Page 49 of King of the Cage

“You’re welcome, pal. Just remember, something happens to Quinn, Ion’s first, and then it’s you… so do a good fucking job.”

Declan waved his phone at me. “Cian wants to know what to do about Santori. You really want him to pack up his surveillance and leave her to her own devices?”

I stared at him a beat. Leave her to her own devices? That ship had sailed. Regardless, if we were meant to have been enemies with benefits, that had changed last night when she’d got down on her knees for me and looked up at me with those huge black eyes. It had changed when she’d let me see her searching for her friend and taking no prisoners. She’d slipped under my skin. She lived there now.

“What do you think?” I deadpanned.

Dec smirked and nodded, like he’d already called it.

“Got it. We’ll keep an eye on the missus for you.”

13

GIADA

Ibarely waited until the O’Connors were out of my neighborhood before firing up my computers and starting my own research.

The most annoying thing about investigating the drug and brand was I only had Enrico to go on. He was the only connection I had between the branded women and the drug. If only he hadn’t disappeared, squirreled away by the O’Connors, I’d have been able to ask him in person. It was amazing what hooking a guy’s balls up to a pair of jumper cables could shake loose. The cables didn’t even have to be connected… just the threat of frying the baby-makers was enough for most men to cave.

Since I had no access to Enrico, and clearly Bran O’Connor wasn’t going to allow me to question him, a thought that still made my blood boil, I had to get creative. Taking the search to the digital realm was taking back control, and it felt good.

What felt less good was how squeaky-clean Enrico was. The man had nothing going on. He was a city employee and kept his nose clean. There wasn’t even a hint of tax evasion in his accounts, which meant one thing… someone bigger and more importantthan him had given him the drugs. Enrico was a dead end… I needed whoever had supplied him. Which meant I had hit a wall.

Sol went home to the Moroni compound uptown the next day. Her memory was as hazy as Doc had warned me it would be. Marco and I had given her some bullshit story about hitting her head, and she seemed to accept it, more or less. Marco and I had agreed that he’d stay by her side when she was at the compound, and I’d accompany her whenever she went out.

Once she left, the apartment seemed cold and empty. I was exhausted. I yawned and went to the kitchen for my tenth coffee of the day.

Seeing as I’d been up nearly thirty-six hours straight, today was going to have to be sponsored by caffeine.

My very inexpert sketch of the brand, scanned and uploaded, had come up with a few hits, but nothing substantial. I had feelers out on my usual conspiracy theory boards and other cold-case forums.

The only other obvious thing I could do?

Stalk Bran O’Connor and his merry band of thugs. My reasoning was that since Bran was doing his own investigating, I could piggyback on his research, since he’d been able to question Enrico.

The problem was that I was pretty sure that none of the men I’d met so far were the O’Connor family IT guys. They seemed more like muscle, except for the medic.

After my coffee, I wandered back to my desks. While I’d been gone, my computers had shifted into a maintenance mode. Maintenance for me was a constant running check on variousdatabases for De Sanctis family members, as well as alerts set up to reveal if any of thefamigliaproperties were being bugged. It was harder to check possessions, but as long as the bugged possession was brought onto one of our established, monitored properties, I’d see the ping.

There was a ping to attend to when I sat down.

I blinked at it, surprised.

It was my very own house.

Someone had bugged my apartment.

Someone. I had a perfect idea who. The only man who would dare. My bossy, dominating, cocky asshole himself.

Unluckily for him, it was the break I’d been hunting for.

I didn’t get stalked, I did the stalking, always… something Bran O‘Connor was about to find out.

Endless hours later,with a satisfied sigh, I stood and stretched. I’d found the bug in an unopened package in my front hall. Smart, but obvious. Instead of smashing it under my heel, I hacked into it and traced it backward. Bran had a sneaky little hacker listening into my everyday life. I’d bet good money he had someone following me when I left the house, if I ever did that. I hitched a ride on Bran’s IT guy’s tail to see what he was researching.

Aldo Sepriano and something called The Enclave.

Cha-ching.I loved a good shortcut. The low road was perfectly fine for me, thank you very much.

---