“Hey, loser, good morning to you too.”
“Cut the shit. This is important, Felix.”
“Yeah, everything you do is important, hotshot. Don’t get your panties in a bunch, let me work at my own pace. I have nothing yet. I didn’t really get the chance to dive into the stuff you sent me. The police are looking for the girl, though. They have no leads, which means whoever found you at that cabin either followed you there or put a tracker on your car.”
“Fuck.” I run a hand through my hair in frustration.
I was so consumed with Fallon last night that I forgot about looking for a tracker. There’s no way I would have missed someone following me all the way out here. It has to be a tracker on the car.
“If I hear anything, I’ll call you. Otherwise, expect to hear something from me soon regarding the information you already sent.” I grind my teeth together with impatience.
I hate waiting, but it is what it is.
“Great, talk later,” I say and end the call.
I don’t even have time to pocket my phone before it’s ringing again. Lucca’s name flashes across the screen. I’m tempted to ignore the call. If Julian needed something, he would call me, so Lucca calling me means that it’s personal.
“What?” I bark into the phone.
“Well, good morning to you too.” His cheery voice filters into my ear.
I should’ve sent his call to voicemail.
“What do you need? I’m assuming it’s not regarding Julian. If he had a problem, he would’ve called me himself.”
“Things are fine with the boss. He’s not the reason that I’m calling.”
“Then why are you calling?” I ask, impatience dripping from each syllable.
A second passes, and then another before he finally speaks, “I need a favor.” The way he asks makes it seem as if he doesn’t want to ask at all.
I tip my head back and look up at the ceiling. “I’m on vacation, Lucca. Can’t your favor wait till I get back?” Whenever it is that I decide to come back.
“Look, I know you’re doing your own thing right now, but I’m holding this fucking place down and what I’m asking is small compared to what you dropped into my fucking lap.”
Asshole. “You’re more than capable of being second in command. Now is your time to prove yourself.”
“I am proving myself, which is why I’m calling you. I need you to go check on someone for me. I would do it myself, but Julian has me on Elena duty and doing a bunch of other shit. The family comes first,” he mutters the last part.
It’s too fucking early to make decisions like this, much less before I’ve had a cup of fucking coffee. Like a bear, I want to growl and tell him to go away, but Lucca is a friend, a brother, and I know he wouldn’t call me if he didn’t absolutely need something.
Men like us don’t call in favors. We don’t ask for help at all, so in a way, he’s allowing me to see his one and only weakness. If I was a betting man, which I am, I’d say it is a woman.
“Who is she?”
Lucca chuckles. “Don’t worry about the specifics. I’ll text you everything.”
I roll my eyes. “It’s a woman, you don’t have to try and cover your ass. I’m not going to tell anyone.” And I won’t. I don’t care what the men do outside of working for Julian; as long as they’re faithful to the family and do their job, we have no problems.
It’s never been in my cards to take a woman, and Lucca has never shown much interest in the whores at the brothel. I suppose I now know why.
“It is, but I don’t want her involved in this life. The person who has been watching her has gone MIA. All I need is for you to check and make sure she’s okay. That’s it. You don’t even have to make it known that you’re there to check on her. In fact, don’t. It’ll be easier if she doesn’t know at all.”
“Does she know you’re watching her, or is this a one-sided thing,” I say, poking fun.
I can practically see the smirk on Lucca’s face when he speaks again.
“She knows. Just wait for the text from me, okay?”
“Sure, ’cause I got nothing better to do with my time than sit around waiting for your ass.”
Laughter echoes through the speaker. “Admit it, you don’t.”
“Whatever.” I shake my head and hang up.
Shoving my phone into the pocket of my sweats, I contemplate going downstairs to make some coffee before waking Fallon but decide to sneak back into the room and check on her. As soon as I open the door and step into the room, I spot a pair of blue eyes staring back at me.