Page 10 of Savage Enemy

At the staircase, I cast one more glance over my shoulder at Val and repeated my order.

“Go to our son. Stay with him until I’m done with this.”

She nodded, but her eyes said something else.

Good thing I’d planned ahead. She wouldn’t get far.

Earlier, I’d ordered every window, door, and gate on the estate to be locked down. Not because I worried she would run, but for my family’s protection. I suspected the Commission might pull some violent bullshit to force me into taking that seat.

That security detail may have been for the Commission, but it would also keep my girl inside this house.

After realizing someone other than my own men was involved in the shit downstairs disturbing my discussion with my woman, I had first assumed the unwanted visit came from Edgardo Lordi’s order to intimidate me. The dumb fuck.

Why the Commission would use threats to build my loyalty was beyond understanding. But they would do it, and it would only prove Don Lordi had become as short-sighted and foolish as my father had been.

I would deal with the Commission and their ultimatums and backstabbing after getting rid of the motherfucker making demands at my front door.

Tony, Bruce, and some of my other men stood gathered in the foyer as I approached, forming a barrier while Tony continued trading verbal jabs with our unwanted guests.

“Enough,” I ordered. “Let me through.”

Dread abruptly struck me in the gut as my men parted.

Fuck. I should have put Val and Enzo in the safe room and armed myself, but these men had already seen me.

Bring it on.

Whatever hell waited, I would handle it.

After that, I planned to take Val to the church and have us married in the eyes of God and the State of New York. She would go, by force if necessary.

She would come to understand one thing if nothing else.

Yes, I was indeed her fucking future.

She would learn to be grateful for it, and like it or not, she would tell me all her secrets before anything else came back to bite me in the ass.

While upstairs with Val, I had heard one man mention something about his sister. That couldn’t be right.

I had a theory about what they really wanted.

Val must have stolen from them. I wouldn’t put theft past my pretty little liar. It explained all the money she had hidden in her apartment.

A barista shouldn’t have that much cash on hand, not even if she owned the place, not unless she’d squirreled it away for years without paying any of her bills.

Even if that were the case, I knew as an astute businessman that Con Amore couldn’t be making that kind of bank without some laundering going on.

My girl. A liar, and now a thief.

It seemed cleaning up after her and keeping her tail clean could very well become a full-time job.

In the meantime, to get the immediate situation resolved, I would happily return the money she’d taken from these men and pay whatever interest they considered fair. A small price to pay for my wife to be free of Chicago’s influence.

Then I planned to make Val pay her debt to me in trade.

On her knees and in my bed.

My cock twitched at the thought, and a smirk tugged at one corner of my mouth. I shook my head to clear it.

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