Page 53 of The Prizes We Win
“Yup,” I say proudly. “Old butcher shop on the Lower East Side. Corner of Henry and Jefferson.”
Looking impressed, he points to me. “She find that out all on her own, did she?”
Luca kisses me quickly on the cheek. “Our girl did good.” Then he leans over and whispers in my ear, “Enz would be so proud of you.”
I blush, and Dante hands me the keys. “Might as well not quit while you’re ahead.”
Hopping in the driver’s seat, I put the G-Wagon in drive, and the second everyone is in the vehicle, I speed away from Katya’s house.
I’m not sure if it’s my superb driving or just luck, but in no time at all we’re driving through the streets of the Lower East Side and pulling up in front of the closed-down butcher shop.
Whatever signage remains is rusted and faded, the windows are boarded up, and there’s a pile of old newspapers on the sidewalk out front.
But the front door is new, and there’s what looks like a top-of-the-line lock on it. And if you look above it, there’s a small black camera tucked beneath the tattered awning.
Walking by, you’d never notice it, but it lets me know that we’re in the right place.
As I put the vehicle in park, I can hear Sebastian typing away at his laptop behind me. “There’s this door and the service entrance in the alley out back.”
“On it,” Ronan says. A moment later, his voice sounds again. “We’re here. There’s a small camera on the building across the alley pointed right at their service door. They can’t see us, but they will the moment we approach the door.”
“Same out front,” Dante answers.
“Once we’re at the doors, we’re going to have to breach the building quick. There won’t be much time,” Finn adds.
Dante looks over at me. “Are you sure you can do this, Amore Mia? This isn’t going to be like the Novikov house. I won’t be able to protect you as closely.”
“I can do it.”
He leans his large body across the center console and kisses me deeply before whispering against my lips, “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
His stare lingers a moment longer before he says, “Everybody move.”
34
Luca
Dante kicks the door open and we’re all on the move. It doesn’t take us long to work through the front of the store as it’s just an empty waiting area filled with a couple of display cases and a check-out counter.
Already hearing a shuffle in the back I know we have to move quickly.
I signal for Josephine, Dante, and Sebastian to fall in line behind me. We move through the door to the back and make our way down the short hallway. There are a couple of rooms with some cheap folding tables and chairs, each scattered with empty take-out containers and soda cans.
Finally, we get to a large door at the end of the hallway, one that was obviously put here after the shop closed down.
“Ronan?” I ask through our comms.
“Ready on your call.”
I quickly look behind me, and as much as I want to drag Josephine out of here, I have to trust that she knows she can handle this. Sebastian too.
I know Dante’s thinking the same thing I am because when I look at him, towering behind Josephine and Seb, for the first time during a mission, I see genuine worry.
Dante and I have a silent conversation, each of us resonating with the fact that this just might be one of the biggest risks we’ve ever taken. But if we don’t do this, we might lose him.
Andthatis a risk I know none of us are willing to take.
