“Yes.”
“I’m glad to hear it.”
“I need a safe place for her,” I told him.
There was a long pause.
“You going after Davies?” he asked.
I was going to have to tell him everything about Trent…or Davies—whatever his name was—but I didn’t want to do that yet. I needed to know something first.
“Do you have a problem with that, sir?”
“He was just doing a job,” Rinaldo said. “A job I requested. Are you coming after me, too?”
“No, sir,” I said. “And yeah, it was a job. Consider retribution an occupational hazard.”
I heard a sigh come through the phone.
“All right, son,” Rinaldo said, and I felt my heart start to beat faster. “Bring her to my house. Luisa can stay with her.”
Much of the tension inside of me subsided, knowing he would be behind me on this even when he didn’t know everything yet. I would tell him when I could do it face-to-face, but knowing he was going to back me up on killing someone he thought was on his side was all I really needed to know.
“Thank you, sir.”
I drove to his house with Lia’s hand grasped in mine. I didn’t want to lose contact with her if I didn’t have to—not for a second.
Nothing would make me leave her unprotected again.
Chapter 20—Startling Revelation
Rinaldo opened the door himself before we had even exited the car. His driver came around from the garage and took the keys from me, and I grabbed my duffel bag in one hand and Lia’s arm in the other. I led her up the marble stairs of the mansion, between two huge, white columns, and through the front door.
“This must be the one,” Rinaldo said quietly as he looked over Lia.
Other men might have been angered by his scrutiny of her, but I saw it immediately for what it was. He wanted to see her—know her—and evaluate her worthiness. Would she be loyal and keep his secrets? Would she be good enough for his valued hit man?
I looked to Lia, clenched her arm lightly, and nodded.
“Lia, this is Rinaldo Moretti. Rinaldo, Lia Antonio.”
“A pleasure,” Rinaldo said as he shook her hand gently. “Apologies for the contract I put out on you. Mister Arden and I may have had a bit of a misunderstanding.”
He looked at me with coldness in his eyes, and I dropped my gaze.
“Sorry, sir. I didn’t have much of a choice.”
“We’ll discuss later exactly what your choices were,” he said with the same coldness in his voice. “Now isn’t the time. We’ve got quite a mess here at the moment. With Mario dead—a fact I’m half inclined to hold you responsible for—I’m going to need a little assistance.”
The den in Rinaldo’s house was full of people. He had two of his trusted men with him—Victor and Matthew. They stood on either side of him as he sat down in the leather office chair behind his desk. Luisa was also there, and she took Lia’s hand and sat her on the couch near the bookshelves. Nick Wolfe was oddly present. He wasn’t one to deal with a lot of the business stuff, but with Mario and a handful of others gone, Rinaldo obviously thought he was needed.
Even Nick’s Russian piece of ass was there.
Milena Severinov watched me carefully from where she stood next to Nick. I hadn’t seen her since that night of drinking at Sweetwater and an almost confrontation with her brother, Micah. I walked past them both as I sat on the other side of Lia on the couch.
She was looking around at the grandeur of the room and was clearly impressed and intimidated by the display of extravagance. Luisa whispered something to her, which made Lia smile and her cheeks turn slightly pink. I reached over and ran my hand down her arm before taking her hand and looking at Rinaldo.
“We’ve got all-out war here, boys,” Rinaldo said. The obvious addition for three women in the room didn’t stop him from using the term. “Greco’s gunning for us, the Russians are now gunning for him, and they’re all after my enforcer.”