“Baz?”
I clenched my teeth. “If I didn’t like you so much, I’d have quit helping you years ago.”
“You love me, bella. Admit it. Especially since I bring you treats from your favorite bakery in Milano.”
She pulled out a box from her handbag and handed it to me. Who the fuck keeps baked goods in a bag worth more than people’s homes?
Briana Amici, of course.
I took the box and opened the lid, inhaling the sweet scent of bomboloni, an Italian version of doughnut holes, and cream-filled cannolis. Pulling one of the doughnuts out, I quickly hid the box in one of my desk drawers and then took a big bite of the doughy piece of heaven.
My staff always seemed to find their way to my office after one of Bri’s visits and then would sucker me into sharing my stash of treats.
“Why are you here, Bri? Other than to annoy the crap out of me.”
She walked over to my door, shut it, and then strolled to the seat across from my desk before sitting down.
“There’s a hit out on Sebastian.”
I stopped chewing and set my treat on a napkin. “Say that again.”
“You heard me.”
“How do you know this?”
“Some of our tech sleuths heard chatter on the web.”
By “web,” she meant the dark web. The part of the Internet ninety-nine percent of the world never accessed but where the dirtiest, darkest, and most dangerous deals occurred, from arms deals and assassination plots to the bartering of humans.
“Why are you telling me and not him?”
“Because our association isn’t public knowledge.” She paused, and then continued. “And he wouldn’t believe me. Your husband is so used to having a target on his head, he doesn’t take any new threat seriously. He’s all business except when it comes to you. He deviated from the norm. He softened for you. He’ll listen to you.”
I found it hard to believe.
As if seeing my doubt, she said, “I’ve known him for the last five years. He handles his business efficiently and has a single-minded focus toward his goals. You are the one person he has put everything on hold for. He spent time with you, he got to know you, he showed you a side of him no one, I mean no one, has ever seen.”
The way she described Sebastian reminded me of Papa. The people he softened with were Mama and me.
“What do you expect me to do? We’ve been married less than a day.”
“I need you to get him out of town.”
“I can’t leave, I have multiple fucking businesses to run.”
“Your able-bodied staff is more than capable of handling them until we can determine who the threat is on his life.”
“Why is this so important to you?”
“I owe him, and I always pay my debts.”
“What did he do for you?”
“That is a need to know.” She stood, pulling out a folder from her bag and tossing it on my desk. “Look over these pieces and give me a price for appraisal.”
“I already told you I can’t do it.”
“You know you want to. You like the game of finding the fakes from the real thing.”
She was right, but I wasn’t going to admit it. I wasn’t secret-agent material, but it was a hell of a lot of fun to discover a master forger when no other person around had caught on.
“You’re so bossy.”
“That’s the only way to be, bella. Now get your man out of town.”
“You seem to think higher of my abilities than I do. And what excuse could I possibly give him?”
“Pretend you want to go on a honeymoon. You’re a princess, sometimes you need to act like one.”
I sobered as the gravity of why Bri wanted me to leave with Sebastian hit me. “I won’t lie to him. Lies are what caused the mess between us.”
“I swear, you’re so annoying with your ‘tell the truth’ ideals. Sometimes a little white lie keeps danger from invading one’s world.”
“Some people are trained to lie. I’m not. I suck at it.”
“That you do. Remember that time I told you to tell the art dealer his statue was a fake when it wasn’t? You nearly stuttered your way into a heart attack.”
I pinched my lips together. It was my one-and-only time working face-to-face with a target.
“I prefer to focus on my skills as a markswoman in stopping said dealer from running away with his stolen goods.”
“You shot the tires out of his car, from the roof of the building. I hardly think that was a good use of the hours I spent teaching you to handle a long-range rifle. If you’re going to shoot, shoot the perp, not the car.”
“You may have taught me to shoot, but Ana’s the one who honed my skills.”
“Well, she quit so now you’re stuck with me.”
“Whatever. I’m not going to lie to him.”
“I’m not telling you to lie. Besides, he’s like a human lie detector.”
“I really hate you sometimes.”
“It’s okay. I love you all the time.”
Sebastian
“What’s the emergency?” I said to Lucas as I returned to Jonas’s townhouse.
The last thing I wanted to do was come back to this godforsaken place. I had hours of calls to make to all of my family’s allies, informing them of the change in power.
But the cryptic text Lucas sent, saying, Urgent, get your ass back to the house and put a man on your bride, had me driving back in an hour and putting everything else on hold.
Assigning someone to protect Isa wasn’t a problem. I’d had a man on her since the moment I learned I was engaged to her. The combination of my people with her personal detail would keep her as protected as possible without keeping her under lock and key.
Instead of answering my question, Lucas said, “If you don’t kill him after this, I will. It’s in his bedroom.”
The thought of going into the room where the old man had spent the years since Mama’s death with his near-underaged girls made me want
