A feminine chuckle burst through the line. “Yep, that’s me. What’s up?”
“Uh, hey, Lizzie.” Only a year or so younger than him, he tried to recall the last time he’d seen Lizzie. He remembered playing with her when they were kids at various parties and picnics. “This is Lucas.”
“Who? Wait, hold on.” There was shuffling and then a shout of, “No, Dad, I will not turn off that racket … yes it’s music, and I need it to work … you know what, I’m going to turn it up louder.” The music he heard in the background became a full-out cacophony of wailing guitars and cymbals. A second later, he heard a thunder of footsteps, a muffled male voice, then a loud crash before the music completely stopped.
“Seriously, Dad? That was my favorite speaker.” Lizzie let out an incredulous gasp. “You have no chill! Ugh!” There was a deep breath. “Sorry, who is this again?”
“Lucas,” he repeated. “Lucas Anderson.”
“Lucas—” Another gasp, then a nervous giggle. “Oh. Hey. Mr. Anderson.”
“Lizzie, please. I watched you streak down the backyard of our Long Island house during our annual Fourth of July barbecue. You can call me Lucas.”
“I was like, a toddler, right?” she asked.
He laughed. “Yeah. You were probably six.”
“Oh, good.” There was a pause. “So, what’s up, Lucas?”
“Astrid gave me your number. She said you were the best hacker around.”
“Weeeeelllll, I don’t know if I’m the best, but I’m flattered you called me anyway,” she said with a chuckle. “So, what can I do for you? Do you need me to hack into some secret government files? Or change your competitors’ stock prices? Or maybe I can help you overthrow a South American dictator?”
“You can wha—you know what? Never mind, I don’t want to know.” He rubbed the bridge of his nose with his fingers. “I just need you to find some information for me about someone. Anthony Bianchi.”
She cleared her throat. “Um, you mean the Don of the Bianchi Crime Family and current guest of the New York State Penitentiary System?”
“Yes, that one.”
“I need you to be more specific. What kind of information do you want on him? About his childhood? Business dealings? What he had for lunch?” she asked.
“You need specifics?”
“If you don’t give me specifics, it’ll be like walking around in the dark. Unless you want to know everything about him, but that might take a while to compile.”
“Oh, I see.” That made sense. But where to begin? He supposed he only needed to know one thing about him. “Well, if you could cross-reference anything important about him that happened in the last year before he was arrested and the name Sofia Selinofoto. I mean, Detective Sofia Selinofoto of the NYPD.”
“Uh-huh.” There were audible clicks on a keyboard in the background. “Gotcha. I’ll see what I can do.”
“Thank you. Let me know your fee, and I’ll take care of it.”
She chuckled. “Fee? Nah, I won’t even break a sweat with this one.”
“I insist—”
“Pshaw, don’t worry about it.”
He didn’t want to have her work for free. “Well, how about we say I owe you one?”
“A favor?”
“Sure. You can ask me a favor anytime.”
There was silence on the other line, as if she was contemplating it. “Okay, that sounds fair.”
“And, Lizzie,” he lowered his voice. “This is just between you and me, okay?”
“My lips are sealed,” she promised. “I’ll work on this right away. And if you ever need to destabilize a government—”
“I’ll know who to call,” he said wryly. He gave her his personal cell phone to call once she found anything interesting, then hung up after saying goodbye.
Maybe he was being overly cautious or even paranoid, but if anything happened to Sofia, he wasn’t sure what he’d do. His wolf seemed restless, pacing inside him, like it was nervous, angry, and excited at the same time. It wanted him to do … something. But what? He had done what he could to protect Sofia without pushing her away.
He turned to his computer, hoping to get some work done. It was going to be a long two days without Sofia. Maybe he should call her—
A soft beep interrupted his thoughts and he grabbed his phone. It was a message from Sofia.
I barely made it to work on time.
He grinned and replied, You’re welcome.
She sent back a rolling eye emoji.
He thought for a moment, then replied, That was the expression on your face this morning before you got up to leave.
You’re evil, Mr. Anderson, she replied.
I aim to please, Detective Selinofoto.
The rest of the day seemed agonizingly slow, but the flirty messages they sent back and forth made him less antsy about their separation. Later in the evening, she sent a message saying she was about to go on the stakeout and she was about to turn her phone off. He replied and asked her to message him as soon as she was off-duty.
He glanced at the clock and realized that it was eight-thirty. Pressing the button on the intercom on his desk, he called his assistant. “David, are you still there?”
“Yes, Mr. Anderson.”
Huh, he usually didn’t stay as late as he did. “You didn’t have to wait for me, you know.”
“I, er, have work to do, sir. And Mrs. Vrost left you a message.”
Right. “And?”
“She said you can go home to the townhouse. She has someone covering you there and you should just have your driver drop you off.”
“Excellent. Have the car ready for me. I’m headed home.”
“Congratulations, Alpha,” declared the leader of the Lycan High Council.
The reverent silence in the room was broken by loud cheers. Even Lucas found himself clapping and whistling in happiness as Adrianna was finally proclaimed Alpha of New Jersey. Everyone surrounded the new Alpha. When Gio declared that it was time to eat, everyone filed out of the living room and into the dining room.
Not really feeling hungry, he let everyone crowd the buffet table and sought out a quiet corner. Last
