65. Antonio

We haven’t been able to smoke out Nikitin. Jake and I gave him plenty of opportunities to believe he could get to me in Marrakesh, and later, in Casablanca. We were all over social media, broadcasting our whereabouts, but he never even tried.

Now we’re left with the damn party that I hoped to avoid.

Will’s team isn’t convinced he’ll actually show his face, and they might be right. But we all believe he has something planned. No one believes it more than me. I feel it in my bones.

“I can’t believe he’s going to wait for the party,” Lucas mutters. “It’s a riskier plan for him than it is for us.”

Lucas and I are on a conference call with Cristiano, checking in like we do every day to keep him in the loop and run details by him. The distance gives him perspective that we don’t have.

“The actual party is risky for everyone,” Cristiano says soberly. “Although you’ll have a lot of people on the ground. But I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Nikitin makes a move before the event, like he did during the harvest.”

I wouldn’t be at all surprised either.We know he hired the hitman I shot in the tent. Lucas traced the payment to one of Nikitin’s offshore accounts.

“It’s what he knows,” Cristiano adds. “Don’t forget, he’s an oligarch, not Bratva. Without funds and his government’s backing, he doesn’t have what it takes to be original.”

Lucas’s phone buzzes, and he gets up. “I need to check on something. I’ll be right back.”

“Go. I think we’re done, anyway.”

“Have you heard anything from Daniela?” I ask Cristiano before we end the call, because I’m a fucking pussy.

“She’s holding up—like she always does for Valentina. I haven’t spoken with her. I only know what I hear through Duarte, Santi, and Mia. My mother is pissed at you about the photos, so she’s not speaking to me.”

“I’ll talk to Alma when I get back.”

“My mother will get over it. But—” He pauses.

“Say it. Whatever it is, just say it.”

“You’re not going to like it.”

I’m well aware.“Just fucking tell me what’s on your mind.”

“If you don’t get Nikitin, or even if you do and for some reason it’s not over, you need to stop for a breath and take care of your relationship with Daniela. Relationships are like people. They can only take a certain amount of battering before they’re dead. It doesn’t matter if the beating comes from a well-intentioned place or a sworn enemy. Trauma is trauma. Not everything can be revived—or forgiven. Before you left town, you did some serious damage.”

He didn’t say one thing that I haven’t mulled over—and over. Daniela might not forgive me. Deep down, I know I’m her destiny, just as she’s mine. But fated lovers often find tragic endings.

Forgiveness? I’m not sure. I knew it was a huge risk when I hatched the plan. I don’t want to lose her. I’ll suffer her loss until the day I die.

But I made two decisions as I sat watching her sleep the morning I told her to get out: her long-term safety and peace of mind was more important than having her beside me, and that I wouldn’t hold her against her wishes, ever again. I stand by those decisions. And I will stand by them if it fucking kills me.

Lucas storms in, before I can respond. “There are two men at the gate from an HVAC company. They’re here to repair the air conditioning.”

“Air conditioning repair?” I ask, suspicion curling around each word. “It seems to be working fine to me.”

“I think so, too,” Lucas adds. “It was so cold last night I thought my balls were going to freeze and fall off.”

“Any chance one of them is Nikitin?” I’d love to get that bastard today, so I can go home and start trying to put things right with my wife. The longer it goes on, the worse it will be.

“No.” Lucas shakes his head. “That we know. Will’s people are running their pictures through facial recognition software, but it could take awhile.”

“Call me back,” Cristiano says, concern in his voice. “This needs your full attention.”

“Who contacted them?” I ask, ending the call.

“They claim the owner of the house phoned them when we rented it. The system has been on the fritz, and she thought that we’d need it fully functioning before the party.”

When the house was rented, we made a big deal with the rental agent about the place being lavish and in pristine condition, because we were going to throw an A-list party while we were here. But this is suspicious as fuck. “Has anyone confirmed with the owner or the HVAC company?”

“Can’t reach the owner. The woman from the company wasn’t sure who had contacted them. She confirmed the identity of one of the repairmen. She suggested the other could be an apprentice. I didn’t speak with her, but from what I was told, she sounds like someone who doesn’t pay close attention to details.”

“Are they still at the gate?”

Lucas nods. “They have no weapons or explosives, and they appear to have equipment that would be used by an HVAC company. The consensus is we should let them in and see what they’re up to. It could be nothing.”

It’s not nothing.

“Let them in. The sooner the better, before they change their minds.”

“There are feeds all over this place,” Lucas continues, “but we don’t know their game. I agree we need to let them in, but I don’t like it. You should leave the property.”

“I’m not going fucking anywhere.”