Page 90 of Savage Claim

I buried my face against her, kissing her throat. “More than life,dolcezza. Don’t ever forget it.”

Isabella twisted enough so that she could look at me. “Never,” she parroted. Then, her nose wrinkled. “I need another shower.”

“Yes, you do.”

“Come with me this time?”

I kissed her, soft once more. “Of course.”

CHAPTER 59

Lorenzo

“The investigation into the bombings is officially closed,” Miriam reported.

I pretended to be surprised, just like I was supposed to. There was no telling who was listening on Agent Lewis’s side of things. “Oh? I was expecting to be called back in for questioning.”

Across from me, Elias rolled his eyes.You’re a terrible actor, he mouthed at me, and I flipped him off. “That won’t be necessary, Mr. Vitali,” Miriam said, and then Iknewthat someone was standing beside her. “We have a full confession from the individual responsible.”

“I will, of course, be on standby for the trial.”

She cleared her throat. “That won’t be necessary, Mr. Vitali,” he said. “Unfortunately, while in custody, the suspect got into a fight with another inmate while they were in the shower. He was pushed and hit a jagged tile that was sticking out of the floor. He’s currently in a coma, and we aren’t sure if he’s going to wake up.”

Elias made aharrumphsound deep in his throat. “I hope you’re not insinuating that my client had anything to do with this man’s death while in your custody, Agent Lewis.”

“That thought never occurred to me, Mr. Greco,” she said. Miriam was a much better actress than me…even I had believed what she was saying. “For now, the Department of Justice is considering the case closed. We apologize for any undue stress that this might have caused your client.”

The phone call ended, and I felt my shoulders let go. “A jagged tile, Elias?”

“We paid a custodian to pop a few the day before Alfie was taken to the prison,” he said succinctly. He pulled a file from the bag that he’d brought with him and handed it to me. “These are the final contracts for you and Nikolai to sign to formalize the alliance with the Syndicate.”

I glanced through the document. “You added the mutual arms trade?”

“I did,” he said. “Don Gallo and Don Bianchi were particularly happy with the terms.”

“Good.” I grabbed the pen and signed the contract and handed it back to him.

From the armchair near the window, Elio scoffed. “I still think this is going to blow up in your face.” His grudge against the Russians over what happened to Amalia was still holding strong, but at least, he hadn’t thrown anymore punches at me.

“That’s what the contract is for,” Elias said.

My cousin held up his hands. “I forgot that your fancy piece of paper was a magical shield.”

Elias rolled his eyes. “It’s mutually assured destruction,” he said. “If they fuck up, we can legally take eighty percent of their legal businesses and vice versa. Nikolai is a businessman; he’s not going to mess with his money anymore than Lorenzo would.”

“Whatever.” My phone jingled, cutting off whatever argument Elio was building up to. He smirked. “Another craving?”

I looked at the text from Isabella. She was thirty-four weeks, and she was already beginning to dilate, so her new OB recommended that she go on partial bedrest. It had been rough on her, especially since she was only allowed to climb the stairs once a day, so she had to pick if she wanted to be upstairs or downstairs and stay there.

“She wants some of that chocolate cranberry biscotti that Amalia made. Do we still have some down in the kitchen?”

Elio nodded. “Amalia made sure the pantry has been stocked since it’s become your wife’s hyper-fixation.”

I hummed and looked at Elias. “Well, it seems I have some errands to attend to. Do you need anything else?”

Elias shook his head and put the folder with the signed papers back into his bag. “This is it.”

I went down the stairs, intent on grabbing Isabella her snack and going straight back upstairs, but Damian opened the basement door as I was passing by. “It’s lunchtime, boss,” he said.

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