Page 249 of Mine Again
Chapter Ninety-Six
Luca
The car cruises down the long stretch of highway, away from Hale’s estate. It’s about an hour outside Chicago, in a pocket of land he carved out for himself.
He bought up every property for miles, leveling houses and farms until nothing remained but silence and manicured emptiness. The isolation was not about privacy. It was a show of his power.
Isa is tucked against me in the back seat, her head on my chest, her fingers playing with the edge of my shirt. For the first time since this nightmare began, the fight drains out of me. My adrenaline fades, leaving behind raw exhaustion that burns deep in my bones. I’ve run on nothing but fury and focus for days on end, and now that she’s here, safe, my body wants to collapse.
She tilts her head, her warm brown eyes lifting to mine.
“You had Maximo and his men storm the place, but that’s not the whole story, is it? Tell me how you actually pulled it off. Hale kept boasting about how impenetrable his security was, how there was no way you could break it.”
I chuckle. Cocky bastard. His pride was his downfall.
“I had a little help from my friends.”
Her lips curve. “Friends? You don’t trust anyone.”
“I trust you,” I reply, pressing my mouth to hers. Isa is the only one. Always, without question.
“I’m not your friend,” she deadpans when I pull back. “I’m your wife, or so you keep telling me. Though I have yet to see our marriage certificate.”
She wriggles her ring finger at me, bare except for the tattoo of my name. The sight never fails to satisfy. Soon I’ll put the wedding band she threw at my head back where it belongs.
“So who did you trust enough to help, given you always work alone?”
“You know me so well,” I say, half amused, half resigned. “But you’re right, I’ve always worked by myself. It was cleaner that way, safer. But this time…”
I draw a breath, letting it out slowly.
“I couldn’t have done it solo fast enough. Not without mistakes. What would have taken me weeks, we pulled off in days. And I’ll admit it… I’m glad I didn’t try to do it alone.”
Her brows lift, and a knowing smile touches her lips. “That’s new for you. You’d never have said that even a week ago.”
I can’t argue with that. My love for her has changed everything, made me reconsider what I’m willing to do. And maybe I’ve learned that working with others isn’t quite as bad as I imagined.
“So who helped you?” she asks.
“Uberto. He works for Maximo now.”
Her eyes widen. “Really? He left Sicily?”
“He did. Said he couldn’t work for the new Don.”
“I’m not surprised. Uberto was always loyal to the De Marcos, and I suppose he still is, working for their cousin now.”
“Exactly.” I rub a hand over my face, fatigue pressing at the edges of my vision. “Uberto and I worked well together when I was first starting out. We still do.”
“So how did you do it? Hale was furious this morning. He worked on his laptop like a madman, and then suddenly he was smug. He toldme he was expecting you, like he’d set a trap. I was so worried when he looked that gleeful.”
A dark satisfaction stirs in my chest. “That was what we counted on. He never realized we’d slipped into his system a full day earlier. That gave me time to map it, to see exactly how he meant to spring his snare.
“Uberto kept him distracted this morning while I was in his mainframe, planting bugs and worms. He was so full of himself, he never even noticed I’d flipped his trap against him.”
Isa smiles proudly, brushing her thumb over my ribs.
“And that’s why you’re the best.”
