need it. I’m going to call Sara, take care of some things. I’ll be back in an hour.”

She kissed him, slipped her tongue in his mouth, ran a hand down the rigid bulge of his cock. “If you’re sure…”

He moaned, stepping away with effort. “I”m not at all sure. But it’s what has to be done.”

She stripped off her T-shirt and jeans while he watched. She wasn’t wearing underclothes, and she slipped naked between the sheets. Christ. How was he supposed to concentrate knowing she was waiting for him like that?

“Hurry back,” she said.

He left the room before he could change his mind.