Page 59 of Shield

Tommy holds up one finger. “Except for one missing detail. And one potential obstacle.”

“I’m listening,” Matti says.

27

Matti

The tension pours off of Siena as she sinks back into the recesses of the couch. I run my palm lightly up and down her thigh, a silent reassurance that she’s not alone.

“So, the Luminous & Co. job,” Vin says, with a glance at Siena. I nod, letting him know he can speak freely. “We’ve been on hold, waiting for Tommy to track down the information he needs to locate Giovanna Marino. But things have changed. That’s… no longer an issue.”

“You found her, man?” I turn to Tommy in surprise. What is he doing here if he found her? If it were me and Siena, I’d be buried so deep in her pussy you wouldn’t find me for days.

A shadow crosses over Tommy’s usually composed features. “We’re a go for the job,” he says darkly, ignoring my question.

Vin clears his throat. “The issue is, we need a set of codes to get into the safe. And we need a fail-safe plan to reach that safe without drawing attention.”

“Going in guns blazing won’t help our cause,” Tommy saysdrily.

I nod.

Vin continues. “I met with Lorenzo Marino to feel him out, see if he’d be interested in getting some payback for Giovanna and working with us to do the job. But he wasn’t interested. At all.”

Vin shoots a look at Tommy, who leans forward, elbows on his knees, fingers interlaced, glowering at the floor.

Lorenzo Marino, Giovanna’s father, was once one of us, at least in the sense that he was a businessman who had did handshake deals with Aurelio. About a decade ago, when the CEO of Luminous died and his son took his place, choosing not to honor old agreements, Aurelio took him out and replaced him with Lorenzo.

But about a year ago, without warning, Lorenzo abruptly fell out of line, refusing to launder Demonio money. Aurelio tried to regain control by taking Giovanna hostage, and when that didn’t work, he came up with a new plan: strip Luminous & Co. of all assets and destroy Lorenzo in the process.

Despite the fact that Tommy had nothing to do with it, Lorenzo’s hatred for him deepened, and that’s saying a lot because he truly hated him before this. He never approved of Tommy for Giovanna, saw him as nothing more than a street thug. Now, it seems that Aurelio’s choices with his daughter have cemented that opinion.

Tommy stands, pacing in a tight circle. “Without support from us or Luminous & Co., Aurelio’s plan is to use the schematics to break in at night, avoiding crowds and security. Keep it simple.”

“But getting into the vault room—let alone the vault—is an issue without the codes,” Vin interjects.

“The codes were a problem for us before we split off fromAurelio,” growls Tommy. “And they’re still a problem now. But for some reason, he decided not only to say ‘fuck it’ and go for it, he’s going for it tonight.”

“Tonight?” Valentina throws her hands up. “Without the codes? What’s the fucking point?”

Vin nods. “Exactly. It’s going to mean doing something drastic, something like blowing up the safe, which is going to bring way too much attention. There has to be a reason that he’s moved up the job, something that spooked him. Which brings us to the other part of the potential obstacle: Franco.” Vin glances in Siena’s direction without making eye contact. I pull her closer to me, and she tries to push me away as she leans around me.

“What about Franco?” she asks.

Valentina snorts and crosses her arms over her chest, glaring at Siena.

“He’s gone,” says Tommy.

“What do you mean ‘gone?’”

I watch her carefully. Her voice rises on the last word, and though her face remains impassible, her lip is shaking so much that she bites it to hold it still and her fingertips dig into my back.

Based on the way she manhandled Franco at the Edge, I had hoped that her attachment was fading if not gone. But her eyes reflect a different story, and my heart sinks. Seeing her in pain is gut wrenching and only makes me double down on my commitment to protect her from further heartache by any means necessary.

The room is quiet, and I turn to check out Tommy and Vin. Both are studying her the same way I am. But they’re waiting for something.

“We were wondering if you might have some ideas,” says Tommy carefully.

I stand and step between them, ready to snap if he says a single insulting word to her. Siena rises, too, tension radiating off her body.

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