21
Dante
“I want footage inside the DeLuca house,” I say. I’m not satisfied with the audio equipment. I need more. Something that I can use on Gino to destroy him.
But how?
And what?
I sit at my desk, sinking into the midnight-black leather. I rake my fingers over the wood grains of the desk. I’m distracted.
Nikki has distracted me.
If I’m not careful, she could get me killed.
It’s why I called a meeting with Moreno. I need his expertise and to bounce an idea off of him. I trust him above all others not only to have my back but to tell me when I’m fucking up or wrong.
“Boss,” Moreno says and clears his throat. He’s been talking, but I haven’t been listening.
I glance up at him. It’s just the two of us.
“We can send in Halsey,” Moreno says. “He knows the layout of the house, and he’s already been inside once and got the job done. Besides, Breckenridge is small, the cable company doesn’t have that many service techs. Gino will start noticing if every tech coming to his house is of Italian descent.”
Shit.
He has a point.
“I’ll think about it,” I say.
I’m still waiting to hear from the Russians.
The DeLuca’s have their own private security system. If we can hack in and have remote access then I won’t have to worry about risking my men.
It’s easy solution but it will cost me a favor.
I rub the back of my neck. I’m tired. I didn’t get enough sleep. Putting Nikki back in her bedroom, I had thought would help me sleep. It didn’t. Instead, I smelled her scent all over my pillow and sheets.
I’ll need to have the sheets changed and washed. Will that get her scent out of the room?
“Can we discuss Nicole?” Moreno asks.
He wouldn’t bring her up unless there was something bothering him. He knows when to keep his mouth shut, which concerns me that he isn’t doing so now.
“What is there to discuss? As you know, she’s pregnant. I’m not just sending her off with my child, never to hear from again.”
That isn’t open for discussion.
If Moreno thinks keeping Nikki here is a bad idea, he will be in for a rude awakening. She isn’t leaving until I set her free.
“She believes you’re the bad guy.”
“In case you missed the memo, I’m no saint.”
Moreno rolls his eyes and leans back in the chair across from me. It tips back just slightly off the ground. “Yeah, well, my concern is that Gino has a plan that we haven’t seen, and when he comes for Nicole, she’ll be ready to go with him and give him all your secrets.”
I’ve already thought that through. “Why do you think I keep her contained to her bedroom?” I don’t let her anywhere near my locked office or my men. There is a guard who accompanies her to the kitchen, but that’s the only place she’s been allowed to roam except when she snuck out the other night.
That wasn’t going to happen again.