Page 10 of The Sicilian Heir
I was blocking him from my little lotus. I wanted her healed, not scarred again. Eunji glanced over to me before she looked away. I wanted to grab her face and demand she give me her eyes, but I didn't. Not only did she not see herself as mine, but she could confuse my demand as literal and then she would stab me.
"He left a message for the leaders. I just forgot to say anything because we had been so busy," she whispered, which put me on high alert.
If she was keeping her voice down, then there had to have been some fucked up shit in the message.
"Tell me," I barked like a caveman. Of course, I did. If she didn't tell me, I wouldn't be able to protect her.
"He said that they wanted the girls who were owed to them. All of them." Eunji looked me in the eyes and I felt a chill crawl down my spine.
I knew the Russians had something to do with the massacre, but this was undeniable proof. There weren't many who would come after a newly formed syndicate unless they thought there was discord in the ranks, or it was personal. This was indeed personal.
"I'm going to have to sit down with Don Falcone," I mumbled more to myself than Eunji.
"He's out of commission, remember?" she reminded me softly.
I hadn't remembered and this was why she was mine. We debarked and climbed into a sleek town car Nicolo left for us. I had no expectations that he would be the one to pick us up. He was far too busy for that and I wasn't going to take insult. Thankfully, he hadn't sent my pregnant sister. That would've been something I would have taken as an insult. We rode in silence, both of us lost in our own thoughts.
As soon as we arrived at the Falcone compound, Rosalina came running out and threw herself at Eunji. They were laughing and that was the happiest I had seen my little lotus since before the reception. Rose did that.
"What, no love for your big brother?" I teased her. Then I wrapped her in a bear hug and lifted her off the ground. She was surprised and so was I. We never really did the whole family hugging thing. It was frowned upon. Then, again, Rose had never lived so far away from me. I guess I was having separation anxiety.
"Put my wife down, you thug," Nick came growling out of the front door of the compound.
We hadn't even made it inside yet and we were all together again. It felt good. Like family. Maybe I needed to stop writing the Falcones off. Nick seemed like an all right guy. Not too sure about his brothers, though, they seemed to never be around when we were.
"She's fine. I wasn't going to hurt her or the baby," I snapped at him.
Nick needed to remember this was my baby sister and that just because he was her husband didn't mean he could tell me what to do.
"My office." Nick nudged his head toward the front door, and I told the girls bye, then followed him inside. As soon as the door closed, we started sharing information.
"What's the word on the culprits?" Nick pulled up a few items on his computer.
"The Russians want the girls back from the Romano estate. I'm assuming you knew about the agreement?" I raised my eyebrows at Nick. He should've informed me about this.
"Yeah, and I informed Don Picone after." He left his words hanging in the air and I filled in the blanks.
"After you had already let them go." I was just confirming what I had already known.
"All but Eunji," he confirmed. I had to fight myself to stay seated.
"Eunji isn't a prisoner," I bit out, my control on a thin thread.
"Right," Nick shot me a look and I glared back at him in response.
Was that how Eunji saw it? "Anyway, tell me about the agreement and what happened to the girls involved." Time to get down to business. We needed to take care of the Russians and they weren't going to get their hands on Eunji again. That was my vow.
A while later, Nick and I finally emerged from the office. The girls were in the kitchen having coffee and chattering fast about something. I wasn't sure, but Eunji was using a lot of hand motions as Rose sat back and watched, amused.
"Are you supposed to be drinking that?" I nodded toward the cup and looked at Rose disapprovingly.
"I can have a cup, but if you must know this is decaf." She was so smug about it. She was lucky she was pregnant, otherwise I'd toss her on her ass for her impertinence. Nick walked around me and wrapped his arms around Rose.
She leaned back into him with a contented sigh and sipped her mug. Disgusting, the two of them.
"You ready to go, little lotus?"
Eunji looked at me in surprise. "Go where?" She drained her mug. Looked like the happy couple was getting to her as well.
