Page 54 of Rescued By the Mafia

She let Dante turn her and guide her back down the hall, blinking against the late morning sun as they stepped back outside. Her gaze quickly zeroed in on the SUV with the open side door and her friend sitting in the back passenger seat, armed men on either side.

Dante walked them right up to the vehicle and eased his grip of Iris.

Iris took a single step forward and reached out, gently laying one hand on Megan’s nearest arm. “Megan,” she said softly. “Megan, it’s Iris.”

Megan lifted her head, clutching the bottle of water she’d been given, and blinked slowly at Iris. Her swollen lid only half re-opened. “Y-you were … real…”

Iris smiled sadly. “I’m real,” she said. “And I’m so, so sorry you were dragged into this.”

Megan’s brow pinched, her lips dipping at the edges.

Iris reached up and carefully brushed some of her friend’s matted hair out of her eye. “Megan, listen to me. Parker’s been found, okay?”

Megan’s eyes widened again, finally lighting with something other than panic and frenzy.

Iris settled her hand a little more firmly on her friend’s shoulder. “We’re going to go meet up with him now. All of us, together. We’ll make sure you’re okay. I promise.”

More tears poured from Megan’s eyes and she gripped the bottle so hard the plastic started to crunch, causing some of the water to slosh over the rim. “Please. Please!”

Iris nodded, maintaining a smile, and stepped back.

Dante curled an arm around Iris and guided her toward their SUV, where Carlo opened the door for her to climb in. He didn’t contradict her or issue an order at all, and that realization made Iris feel something entirely foreign.

It made her feel powerful.

Dante snatched the bourbon from Romeo’s hand and continued to his desk, setting the bottle on the far side with a heavy thunk. “If you show up drunk to the family dinner, I’ll break your right arm.” He narrowed his eyes at his brother. “And if you sit down and get drunk in front of Mother or Lucia, I’ll do worse.”

Romeo bit out a sigh and set his untouched glass on the coffee table. “It’s not like I can’t handle a drink or two. A man needs a drink or two after pulling a starving, soiled four-year-old out of a hole in a floor, Edgar Allen Poe style.” He sank back against the sofa. “Fucking bastard. You sure you won’t share that kill?”

Dante dragged in a breath, his mind wandering back to the hour or so they’d lingered in the motel. He’d spent most of the time quietly, watching Iris sit with her friend and the woman’s child. Romeo wasn’t exaggerating the boy’s poor state. The child was young, but he’d either heavily repress the past forty-eight hours of his life or remember every scarring, vivid detail until he breathed his last. And Dante understood why his brother—a single father himself—would feel particularly angry over it.

But he wasn’t generous enough to share. “I’m sure.”

Romeo huffed and shot back the two fingers of bourbon he’d poured for himself previously. “Greedy bastard.”

Dante arched a brow. “What was that?”

The office door opened before Romeo could respond and Iris slipped inside, pausing for a second when she spotted the De Salvo sibling on the sofa. “Am I interrupting?”

“Never, Snapdragon.” Dante pushed away from the desk, turned to the side, and patted his thigh. “What did you need?”

Iris continued forward and lowered herself onto his lap. She looked into his eyes as her hands came to rest on his chest and she said, “I have an idea on how to catch Paul.”

Dante frowned. Something about her lead-in set off warning bells in his head.

Not, apparently, in Romeo’s, as his brother spoke up quickly. “Now we’re getting somewhere!”

Dante settled his hand over Iris’s outer thigh, locking her against him, and pointedly ignored his sibling. “I’m listening.”

“Megan asked me to put up a sign at her store saying she’s closed through the end of the month.” Her fingers curled in his shirt as she prepared for the part he was clearly not going to like. “I want to go do that, maybe early tomorrow. Paul will know by then that Megan and Parker aren’t still locked in those old houses and he’ll be looking around. I think there’s a good chance he’ll even be watching the store to see if she goes back to work.” Iris licked her lips as a sinking feeling built in Dante’s stomach.

“I’ll need you to pull off whatever men you’ve had watching the store, because he won’t come near me if he knows there are two or more armed guys just waiting to pounce.”

“That’s the point, honey,” Dante said, his words unusually tight.

She slid her hands up to his jaw. “I’ll take Carlo. I think that’ll look believable, if Paul’s seen me at all since … the Corolla.” She swallowed heavily. “If you can have another team watching, from a different position, more inconspicuously or something, that might be okay. I’m not asking to be abandoned. I’m asking to make it look like I’ve gone out under-guarded, maybe like I’m hoping the early hour and quick task will work in my favor. Oh, and Carlo should wear a sling on his injured arm. Play it up.”

Dante ground his teeth.

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