Page 55 of Sovereign Oaths

Did he think they were something he could overcome? Overthrow?

He was losing territory by the day, yet he felt comfortable moving there?

Or was it an idea for the distant future? He thought he could fix things before taking me back?

Was he delusional, stupid, or brilliant?

His decision-making was too inconsistent to figure out. At least he was somewhat predictable when it came to me. He said yes. He made it happen. Consequences be damned. His men’s opinions of him be damned.

I was ready to go home, back to the guys, but Javi wanted me to stay until my birthday party. The different teams worked on fragmented parts of the mission, and it was important to have an eye and an ear on Alessio at all times.

At least my shifter side aided in that.

Even with the breeze and closed windows, I could hear his entire conversation. Unfortunately, it was boring. One of his warehouse managers gave an update on a shipment. He wasn’t even using any code language. Delivery of the weapons went smoothly. All inventory had been double-checked and was being prepped for shipping now in the salvaged portion of the building.

One of the teams was assigned to this location and would already have this information.

I waited for him to come back out after the call, but he rang someone else.

“What’s the latest?” He sounded stressed.

I pulled out my phone, ready to relay the information in a text to the guys, but Derek stopped me.

“I’m already on it. Don’t get caught listening.”

“Fine.” I lay back down and closed my eyes.

“You’re sure it was Brazzi’s men?” He went quiet. “This can’t still be retaliation. We were even.”

Ha. As if that was how criminals worked. You hurt them, they hurt you, and all is forgotten? Silly boy.

“Fine. We can’t let them completely cut us off. Get some men to find their warehouse in Hollywood. If they want to disrupt our business, we’ll do the same.”

“Sounds juicy,” I muttered.

“I doubt it,” Derek replied.

“No, we have to be ready,” Alessio snapped. “Everything is in place. The move has to happen this weekend.”

What move? Did they find a new warehouse?

“I don’t care if they need more time. I want things set up and functional by Sunday night. Franco already set the port arrangements. We need to be ready to move the inventory immediately. Even a few days will cause a backup, and we have orders.” Another pause. “You have no idea what I did to secure this spot at Fascell. We have a short time frame. It must come in on Saturday afternoon and be unloaded by seven. Make it happen.”

His steps clicked toward me on the deck, so I turned onto my stomach with my face away from him.

“Sorry, amor.”

I lifted my head. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah, just work stuff.”

That might have just been exactly what we needed to end all of this. I didn’t let myself think about the end of this mission too often. It wasn’t like we had a specific deadline. It was over when we finished. But this information could be exactly what we needed to bring him down.

Maybe.

Some details might not be what the guys and other teams were looking for. It wasn’t my job to filter what they knew. I provided what I could and waited to know if it was enough, and that time might be coming soon.

Why did I sort of hope that wasn’t the case?

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