Page 12 of Lies like Rubies, Part Two (Savage Jewels)

“I’ll send you a contact. She’s local, the best there is, expensive as hell though,” Cormac said. We’d only met briefly—my family’s deliberate distance from the violence of the mafia meant that I knew Sofia’s in-laws more by reputation than I knew the men themselves.

Dante looked up from his phone, furious. “Why the fuck did it take you five days to send us her information?”

“It took her five days to accept the contract.”

“Money is not an object,” Dante snarled as he exploded out of his seat.

“It wasn’t the money, Oscuro. She didn’t want to work with an arms manufacturer.”

Dante sat down with a huff, shaking his head until his lips curled up in an amused smile.

“She’ll only speak with the pediatrician,” Cormac continued.

Dante straightened and turned around in his chair to peer at me, sitting against the wall, invited to this planning meeting only as a courtesy.

Until my father made his decision about politics, I could contribute very little and had, in fact, been spending most of my time with Lizzie.

“Me?” You could have knocked me over with a feather.

“She thinks you’re a do-gooder,” Cormac said, obviously annoyed.

“He’s a goddamned boy scout,” Dante affirmed.

Yeah, and I’d been utterly useless in the effort to find Sofia so far.

My phone buzzed with the name of Adam Zhang’s flagship restaurant. “She wants to meet at seven tonight. Just me,” I read from my phone.

No, I couldn’t go alone. First, I didn’t fucking know whatto ask for. Second, I couldn’t make any promises in the name of the Russos or anyone else.

“Lorenzo will go with you,” Dante grated out through clenched teeth.

My thumbs danced over my screen, passing the message on to the hacker.

“She refused,” I said. “She says she doesn’t negotiate. Give her what she wants, or she’s out.”

Two hours later, we pulled up to the building.

“What can I promise her?” I asked, seeking my margin for maneuver. We didn’t have any information on what this damn hacker wanted in return for helping us find Sofia.

“Fucking anything. Everything,” Dante muttered under his breath.

I studied him from the passenger seat. “You sure you don’t want to quantify that?”

To my surprise, Dante’s ears turned pink. He scrubbed his face with his hands, the rare moment of vulnerability shocking me. “No.”

Eat the fucking rich. Not that I had room to complain—my pediatric practice hadn’t exactly left me in poverty either.

“How much, Dante?” I insisted, annoyed that I had to push.

He turned in his seat, the heat of his obsidian eyes piercing through my irritation. “I am Europe’s biggest arms manufacturer and exporter. And when I open an American office in a week so that I can keep Sofia on her knees and at my side where she belongs, I intend to become America’s too. Money isn’t an object.”

“And if she’s not asking for money?”

Dante wrapped his hand around the back of my neckand pulled me forward until our foreheads pressed together. He closed his eyes, as if he were taking solace from our physical contact. “Whatever it fucking takes, Nico.”

Instead of pushing away, I wrapped my hand around his neck. “Whatever it takes,” I swore, surprised at the weight of my vow and the comfort that came from knowing that Dante felt the same.

Dante nodded and sat up. “Zhang agreed to shut down the cameras in his restaurant for her. Be careful.”

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