Page 23 of Ruthless Vows

“Dude, I told you to stop calling me that,” I say, pushing him off and away from my hair.

The nickname might have been cute when we were kids but not anymore. Adrian’s a dickhead, though, so I doubt I’ll get him to stop anytime soon. When I look at sister and Nico, there are even more questions in their eyes and I suddenly realize they know nothing about this little situation.

My lips tilt into a smirk and I decide it’s in my best interests to let Adrian explain himself.

Nico speaks up first. “Since when are you two so well acquainted?” he asks, gesturing between me and the six-foot-tall man.

Adrian offers him a short quick smile. “Before you get angry, I did warn you that I’d find it hard to stay away.”

“He came to visit me in New York a couple months ago, crying about a dagger,” I state.

“I was not crying,” he grumbles, shooting me an annoyed look. “I very politely asked you to return it. It’s a family heirloom.”

A pretty important one. Adrian and I used to be close friends as kids. So close that when he was leaving the outfit he decided to give me something for safekeeping and also to remember him by. The dagger was a gift, because he knew how much I liked knives and pointy things.

For years, I kept the dagger safe. It was one of the links I had to the home I had to leave behind. When he suddenly showed up in New York a couple of months ago, I was pissed he thought he could just show up and ask for it back and I’d simply hand it over. I made him work for it over a couple of days, which is when we rekindled our friendship. We’ve been texting pretty regularly since.

By the time we explain all this to Nico, he’s pretty pissed. But Adrian has the perfect distraction.

“Before you kill me, you might want to hear something. We’ve got a problem.”

Nico takes in the expression on his face in quiet consideration. It’s not often Adrian’s ever that serious.

“Alright.” He nods. “Let’s go to my office.”

He leans down to place a kiss on his wife’s head before exiting the room.

“See you later, Lucia,” Adrian says to me, following the Don.

I take a seat next to my sister, curiosity churning in my gut.

“What do you think that was about?” I ask Aurora.

My sister shrugs. “If it’s anything of consequence, Nico will tell me eventually. Hey, I’m going to put him to bed. We can talk more after, okay?”

“Yeah, sure.”

She leaves as well and I must have sat there for only a couple of seconds before my curiosity got the best of me. As a child, I was always pretty elite when it came to sneaking about the house. I’m able to find my way to Nico’s office, a little surprisedto see that the door was not only left open but Vladimir, Nico’s guard, is also nowhere in sight.

Something’s really wrong.

Adrian’s voice drifts out as I stop to listen in on their conversation.

“My sources told me he killed off Aguilar a couple of days ago. Now that he’s done with that, he seems to be gaining an interest in us,” he’s telling the Don.

I can’t see their faces but it takes Nico a while before he speaks up.

“We’re business partners, Adrian. You don’t know if that actually means anything.”

“I know the man’s a goddamn psychopath. He spent the past month wiping out a drug ring for no reason, and now he’s looking to do the same thing to us.”

“Volkov may be powerful, but he’s not stupid enough to try and take on the might of the Cosa Nostra.”

“I hope you’re right,” Adrian mutters.

This is certainly an interesting conversation. Who is this Volkov? The power plays and dynamics in the outfit have always been interesting to me.

“What do you want me to do, Rossi?” Nico presses.

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