Page 12 of Savage Claim

“For now, I want to go back to sleep,” I said. Lorenzo crawled onto the bed and pulled me close. “That wasn’t an invitation,” I grumbled.

“Tough shit,” he murmured against my hair. I thought about kicking him, but his chest was so warm. I curled into him.

Lorenzo Vitali had become the thing that I needed more than anything else. The thought should make me sick…but I was just grateful that, somehow, he felt the same.

CHAPTER 9

Lorenzo

My phone vibrating against the nightstand dragged me out of sleep. Pale sunlight was peeking in through the curtains, but I could have slept for a few more hours.

Whoever was on the other end had better have something important to say.

“What?” I grunted, trying to disentangle myself from Isabella without waking her up. She needed all of the sleep that she could get.

“Don Vitali, its Bruno from the city morgue.” Bruno had been installed at the morgue back in my father’s day, and it was easily one of the smartest things he had ever done. “We’ve started getting bodies from a fire in the Russian territory.”

That had taken longer than I thought it would. Either they’d pulled more survivors out of the fire than I thought, or the damage had been substantial enough that it had taken them this long to recover the bodies. “Anything interesting?”

Bruno hummed. “Two bodies that are almost unrecognizable. One is wearing a Rolex that has AV inscribed on the back. He matches Artem’s build.”

My shoulders relaxed. “And the other?”

“He had a gold cap melted into his tooth. Dental records match Santino Rossi.”

Thank fuck. “Good. Keep me updated if anything else of interest comes in.”

“Of course, Don Vitali.”

I put my cell back on the nightstand and turned to look at Isabella. She was awake. “How are you feeling,dolcezza?”

“My head feels a little wobbly still,” she said, “but I’m not hurting.”

I reached out and brushed a lock of hair out of her face. She allowed the touch, but I could see fire in her eyes.Definitely still mad, then. That was all right. I could handle a pissed off Isabella. “I want you to stay in bed today.”

She snorted. “I wasn’t planning on getting up,” she said. Her eyes flicked to the nightstand. “Who was on the phone?”

“My man at the morgue,” I said.

She pushed up on her elbow. “You have someone at the morgue?”

I shrugged. “My father wanted eyes in certain places, and when I took over for him, it made sense to leave those eyes out there.”

By the look on her face, Isabella didn’t quite understand, but she pushed past that. “What did he say?”

“They had bodies that came in from the fire at Artem’s. There’s a good chance that two of them are Artem and Santino.”

Her forehead wrinkled. “Agoodchance?”

“Nothing is definite,” I explained to her. “When a body is that badly burned, there is only so many ways to identify it. Visually speaking, my man has Artem and Santino in a refrigerator drawer, but we won’t know for sure until there are DNA results.”

“How are you going to get DNA results? You’re not family.” She shrugged.

I put my hand over hers, and she tried to jerk back this time, but I didn’t let go. “Believe me when I say that I will makesurethat those two are dead. One way or another, all right?”

She stared at me for a long moment, and then nodded. “All right.”

I wanted to lean in and kiss her, but I wasn’t sure if she would fight me on it like last night. “Are you hungry? I can order in some breakfast.” With Amalia still in the hospital, plus all of her recovery time, I was going to have to hire a temporary private chef. Amalia was going tohatethat.

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