Page 182 of Plunge into Obsession

His eyes danced.

“Or don’t be good. I’ll find a way to punish you when I get back.”

I shook my head, smiling a little. “Is that a threat, Mr. Cadorna?”

“No, sweetheart,” he cooed, pulling the covers away from me and exposing my naked breasts to his gaze. He played with my nipple slightly, and my breath caught. “It’s a promise.”

He pinched it roughly, and I gasped in pain before he pulled away.

He was smiling when he walked out the door.

I rubbed my poor abused nipple, trying to soothe away the sting, before snuggling back into the bed and going to sleep.

24

GABRIEL

I heldin a yawn as Johnny drove me to the airport at five in the fucking morning.

I could still be at home right now, with a sleeping Bianca snuggling close to my side. Instead, I was picking Raphael up from the airport and going over logistics.

The squirmy little bastard, Ivan Antonov, had been causing problems at the border of Mexico.

Everyone knew the border was controlled by the Michoacán Cartel, and the bastard and his supplier—the man he called the Grim Reaper—were encroaching on my territory.

And how fucking evasive Antonov was being now.

The bastard was hard to catch, and what little I’d learned about his life before he moved from Russia to America gave me nothing.

The son of a farmer didn’t have much money or power, and he took over for his father when he was twenty until he was twenty-six, and then…

Nothing.

It was like the man was a fucking ghost.

My guess?

He joined the Solntsevskaya Bratva and worked his way up. It was when Raphael went to the brothel Luis liked to frequent in Mexico to find out what happened to Lucinda that he came across their operation.

A couple ofHalconesfrom a nearby cartel with loose lips had said what was happening at the border.

And the Lucinda problem was just a fucking dead end.

I would have to coordinate with the Vasiliev Bratva to ensure we took out this operation before it became a problem.

Johnny pulled up to the pickup area at the airport, where Raphael was already waiting, his carry-on slung over his shoulder.

He climbed into the car, and then we were off, heading to one of my strip clubs—the one where Bianca used to work—where we could better talk without worrying about others listening in. We would have to wait to discuss Ivan and his supplier until we got there.

But first, “Welcome back, brother.”

“Fuck, it’s good to be back. I need a second shower just for being in the same space as the fucking bastard Santiago. I don’t know why we don’t just shut down that hellhole he’s running.”

“And give the gangs more reason to go against the Michoacán Cartel? You know the fucking politics of it all.”

He shook his head and sneered. “Fucking politics. I need a fucking drink for the control I showed around the bastard.”

“Yeah? How many times did you hurt him?”

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