Page 24 of Reluctant Surrender

“I assume since you didn’t call me right after this happened, you were using that time to do some detective work?” Andrezj asked.

“We did.” Alex nodded. “The cab of the truck had blood splatter all over it. We never found Tommy, so we assume he’s dead. We got the truck off the road, brought it in here.” He nodded toward the truck parked at the loading dock. “Someone hijacked the shipment.”

“And no ideas on who?” I asked. Piotr had plenty of enemies in this damn city and any one of them could use this transition of power as a way to poke holes in our system. If they found a weak spot, they’d just keep fucking poking.

“Not yet. We put in another order, and that shipment is due to arrive tomorrow. But until then, we can’t make deliveries,” Alex pointed out.

“We have no inventory?” My eyes went wide. “Why the fuck are we letting the supply get so damn low?”

“We had a huge order last week,” Oskar went on to explain. “It wiped most of what we had out.”

My eyes narrowed in on them. “So last week, someone cleared our inventory with one order and then the next shipment gets hijacked, which hurts our distribution line. You don’t think those two things are linked?” I wiped my hand over my mouth and took a deep breath. “I want to know who made the order.”

“You got it.” Alex nodded. “I’ll find out where that order came from.”

“In the meantime, distribute whatever we have.” Andrezj stepped in as my phone rang. I stepped away to let him handle the details.

“Now’s not a great time, Christian,” I said to my brother on the phone as I moved away from my men.

“I’m sure it’s not,” Christian responded. “What the fuck is Maggie doing at your house?”

Of course. She’d probably called Amelia as soon as I’d left.

“There’s an issue with her safety. I don’t have time to discuss it, but it’s being handled.”

“Amelia told me about the poker games. Who did she fuck over?” Christian asked with exasperation.

“Bertonelli, but like I said I have it handled,” I said again, gritting my teeth. My brother led our family, but Chicago was mine and I didn’t need him stepping in when there was a little snag.

“My wife is worried about Maggie.”

“She’s going to be staying with me until I can get to Bertonelli and calm the situation. The alternative was to let her get on a plane for New York. I thought you might not want to have her hiding out with your pregnant wife while Bertonelli was hunting her down.”

“You think you can calm him down?”

“She’ll be safe.” It was the only fact I knew for sure. No matter what, I wouldn’t allow anything to happen to her. No one was touching her. A burst of raw possession of her knocked into me with one thought.She’s mine and no one hurts what’s mine.

“If you need—”

“I said I have it under control,” I cut him off. He may be older, and in some ways, I would always have to answer to him, but I would stand on my own feet here. I would not need him to come down here to hold my hand every time there was a bump in the road.

Andrezj’s voice rose behind me.

“I have a meeting. I’ll talk to you later.” I ended the call and turned back to the situation at hand. If Christian found out about the hijacking, he’d have more questions, he’d have more advice, and I didn’t need or want any of it.

“Tell me where we are.” I walked up to my men.

Chapter 12

Lukas

It was past midnight when I finally got home. I hadn’t meant to stay away all day, but after the warehouse, Andrezj wanted to make a few stops to ask some questions. We wouldn’t let our customers be shorted on their orders, so I had to make a few calls to get our supply restocked quickly.

“Mr. Kaczmarek,” Mrs. Kowalski greeted me as I walked through the kitchen. “Would you like me to heat up dinner for you?”

“No, thank you. You should be in bed.” I shook my head as I loosened my tie.

“I was just heading there.” She folded a kitchen towel and placed it beside the sink. “I snuck a movie in the theater room tonight.” She grinned. “I asked your guest if she wanted to join me, but she was tired, so she went upstairs.”

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