Page 59 of The Secrets We Keep

“We’re doing three at once in two days.”

“He’s going to hate that.”

Luca smiled, running his fingers through her hair. “Yeah. But I’m eager to get this over with.” His phone signaled from his pants pocket at the foot of the bed, but he tightened his hold when she moved to scoot off him. “Where do you think you’re going?”

“You should probably get that, and I should head out.”

When she moved away again, he released her, watching her collect her clothes from around the room and disappear into the bathroom. He heard water run into the sink before it was drowned out by the sound of his ringing phone.

Shifting to the end of the bed, he dug it out of his pocket and checked the display. Matteo. The phone went silent and then almost instantly began ringing a third time. Casting his eyes to the ceiling, Luca accepted the call and pressed the phone to his ear.

“Where have you been?” Matteo demanded before Luca could even speak.

“Your first call was less than two minutes ago,” Luca replied smoothly, glancing up when the bathroom door opened. “What do you want?”

“The ferry just docked, so I should be home soon. Did you finish going over the document I sent you about the company in France I want to buy?”

“I did. I made some notes. We can talk about it when you get home. Bye, Matteo.”

Disconnecting the call, he held his hand out to Sienna, smiling when she immediately pushed away from the door and crossed the room to stand in front of him. She cupped his face in her hands and leaned down to press a quick kiss to his lips.

“I really should go,” she whispered, her voice catching and reviving that heavy feeling in his chest.

He nodded, dressing quickly and leading her back down the stairs to the side door. She stepped out into the chilly afternoon and jogged quickly down the path to the lower garage, peeking at him over her shoulder before disappearing around the bend.

One day very soon, they were going to have the freedom to stay, to not sneak off and wonder when they might see each other again. Gallo’s end drew ever closer, but Luca didn’t see any harm in speeding up the inevitable.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Sienna stared at the clock in the corner of her computer screen and tapped her fingernails impatiently on the top of her desk. Three minutes and twenty-seven seconds, and she’d be able to sneak out and avoid giving Ciro that update she kept promising him.

So far she’d done more work on helping Luca and looking into Ciro than working on Ciro’s project. She didn’t even know enough about the defense systems to lie, at least not convincingly, and she didn’t want to admit to him she hadn’t even bothered to touch it. There was too much on her plate right now to worry about how Ciro would feel if she told him she’d pushed this project to the back burner.

Luca and his family had successfully pilfered over ten million euros in illegal weapons from the shipments they’d hit over the last ten days and trashed hundreds of millions in freight in the process. And when she wasn’t working, she was busy finding them new shipments to hit when her uncle changed routes, drivers, or locations. Shipments that wouldn’t signal the presence of a mole inside Gallo Industries. At least not right away.

They were speeding toward the end of the year, and soon Nero would be weak enough that their final plan could be put into motion. Then it was her time to shine. She knew exactly how she was going to do it.

Her uncle worked well into the night most of the time, but she’d found a way to monitor the activity on his credentials and knew his pattern. He worked the latest on Mondays and Fridays.

All she had to do was make up an excuse to stay late on a Monday night. Then she’d use Ciro’s cloned credentials to authorize the elevator to take her to the top floor, casually walk down the hallway with her purse over her shoulder and the gun inside it, step into her uncle’s office, and shoot him in the face.

He wouldn’t suspect her, he might not even recognize her, and she wouldn’t give him time to reach for his own weapon. She figured she’d have just enough time to watch him bleed out.

The problem with that plan was how much she doubted it now. She’d been so sure of it before leaving Germany. It was the best conceivable way to make him pay for what he did. It might not give her answers, but it would give her the satisfaction of knowing that the man who ordered the annihilation of her family had paid with his life. A few months ago, that was all she needed.

But with Luca in the picture, things were different. He had his own wants and desires, and the closer they got to the end, the more they clashed with hers. Even if he didn’t know it.

She didn’t care if Nero’s death looked like a suicide. She didn’t care if Stefano and Dante were dead too so the Bianchis could easily assume control of the company. Or at least she didn’t care before. Now what happened in the aftermath of her uncle’s death was all she could think about.

The Bianchis were going to the president’s Christmas party in a few days. Her uncle never missed it, and since Luca planned to come over after the party, she knew he’d give her every detail of what happened. The walls were closing in on Nero Gallo.

The papers had not been kind to his recent string of accidents, blaming faulty equipment, careless safety checks, or inexperienced drivers, depending on which column you read. Just this morning, she’d seen an article giving credence to rumors that a few government contracts were in jeopardy of being revoked due to safety concerns.

Behind the scenes, Nero was scrambling. He was losing commercial business—people wanted reliable freight companies to ensure packages and merchandise were delivered without incident this time of year—and he faced the prospect of losing several hefty government contracts on top of it.

In a recent meeting, her manager had hinted that the project she’d been hired specifically to work on for a customer-facing shipping experience was in danger of being plugged. Apparently investors were concerned and thinking of backing out.

The tide was turning on Gallo Industries, and people were keeping their distance. Her uncle wouldn’t breathe for much longer. She was sure of it, and so, it seemed, was Luca.

---