Page 362 of Sinfully Savage Mafia

“I don’t know.” I stare at the closed door, willing it to open as Matteo unloads on me. “We got there too late.”

“Do you know anything, Dante?” he yells. “I sent you in there to collect information!”

“Yeah, well, I got some information, but it wasn’t enough, okay? I didn’t get to the target in time.” I let out a frustrated sigh. “Listen, we can talk tomorrow when I get to the hotel. I’m still working an angle here.”

“Don’t fucking tell me that angle is lying spread-eagle and naked on your bed.”

I roll my eyes. If only. But I don’t tell him about the girl. Not yet. I still don’t have a clear-enough read on her or why she killed Vigo, and even though I want to bend her over a couch and fuck her until she can’t remember her alias, I plan to get the information I need before this night is over. “No, I’m still out with Patty. But I may have a lead.” That’s all I offer right now. I know my brother, and if I gave him anything more, he’d keep me on the phone hounding me for details I just don’t have to offer.

“You’d better grab hold of that goddamn lead before you get on the plane. We need to know what we’re up against. That’s why I sent you in, Dante. I didn’t send Roman, I didn’t send Sergio. I sent you because you’re the best at what you do. Please don’t fuck with my perception of you.”

“Look, this is a sensitive job, Matty. That’s why you wanted me to handle things. I could set fire to the whole fucking place, but that wouldn’t get us any closer to the truth. We found out Conor owed a debt. That’s it. I don’t have the details, though. Vigo’s vocal cords were, ah, a little bit compromised, you know what I’m saying?”

Matteo lets out a snort. “Great, so what the hell do we do now? If someone did that hit, they might have been trying to set it up so Conor takes the fall. Then we’re all up shit creek.”

“Look, Patty is gonna be watching and he’ll let us know if anything points in our direction.”

“I don’t like this, Dante. What in the fuck would Conor be doing with the Russians? Because I seriously doubt it was just a gambling debt that degenerate owed them.”

I scrub a hand down the front of my face. “I don’t know. But let’s face it. He’s too much of an idiot to carry out that kind of a hit on his own.”

“What are you thinking?”

I sigh, leaning my head back against the wall. “Just so we’re clear, I’m not usually the guy who comes up with the theories about ‘who’ or ‘why’. I just carry out the ‘what’ and ‘where’ parts of the plan, you know?”

“I know, thinking isn’t your forte.” Matteo’s dry laugh makes me cringe.

“Fuck off,” I grumble. “I just don’t have enough information, and since you need me back in Vegas, I don’t have time to pull it all together.

“So you don’t think you should high-tail it to Hell’s Kitchen, find Conor, and put him through a little rat torture to get him talking?”

“As satisfying as it would be to make the cocksucker suffer like that, I think we pull back on the reins a little bit.” I shake my head. “And by the way, you don’t sound like a boss right now. You sound like a guy who wants to make his wife’s enemy suffer.”

“He is a common enemy, as much to us as he is to her,” Matteo grunts. “And he should fucking suffer. Him, his father, and his other schmuck brothers.”

“Easy, bro. “You know Niall and Quinn can’t do anything in their positions. They aren’t gonna stage a coup or anything. They’re being led around by their dicks because they have no other choice.”

“Patty did,” he says darkly.

“Patty is a different guy. Plus, we both know he’s not gonna do anything to get his pretty face smashed in. So, right now, we watch and wait. I guarantee it won’t be long before Conor pulls something and I’ll be all over him like fucking flies on roadkill.”

“You’d better be right,” Matteo says. “If anything happens to Heaven and Aisling?—”

“Nothing will.” My jaw tightens. “That’s why you have me.” And as I say the words, I know it’s only going to be that much harder to tell him I’m moving on after we handle this business with Conor. I need my life back — outside of Sin City.

And not just because I’m perpetually on the run from my own demons.

Killing is what I’m good at, the only thing I’m really good at, for that matter.

I don’t allow myself to ever get comfortable in one place.

Not anymore…

Matteo is silent for a second. I know he wants to tear Conor apart with his bare hands. I don’t blame him. But if we want to see the bigger picture, we need to keep him alive.

For now, at least.

His time will come.

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