Page 26 of Ruthless Vow

I blink. “I’m off the clock.”

“Don’t try what little patience I have left with you, little wolf. Whatever you’ve been hiding from me, it’s time to come clean. I want to know who you’re working for. And I want to know what you’ve been leaking to them.” Leo gestures at the screen. “I’m guessing information about our front businesses, offshore accounts, smuggling operations, locations of safe houses, weapons caches…” He taps a file on the screen with his index finger. “Let’s start with this one, shall we?”

Russo_BD_all.docx

“You’re right about one thing,” I say. “That is information for my boss. Important information that needs to be kept hidden from prying eyes. Thus the password.”

His gaze turns to black ice. “Who’s your fucking boss, Nicole?”

“You are. Or…you were.”

His upper lip curls back from his straight white teeth, a feral snarl. “You’re either brave or stupid to keep playing these games with me.”

“A bit of both, I think.”

“Open the fucking file. Now.”

Part of me wants to tell him to go to hell. That small, indignant part of me that wants to show him that he hasn’t defeated me. That I’m not afraid of him.

But I am. I’m terrified. Only it might not seem like it from the outside. I’ve perfected my stoic exterior over the years, ever since Mom died. I only ever let myself break down when there’s no one around to witness it.

I raise my chin. “Open it yourself. I’ll give you the password.”

Leo takes a moment to remove his jacket, draping it over the back of the armchair. He has a gun tucked into his waistband at the one o’clock position. Appendix carry. Convenient for easy concealment under a suit jacket and fast draw.

He snags the laptop from the bed and places it on the chest of drawers, putting it at a more convenient height for him. My gaze flicks to the gun then back to his face.

“What is the password?” he demands.

“It’s LEOISADICK,” I tell him. “All one word. In caps.”

His lips thin and he studies me for a moment, perhaps wondering if I’m fucking around with him. Then he types this into the password prompt and the file opens.

I’m not fucking around.

Leo studies the document that’s opened up, but I narrate it so he knows what he’s looking at.

“Those are birthdates for all your family, along with their favorite colors, favorite designers, fave destinations. It helpswhen picking out gifts. I set it up for your father, and I’ve maintained and updated it, including any current girlfriends or boyfriends, and, of course, extended family.

“In case you’ve forgotten, it’s Dante’s thirtieth birthday in three weeks,” I continue. “I’ve already put in the order for an engraved limited edition Patek Philippe watch. The same one your dad got for each of you on your thirtieths.”

“How did you get the money to order something like that?” he asks.

“You signed off on it two weeks ago.”

His gaze snaps to mine.

I shrug. “You sign whatever I put in front of you, just like your father did.”

“I’m way too trusting. Used to be, anyway. Never again.”

I swallow hard. For some reason, that bothers me. The fact that the trust Leo gave me is gone. The fact that I betrayed him. Which makes no sense at all.

“Anyway, the rest of the files are as benign as this and the password’s the same across the board. You won’t find anything incriminating on me because when I was here, I did my job. That’s it.”

Not exactly. I fed information to Bianca whenever her people contacted me. But I never kept a file on that.

I was frugal, even miserly, with the information I shared. I pretended it was because I was being careful, not wanting to share information that would clearly lead back to me and get me caught. That’s only a partial truth, though. There were things I chose not to share because it felt like too much of a betrayal. At the time, I justified that any way I needed to. In hindsight, I admit it was because I never wanted to share information that would see any of the Russos get hurt.

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