Page 454 of Sinfully Savage Mafia

“I can’t…”

“But you will,” he finishes for me. “Tomorrow, Anya. I’ll be waiting. And watching.”

CHAPTER25

DANTE

Ipace in front of the windows of my apartment, fisting my hair when I hear the key card slide into the lock. Matteo flings open the door, making the walls shake from the impact.

“How the fuck could you leave the restaurant without throwing her into the trunk of your car?” he thunders.

“First, my trunk ain’t that big.” I level him with a glare, stalking over to him. “Second, I don’t cause scenes,” I say through clenched teeth. “We both know she’s coming back here tonight. If I tipped off Conor and Boris, we could have had an army of thugs all over us. They could be, and probably are, here right now!”

“So you let them have their little meeting,” he snarls. “While we’re back here, sitting fucking ducks!” He looks around. “Where the hell is Patty? Did you leave him there, too?”

“No, ass. He’s out looking for Maura. She took the baby before, remember? I told him to find her and bring her back here. We need everyone in the same place, and that place isnotgonna be yours.”

The door lock clicks again and Sergio walks in. “What the hell is going on?” he says, a look of alarm on his face.

“Anya, the au pair, is in bed with Conor!” Matteo roars, pushing back his hair.

Sergio’s brows knit together. “Wait — I thought Anya was in bed with Dante.”

“No, she was up against a window with Dante,” Matteo mutters darkly before stomping back over to me. “I told you she was snooping around! That should have tipped you off. How the fuck didn’t you know?”

“I’m not a mind reader, Matty!” I yell.

“You didn’t pick up on anything funny? Huh? Things about Anya, things about the girl at Tatiana, the fucking ‘lead’ that got away from you?”

“I’m very fucking confused right now,” Sergio mutters. “You got any vodka?”

“Paying homage to the Russians, yeah?” Matteo snarls.

Sergio holds up both his hands. “Okay, okay! Forget the vodka. Scotch, it is.” He pulls open a cabinet and grabs the bottle and a glass.

While he guzzles the amber-colored liquid, Matteo circles me like a caged lion. “How could you miss the signs?”

“Are you kidding me?” I bellow. “What signs? She’s been watching your kid for a few days! Changing diapers, giving baths, feeding her. It’s not like we’ve caught her polishing her knife and gun collection, for fuck’s sake!”

“I brought you here to sniff out threats and keep us safe from them,” he growls. “And meanwhile, we’ve been living under the same roof as a Russian assassin!”

“Hey!” I stab him in the chest with a finger. “Your wife didn’t seem too swift on the uptake either. She was all like, ‘Anya, I love you! You saved us! You’re an angel!’” I roll my eyes. “So who’s really the one who snoozed on this shit? Seems like there’s plenty of blame to go around. None of us are perfect, Matty. That’s why there are four of us! We pick up the slack for each other!”

“Right now, there’s a lot of slack, and we need way more than four people to pick it the hell up!”

“When does Romo fly in?” Sergio asks. “’Cause then we’ll have another?—”

“Shut the hell up, Serge!” Matteo yells.

“Sure, alienate everyone,” I scoff. “Then you’ll really be fucked when shit hits the fan and you’re here all by yourself to clean up the mess!”

A loud knock on the door makes me jump. “This might be her,” I grumble. “What’s the fucking plan?”

“It’s not Anya,” Matteo says, pushing past me and opening the door. Alek Severinov, the boss of the Severinov Bratva and our partner in the Red Ladro Syndicate, stands in the doorway. His hulking body takes up all available space, and when he walks into the foyer, I can feel the tension his presence brings. His younger brother Kaz follows, equally massive and one-hundred percent more menacing. He’s the muscle of the family.

“So Volkov is making a play,” Alek says in a deep voice, folding his massive arms over his chest. “Is that why you dragged me over here?”

“They’re out here,” Matteo says in a choked voice. “Planning something. We were duped by our new au pair. She’s one of them, and over the past few days, she’s gotten…” His glower points in my direction. “Close.”

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