Page 59 of Little Rabbit

“We need to get to her first,” Dante points out. “If your guy found her, then the others will too, if they haven’t already, and they’ve clearly been working on it. So we need to get to her, and we need to do it carefully and quickly.”

“Send me her details and I’ll go,” Lazaro offers. “I’ll bring her back as quickly as I can.”

“She’d see you from a mile away and run off,” Alonzo scoffs. “I’ll go.”

“No,” I say firmly. “Lazaro, you go. Alonzo, I need you here and helping to make sure that we’re not caught unaware, and also to help us figure out our next offensive. Because as I see it, they’re distracted and now is the time to strike.”

“They’ll be expecting it,” Dante warns.

I give him a sharp smile. “Even better. But we’re going to need all the strategies we can get so we don’t lose our upper hand. Alonzo is the best person we have for that. Lazaro can make sure we get her here undetected, despite him being a fucking giant.”

Lazaro flips me off. “Fuck off,” he admonishes without any heat. “I’ll be wheels up in less than a couple of hours. Papa, send me all the information you can, and we’ll be talking once I’m airborne.”

“Done,” Aurelio replies.

“Make sure you keep me updated,” Lazaro says to me expectantly.

I nod. “Any problems, let us know, and make sure you check in.” Lazaro nods, and then with a wave toward Nico and Alonzo, and a scowl at Dante, he leaves the room.

“Will he ever like you?” Gia asks Dante curiously.

“Probably not,” Dante replies with a careless shrug. Gia smirks and then lets out a sleepy yawn.

“Topolina, you need to get back to bed,” Nico admonishes. “I’ll be up shortly.”

“Mmm, okay,” she says tiredly, smiling up at him. She gives him a quick kiss, gets to her feet, smiles at us, and then heads out of the room. I wonder absently if Sienna will ever be like that with me, but I suppose it doesn’t matter. She’s not a carbon copy of her sister, and I prefer it that way.

Once Gia is out of earshot and the door closes, Dante looks at us and says, “Alright, now that we know what the hell is going on, it’s time that we go on the offensive. I say we hit them all at once and make it hurt. They expect us to retaliate, but probably not so soon, and since they’re searching for the others, they probably have some of their men diverted, leaving other areas open.”

Nico and I glance at each other, and then I give a cool smile. “You’re not going to get an argument from me. What do you have in mind?”

28

ALESSIO

I walk into Nico’s office, and I can’t help but grin when I see he has his wife leaned back over the desk, kissing the hell out of her. And, of course, being the general shit disturber that I am, I can’t help but pull Sienna in further with me before crying out in mock outrage, “Boo Bear, how could you? How could you do this to us? I thought we were in love!”

Gia startles and then starts to laugh, pushing at Nico, who pulls away and shoots me a look that promises my death will be long and painful. I manage to keep my horrified expression in place, even as Sienna groans behind me and mutters, “You really do have a death wish. Nico, ignore him. He’s clearly lost most of his sense while he was sleeping,” she says as she steps around me and heads toward a now red-faced Gia, who slides off the desk.

Nico ignores her, and I barely have time to realize what he’s about to do before the knife is out of his pocket and flying. I dodge easily, and grin when it lands in the wall next to my head. Gia gasps, Sienna sighs, and I pull it out of the wall before giving Gia a look of theatrical despair. “Gia, I know when I’m beaten. Promise me you’ll take good care of him. I only ask that you help him think of me once in a while, huh? You know, find a really thick dildo for his ass and?—”

“Shut the fuck up,” Nico snarls, incensed.

Gia giggles and nods her agreement even as her face flames at the suggestion, while Sienna snorts out a laugh. “Nico, if you kill him, does that mean I can stay here with you?” Sienna asks Nico, who shifts his glare to her. I can see her smile falter slightly before that backbone of steel she possesses takes charge and it changes to a grin. “I’m a lot less of a pain in the ass than him, I promise.”

“Literally,” Gia snorts, also earning Nico’s glare. “Sorry, sorry. Of course you can stay here. Nico knows how important you are to me.”

Nico grumbles something under his breath. I can’t hear it, but Sienna does, and her lips pull into a wider grin. “That’s what happens when you marry someone who has a long lost sister. Who knows, maybe there are more of us out there and you’re going to have us all here with you at some point.”

Oh, if only she knew how true that was. I haven’t yet told her what we’ve discovered, but I’ll get around to it at some point. Right now, I’m looking to find out how the raids went. We decided that it would be too predictable for us to hit in the middle of the night, so we changed our plan to strike this morning. It carried more risk, but it makes a larger statement. So far, my men have been checking in with Alonzo, but the final results should be reported any minute, as long as there’s no serious problems.

“I’ll be locking you all up in rooms on opposite ends of the house,” Nico growls, releasing Gia and stepping back. He moves around his desk and takes a seat, but his eyes never leave Gia, making me roll my own. Still, I haven’t stopped looking at Sienna since we both got up not long ago, so I suppose I can understand.

When she woke up, she looked a lot more rested and her eyes weren’t as troubled, but she’s still far paler than I would like. Hopefully that will return as the day goes on. When I finally got to bed last night, she hadn’t stirred, but had instead turned into me and cuddled closer, easing some of the anger and concern inside me.

That simple action solidified to me that she’s exactly where she belongs.

“We’d still find our way to each other,” Sienna smirks. She winks at Gia and adds, “And then we’d have to show you the error of your ways for thinking you could get away with it.”

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