Page 75 of Ivory Oath

She reaches over the console and squeezes my wrist. “I know. And thank you. Knowing Dante is safe here is the only reason I could enjoy last night.”

I arch both brows. “I don’t think that was the only reason you enjoyed last night.”

She rolls her eyes. “Of course not. Your excellent lovemaking was the number one reason, Mikhail. All hail your glorious penis, amen.”

I grip her chin and bring her lips to mine. “I’ll be busier the next few days, so repeat that to yourself every so often. I’d hate for you to forget.”

“If I forget, will you remind me?” she asks, voice all innocence. But I see the mischief burning in her eyes.

“On second thought, go ahead and forget. Often and repeatedly.”

She kisses me. “You got it, boss.”

The newlywed haze follows me out of the car and halfway to the front door. Then Raoul steps off the porch, his mouth set in a firm line, and it dissipates.

“I need to talk to you.”

I hand my luggage to the new driver Anatoly hired while I was away. The kid trips over his own feet reaching for my bag and then trips himself with the wheels twice on his way inside.

“Is it about that?” I mutter, tipping my head at the poor kid.

Raoul shakes his head. “A clumsy new hire is the least of our problems.”

Viviana brushes her hand along my back. “I’m going to go see Dante. Are you coming?”

I want to.

Fuck, I want to.

But reality has finally come knocking and I have no choice but to answer the door.

“I need to talk to Raoul. We’ll be in my office.”

She kisses my cheek and smiles at Raoul before she leaves. As soon as she’s through the door, I sigh. “Let’s talk business.”

The long and short of it is that the world did not stop turning while I was away. “The Greeks and Italians won’t stop until they win this war,” Raoul explains. His hand is tight around the drink I poured, but he hasn’t taken a sip. “They’ve been poking holes along the edges of our territory for days.”

“No one told me.”

“You were busy,” he says. “You needed the break.”

“It wasn’t a fucking ‘break,’” I snap. “Agostino Giordano broke into my house. He was in my bedroom while Viviana was home alone.”

He dips his head, eyes on the floor. “Security is my job. That never should have happened.”

I know Raoul feels guilty. He told me over and over again before we left for the cabin. I tip back my drink and place the empty glass on my desk. “You were putting out another fire. We all were. I get it.”

“But if anything had happened to her?—”

“It didn’t,” I interrupt him. “Now, our security gaps are covered and she and Dante are safe here. So let’s stop talking about the past and figure out what the future looks like, yeah?”

He reluctantly nods.

“If Christos and Agostino are working together, we can’t afford to sit back and wait for them to find another way through our defenses.”

“Especially if they’re going to keep burning down our businesses,” he mutters. “What do you have in mind?”

I snatch Raoul’s untouched drink out of his hand and toss it back. “If they want to go after our biggest assets, I think it’s only fair that we go after theirs.”

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