Gray moves out of the picture, but not before his fiancée throws him a look over her shoulder.
“Thank you,” Daniela gushes, her voice filled with emotion.
“You don’t need to thank me. Compared to some of the extractions I’ve done, this is a walk in the park. Send us the apartment address, and a list of anything you want us to pack. Valentina’s at school?”
“Yes. Until eight o’clock.”
“Send us the name and address of the school too. Also, call them and have them hold Valentina until I get there. Give them permission to release her to me.”
“You’ll go, yourself?” Daniela asks, her voice wobbling again. “Will you stay with her until I get there?”
“Daniela,” Delilah purrs. “I promise you that I’ll be the one who goes to pick her up. Tell the school her mama had an accident, you’re out of the country, and you’re sending friends for Valentina. I’ll take Gray with me. His daddy was kind of a big deal and people tend to do whatever he asks.”
“Except for you,” Gray mutters in the background.
“We have you covered,” Delilah continues, ignoring him. “We’ll be in touch every step of the way. No one, I meanno one, is going to harm a hair on your baby’s head. That’s a promise.”
She’s so adamant, I almost believe it myself.
“When you see Valentina,” Daniela explains, “say something—it can be anything—about brown M&Ms, and she’ll know it’s safe to go with you. It’s our emergency code.”
An emergency code.MyPrincesais full of surprises. I have an emergency code too, as do my top men, in case we’re ever in a hostage situation.
“Brown M&Ms it is.” Delilah nods. “Now let’s get off, so we can make the necessary travel arrangements. We’ll pick a rendezvous point, and we’ll be in touch. Work it out with the school, and then take a big breath and try to relax. She’ll be in your arms before you know it.”
“Antonio,” Gray drawls. “I’d like a private word with you once the ladies are done.”
Sure you would. More like you want to shove your boot up my ass.
“We’re done,” Delilah chirps, passing him the phone. “But don’t spend all day gossiping, darlin’. We’ve got work to do.”
8
ANTONIO
“Are we off speaker?” Gray asks.
“Yeah.”
“Before I send my fiancée into a shitstorm, I’d like to know who you think might be killing people.”
“Is she up for this?” I ask, gauging his reaction.
“Delilah? Is she up for it?Pfft.She’s up to kicking your ass all over town without breaking a sweat. Don’t let the angelic face and sexy drawl fool you. She was a deadly covert agent for the CIA, and now she’s the shining star of Sinclair’s team. So yeah, she’s up for it. That’s not a concern. What I’m worried about is that there’s no time to gather our own intel, because the rescue can’t wait. I’m relying on you to give us everything you have. Even if it’s a hunch. I don’t want to be blindsided.”
“I’ll tell you what I know. It’s not much, but my best people are on it, and we’ll pass information along in real time. If Tomas knows about Valentina, he’ll do anything to get his clutches into her. But as Daniela told you, it’s unclear whether he knows she’s his child. And even if he does, he’s barely capable of tying his shoelaces without help.”
“But you think he has help.”
“There’s valuable property at stake—with the potential for a foreign entity to gain a foothold in the region. I’m concerned about the Eastern Europeans. Mainly the Russians, who’ve been dying to expand their operations in Porto.”
“Are we talking state sponsored, or something else?”
“It’s all state sponsored as far as I’m concerned.”
“Isn’t that the truth,” he groans.
“There are two oligarchs living in the valley, and thePakhanof the Elite Division of the European Bratva has made Porto his home. I don’t think there’s any love lost between them, and I would be surprised if they saw Tomas as anything more than a useful idiot. But any one of them is capable of using him to gain ground in the region. My biggest concern is that Valentina might become a pawn in a property battle.”