Page 115 of The Mafia Enforcer's Temptation
Dad’s desk, still ornate but no longer neat as it’s now covered by a pile of papers and a newer computer.
The ghost of cigar smoke lingers in the room. One that probably comes from my memory more than anything else.
I look around.
“There.” Behind the desk and on the wall is a painting, and behind that painting is a safe.
But that’s not what I’m searching for. I ignore the painting and the safe and open the grate below it. It’s for an old radiator that’s no longer in use. I ease the radiator facade open to reveal Dad’s second, private safe.
I stare at it. “I have no idea what the combination is.”
Seamus sighs above me as he lowers himself to the floor. “What about this?”
I wait, but he doesn’t speak.
“What about what?” I turn, and whatever I was going to say next dies.
He’s holding the crest.
“I was going to try and translate it,” he says, “but I never got around to it.”
“It talks about valor and how even a lone wolf needs a den. The words are all about family, just like your tattoo.” I reach out with shaking fingers and take the crest.
Our fingers brush, and a cascade of heat rushes through me, making my flesh tingle and my clit ache. I don’t know how he can have this effect on me but my God, it’s stronger than ever.
Everything inside of me tumbles and twists and makes my heart thud.
Not because of him, I tell myself, but because of the crest.
I focus on it.
There, under the golden wolf, are numbers. I turn the dial to each number.
And miraculously, it clicks open.
Seamus takes the crest back and pockets it. I don’t even try and stop him as I pull out the contents.
“Names, different coordinates,” he says, looking at the first stack of papers. “Holdings for the Estevez Cartel. They do a lot with human trafficking. But…”
“What?” Because I feel sick.
“I don’t think your dad worked with them. I think this list contains all their secret locations and businesses, as well as where they kept their money.”
“You think he was using it to blackmail them?”
He shrugs. “Maybe it was his insurance. He’d keep it from other greedy hands as long as they didn’t bother him. I’d do that.”
“Liar. You’d go in and kill them all.”
And he flashes me a smile. “That, too. Christ, you’re a deadly woman.”
“Seamus, there’s more…”
I pull out a slender folder and flip it open. My heart beats double time. I skim the words, but it’s clear what this is. Another part of Dad’s will, and in it are the ironclad rules of my taking over. It doesn’t say I have to wait until I’m twenty-five. He wanted me in there before that. Someone else could run it, but I needed to be named Pakhan. Me or my husband. But the main takeaway is I have to step in to the role in some capacity before I’m twenty-five.
Romanov must have known. It’s why he wanted me to wait. It’s why…
The door starts to open, and Seamus moves fast, closing the safe as whoever’s on the other side pauses when another voice floats into the air. Seamus shoves all the papers away and slides the grate back in place.
