Page 103 of Only Fools Rush
“You okay, baby girl?” I asked, sinking back into my computer chair.Dios,her voice. I missed her voice. I missed everything about her. I couldn’t wait to see her, to bury my face against her neck, and breathe her in. Everything felt so tense without her here. I’d practically only spoken to the emptiness of my room.
“Yeah, just wanted to let you know that we’ll be here a few days longer.”
My heart sank. “Why? Trouble with Kofler? Do you need us?”
I knew for a fact that both Wynn and Cas would drop everything to get on a plane with me. If Leona needed us, we’d be there in a heartbeat.
“No, we just have a shit ton of work to handle,” she began. I frowned as she filled me in on what happened with Kofler and how they were trying to take over his organization with the help of one of his men.
“Can you get me a full dossier on Anton Felix?” she asked. “I just want to make sure he doesn’t have a history of being a backstabbing snake.”
My fingers flew across the keyboard, pulling up everything I could find on the man. Austrian born and raised before coming to the States fifteen years ago. Arrested once in Phoenix on an unlicensed concealed weapons charge.
“Of course,” I replied. “I’ll email it over soon. How long do you think you’ll be? I can handle the flight change.”
“Obi is taking care of it,” she said. I could hear movement in the background. “Probably another few days.”
My eyes flew to Volpe’s calendar on my computer screen. The board meeting was about two weeks away. If she wanted to go to that, we’d need to prepare.
“Can you…let Wynn and Cas know, too?”
“Of course I can.” Caspian would be disappointed. He’d been sulking around the penthouse like a brooding bear. I wasn’t looking forward to telling him, and would probably stutter my way through it, but she clearly felt too drained to tell him herself.
“Did you find anything out about that text I sent you from Chiara?”
“Yeah, it looks like the date and time are for a board meeting at this fancy restaurant.”
She huffed a laugh. “Trattoria Luminosa?”
“That’s the one. You know it?”
“My father’s favorite. They went there for meetings all the time.” Shehmmedand I could almost picture nose crinkling in thought. “Wow. I would have thought Max would have changed the meeting location.”
I rubbed my eyes, trying to moisten my contacts. “Why would Chiara let you know about that?”
“I have no idea. Maybe she’s trying to help me.” She paused after a heavy sigh. “Ciel, do you think she’s in danger? Should we be trying to save her?”
My leg bounced. “I think if she were, she’d be asking for help. Instead, it’s like she’s feeding you information.”
“Like she’s helping us from the inside?”
“It’s possible.” We still didn’t know why Chiara agreed to go with Max, or what he was really planning to use her for besides securing the Tommaso Family assets. What benefit did Chiara have fornottrying to run away? Why would she try to push her father in front of Ryuji’s bullet if she didn’t want to be with Max?
Would she risk her life to help Leona win this war?
“We’ll figure it out. We have to.” Leona groaned before taking a deep breath. “So, the board meeting is a few weeks away. Guess I better crash the party.”
I didn’t like the idea of her being exposed so close to Max, but we could plan for it. We could prepare. “I’ll start working with the guys to make a plan.”
“Cas won’t like the idea of me going to that.”
“No, he won’t.” I chuckled. “Neither will Wynn. They’re both out of their minds right now. I bet they try to sequester you in the penthouse as soon as you return.”
“Great.” She sighed. “I have to deal with them, and then Obi and Ryuji.”
I frowned. “What’s up with Obi and Ryuji?”
“Nothing…just…can you maybe keep the board meeting between us for now?”
