Page 39 of Lies like Rubies, Part Two (Savage Jewels)

Declan watched us avidly, saying nothing.

“Where do you have your men?” she asked him quietly.

“We’ve got men on your house, and men on you. We’re coordinating through your enforcer.”

And just like that, Sofia was the head of her own goddamned family. Astounding.

“Thank you,” she told Declan, her smile more genuine this time.

I held my hand out to her, feeling foolish, but understanding better what she needed from me. She took it, to my surprise, stepping down from the curb in her heels, then holding on tight as I walked her to my car.

“My own army,” she mused.

“A borrowed army,” I corrected her as I opened her door. “Whose loyalty hasn’t been tested.”

She slid into the passenger seat and looked up at me with wide eyes that made me want to bend down and lick at her lips, tasting and nibbling her until they stared at me with devotion once again. “Do you think it will be?”

“Why didn’t you order a raid on the neighborhood where Sergio kept you?” I asked.

I closed the door as her lips tilted up into a bitter smile. When I slid into the driver’s side, I reached over to take her hand, waiting for an answer.

“I don’t know what I want,” she answered, her brow furrowed.

I stroked my thumb over her knuckles, tamping down on the fury that raged through me as my skin caught on scratches and scabs.

“We need to draw him out again.”

Sofia nodded. When I pulled my hand away to put the car into gear, her fingers squeezed mine, then sprang open.

“He’s doing this because the Costas need money, right? Let’s hit him where it hurts.”

17

DANTE

“You want to do what?”Morelli asked around our bonfire when Sofia laid out her contribution to our plan.

“I want to make sure he can’t access any of the money he laundered in my name and Lizzie’s. I don’t—” she cut herself off, putting her burger down on the paper plate she balanced on her knees. “I don’t remember much about my captivity. I’m sure the toxicology report Nick ran will come back with an outrageous cocktail of drugs in my system. But I do remember he made me sign a lot of papers. I want to take that money from him now before he has a chance to do whatever he’s planned.”

I resisted the temptation to snatch her plate away and feed her myself. A week of worry had only fueled my obsession for this woman who no longer had to pretend to be biddable to the men in her family. When I’d promised to give her what she needed, she’d understood that she was in charge. Nick and Lorenzo deferred to her for decision making, and that gave her power. I couldn’t lose her before I’d sunk my claws in so deep, she’d never get away.

When she sought my foot under the table, the tension inmy chest relaxed. Despite the power she’d seized from us, she still needed me to be more than just hired muscle.

“Dante, how long will it take for you to set up offshore accounts for me, so I can move the money to where only I have access and control?”

I frowned, displeased at the independence she’d have once she had her own money, even if it were from Sergio’s ill-gotten gains. She waited patiently for my answer, which was that I could make a phone call and it would be done in an hour.

As if he sensed my turmoil, Nick distracted her. “Once you have the money, what do you intend to do?”

She smiled. “Eradicate trafficking in the city, finish my degree, and then—I don’t know. I want Lizzie to grow up far away from the violence of this city.”

All three of us wore identical expressions of hurt and dismay.

Faster to recover than the rest of us, Lorenzo took her hand. “Sunshine, if that’s what you want, then we’ll help you make it happen.”

The solution was, of course, to bind Sofia so tightly to me that she’d never dream of leaving me—to bind her tightly tous, I corrected myself. Nick and I exchanged a look over Sofia’s head, and I knew he was on board.

“That’s not the real problem,” Lorenzo said. “The real problem is that Tony Russo’s territory in Yorkfield includes the financial district. Those bank managers won’t do business with you, Sofia, not unless your father reverses his orders restricting your ability to bank.”

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