Page 24 of Ruthless Vows

“He’s coming for us, Nicolas. You know I’m never wrong. I don’t know what the fuck he wants, but it would be in our best interests to be prepared.”

“Alright, fine. I’ll look into it. Okay?”

He must nod in agreement or something because I don’t hear anything else. At least not until Adrian walks out and finds me leaning against the wall beside the door. I place a finger on my mouth to stop him from speaking out.

He smirks before wrapping an arm around my shoulders and quietly leading me away from the Don’s office.

“I see you still like to sneak around.”

“And you’re still a jerk,” I mutter.

He laughs. “Yeah, I definitely missed having you around. What did you hear?”

“Nothing. Except some mild paranoia on your part.”

He rolls his eyes. “I’m not being paranoid, Lucia. Something’s going on with the Bratva.”

The Bratva is the Russian equivalent to the Cosa Nostra, except they’re more cutthroat and secretive. I don’t know much about them. I’m about to ask him to tell me more about his new obsession, but he moves on before I can.

“Weren’t you supposed to be here two weeks ago? What’s been going on? You went dark on me,” he says.

“The whole lot of you are meddlers,” I mutter under my breath.

Is it too much to ask for them to just let me keep one secret?

“What’s going on?” Adrian asks again, his perceptive green eyes fixed on my face.

I sigh softly before deciding to come clean. “You’re not going to believe this. But I may have quit my job a couple of weeks ago.”

His jaw falls open. “No shit! You love that job. What the hell happened?”

There’s a small ache in my chest as I explain the entire situation to him. By the time I’m done, Adrian is nearly shaking with rage. I have to wrestle his phone out of his hands when he insists on getting his private plane ready to fly over to New York.

“I’m going to kill that motherfucker,” he promises, referring to Hans Murray, public enemy number one.

Over the past month, I’ve had to learn first-hand just how much power one wields when you’re a white man with lots of money and connections behind you. The altercation in my office with that asshole spread like wild fire through the industry. Before I could blink, everyone knew me as the woman who hadassaulted Hans. There was no use defending myself, and my company let me go a few days later.

I was angry, upset, a little depressed. It’s why I didn’t come here to Chicago sooner. I had to get my shit together. After losing my job, I realized there was really nothing left for me in New York. My family’s here and it’s time for me to be closer to them.

“No. You’re not going to do anything to him,” I grit out.

Adrian arches an eyebrow in question.

“Hans will get what’s coming to him. You know I’m awful at letting things go, right? It might take a while, but I’ll skin him alive eventually.”

“Fucker,” Adrian mutters under his breath, his green eyes still flashing.

I smile. “Aw, it’s cute how annoyed you are for me. You must like me a lot, Rossi,” I say teasingly.

He rolls his eyes. “You wish. You’re a pain in my ass.”

Despite his words, he does squeeze my shoulder in comfort, his eyes offering the sympathy he can’t voice.

“I’m fine, Adrian. Really.”

I’ve always had an uncanny ability to bounce back from shit, brushing it off my shoulders. I’m over the entire situation. Did it hurt a lot? Of course. But now all that matters is how I deal with it.

“So I’m guessing you’ll be in town for a while?”

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