“Darius! I’m so glad to see you,” Mila said as she rushed out of the driver’s side of the van.
“I do not have time for your bullshit today. Get out of my way. I need to see Anatoli.”
“No!” She grabbed his arm, yanking him back when he tried to get past her. “What are you doing here? Where is Adrianna? Are you going back to her afterwards?”
“It’s none of your business.”
“No! You can’t go back to her!”
While he knew she wouldn’t like him going back to Adrianna, there was something about her tone that said it wasn’t because of jealousy. There was a tinge of real fear in her voice. “And what if I do go back to her?”
“Do not! Not if you value your life.” There it was again, her scent covered with a sheen of distress.
“What do you know?” he roared, grabbing her arms. “Tell me.”
“I was driving back to warn you!” She looked at him with pleading eyes.
“Warn me about what?”
“I only overheard … Anatoli said he would be taking care of the Alpha’s heir today. And I was scared that you would be in the way.” She slid her hands up his chest, cupping his jaw. “Please Darius. I don’t want you to get hurt too.”
He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Anatoli really did mean to harm Adrianna. But why? It didn’t matter. Rage burned through him, and his wolf urged him to leave and go to her. “Do not tell anyone I was here,” he warned Mila.
“Or what?”
“Or I will tell Anatoli you were eavesdropping and you warned me about any impending attack on Adrianna.”
He didn’t wait for her to protest. Instead, he hopped back into his car and backed it up, driving toward the highway like the devil himself was at his back.
What was Anatoli going to do? Real fear gripped him. Where was Adrianna now? He reached for his phone and dialed her number. No answer. Of course, she could be mad about last night. He tried the office, but it rang and rang, and no one answered. Strange. Giselle was usually efficient. Now he was really worried.
It would take him at least three hours to get to Manhattan, and probably more if he hit the traffic going into the city. Adrianna might not even be there. He didn’t know who else to call.
Wait.
There was one another number that he had programmed into his phone. He said a quick prayer before hitting the dial button.
“Hello?” came Julianna’s voice.
“It’s me, Darius,” he said. “Where is she?”
“So, did you change your mind?” Loathing dripped from every word that Julianna uttered.
“Change my mind?”
“Adrianna said you decided to leave and go back to your uncle.”
“We had a misunderstanding,” he said. “Where is she?”
She let out a harrumph. “There was an emergency,” she said.
“What emergency?”
“Not that you would care, but there was an explosion in Muccino’s in Washington D.C. She left at around three o’clock this morning. It’s an all hands on deck type of situation.”
“Is she all right?”
“Probably overworked, but yeah. But she’s staying there tonight.”
Maybe this emergency was a blessing in disguise and it would be better if she were far away from New Jersey, where Anatoli wouldn’t be able to get to her. “I should go see her and make sure she’s … protected.”
“You stay away from her,” Julianna bit out. “I don’t care what misunderstanding you had, but she was not herself when she came in last night. I don’t know what happened, but I know you had something to do with it.”
“Your sister can tell me herself if she wants me to stay away,” he said. “Right now, her safety is my priority.” He turned the phone off and tossed it onto the passenger’s seat. He pressed his foot to the pedal and kept his eyes on the road. Please, he said to any god who could hear him. Let her be safe.
Chapter Fourteen
Adrianna had never been so exhausted in her entire life. The call came in shortly after midnight. It was a good thing she’d been tossing and turning for hours when her phone rang, but she didn’t expect to be brought out of bed in such a panic.
Sometime after midnight, a gas line exploded in the kitchen of Muccino’s in D.C., just as the crew was cleaning up for the evening. Four workers had died and half a dozen more hurt. Her mother and uncle Dante were both in Rome, so she was the only one who could go there to deal with the crisis.
The plane was fueled and ready in record time, and she made it to D.C. in the wee hours of the morning. It was a good thing she and her family had good relations with Senator Gerald Burns, the Alpha of Virginia and D.C, so she was able to come and go into the territory without having to ask for permission to enter. The senator even had a car ready to pick her up and bring her into the city.
There was no time to wallow in pain or soothe her aching heart because she was the face of the company now; she had to be strong for her employees and their families. There were press statements to approve, news interviews to schedule, calls to take and field, and more important, employees to visit in the hospital and grieving families to console. Compared to their suffering, the pain in her heart at Darius’s rejection couldn’t come close. Besides, it was her own damn fault for letting her feelings get too deep when it was obvious he was only after one thing this whole time.
“Ms. Anderson?”
She looked up at Joan Miller, the manager of the D.C. Muccino’s branch. The middle-aged woman looked worse for wear, but she imagined she looked pretty similar herself. “You should go home, Joan.”
“I will if you will,” she said.
She gave her a weak smile. “I’m
