Page 64 of Solemn Vow

“I’ll think of something,” she promises.

I shake my head. “No, Marlena. You’ll go with me, and you’ll spend the whole weekend with me. No arguments.” I press harder into her heel and she’s moaning with pleasure again.

“Fine. I can do the party since I’m sure Izzy will be there too, and I haven’t seen her enough since she moved in with Andrei and got married. But Saturday I’m working at a wedding.”

“Fine, we’ll work around all that.”

She closes her eyes and takes a long breath.

“Did something happen at work today?” I question.

She’s tense all over, not just in her feet. When she met me at her station in the salon, she couldn’t get out of the building fast enough. It was almost as though she were being chased out.

She opens her eyes slightly. “Work? No.”

I let her have another moment.

“I got some information on Jimmy today.” I break the silence stretching out between us. My news has her eyelids flying open.

“Yeah?”

“Michael doesn’t know about the blackmail, at least not now. He has no idea about the photo Jimmy has. And Michael didn’t sanction whatever job he’s getting ready to pull. I have a feeling Jimmy’s working for someone else on this job.” I put her foot in my lap and adjust my erection.

“Michael will see that as a betrayal.” She pauses a beat. “We could use that against him, right? Let him know I know about it?”

“No. You’re not getting in the middle of Jimmy and the Agosti family.” She may have had to deal with them on her own before me, but I’m here now. She’s not going to put herself in danger like that ever again.

“But I can use this to get out of the blackmail,” she protests.

“You said yourself, Jimmy knows you’re with me, my family now. If you get in the middle, it drags the Petrov family in the middle with you.”

This woman is going to give me gray hairs years before my time.

“No. You’re not going to Michael, or to Jimmy, or anyone else. Until we know for sure who Jimmy is working with, no one says anything to Michael Agosti.” I point a firm finger at her. “Do you understand me?”

“Yeah. I understand you.” She waits a beat. “I actually agree with you.”

“Oh, that’s a first,” I grin.

She presses her lips together and leans back again, her eyes looking heavy with worry again.

“He was at the salon tonight,” she says softly, meeting my eyes. “Jimmy.”

I clench my jaw. If he so much as pushed a hair out of place on her beautiful head, I’m going to rip his heart out of his fucking chest before the sun comes up tomorrow.

“When?” I force my tone to stay flat. She’s offering the information to me. I didn’t have to rip it from her. That means something.

“At the end. Just before you got there.” She pulls her feet from my lap and folds them beneath her as she tells me everything that happened.

“He didn’t touch you?” I ask when she’s finished.

“No. Other than blowing smoke in my face, but I think he was just trying to act tougher than he is. He had three other guys with him, though. I didn’t recognize any of them.”

“You think he’s got a new crew outside of Michael’s control?” If Jimmy blames his uncle for the way he was treated in prison, why wouldn’t he switch loyalties?

Jimmy’s never been much of a threat on his own. He’s more of a useful idiot than any sort of powerhouse for the Agosti family.

If Michael’s older sister and her husband hadn’t died in that car crash when Jimmy was younger, I don’t think Michael would have found any use for him at all. But unlike Jimmy, Michael still has a strong family loyalty.

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