my knuckles.
I added something else to the list for retribution. Forgive me, Willow, but I’m going to maim your brothers. How you thought I was an asshole in light of their behavior, we need to discuss. But they are awful, I said to her mentally.
Talking to her, even knowing she couldn’t hear me, kept me sane. Stable enough to do the work required of me. Eager enough to keep searching even though we’d gone down at least three wrong paths so far.
Thankfully, I hadn’t been out with the Amatuccis or their men on those hunts. No, the dubious pleasure of remaining here with Rafe had been my fate. Luckily he didn’t like messing up his own work. If he’d been less finicky, I probably would have more holes than when Massimo got his hands on me again.
The ping signal died without anything to hit. I shook my head. “Phone’s still off.”
Massimo paced away, his fingers clenching and relaxing around his knife’s hilt. Rapid, husky, whispered Italian flowed through the room. His brothers snorted and nodded.
Willow, baby, we’re going to start learning Italian, poste fucking haste.
Luckily, I hadn’t gotten too far into Crazy Town that I was able to answer for her mentally, but I kinda wished the conversations weren’t so one-sided. I was trying not to imagine her reactions. Her facial expressions.
“What else do we know about Dr. Bout to Die?” I asked again.
The Amatucci brothers were some of the most closed-mouth people I’d ever met. I could understand it, logically. But we were literally fighting for their adopted sister’s life. I’d think that would loosen their lips.
But no. I’d lost their trust. I wasn’t even on the fringes of their outer circle, let alone close enough to the inner circle to be given free info.
“You’ve got your own dossier. Find your own leads,” Domenico said, his voice a low growl. His phone rang—again. He snatched it up, put it to his ear, and walked out of my home office. “Go,” he said.
To use any of the information Nik had pulled together, I would have to call her and get her to decrypt it. I wasn’t sure I could pull that off. Not at the moment. Not with what I needed from her.
I tried to get their help once again. “If one of you would just call Nik, I can give you the code that will get her to release the information to me.”
“Call her your fucking self, asshole,” Turo said.
I lost it. They were stonewalling me. I knew why. Would probably do so if I were in their shoes. But that wasn’t helping any of us find Willow. “Pull the sticks out of your asses before I beat you to death with them. You want me to find Willow? Then pull the phone out of your pocket, call my guy, and get me access. I’ve told you, if I make the call, Nik is going to know something’s wrong with me. Unless you want NTPD showing up, you’ve got to make the call.” I bit each word off carefully.
I wanted to make sure there were no misunderstandings—although how there could be with the tenth time of repeating the same information was beyond me. I gritted my teeth and clenched my fingers together to keep from letting my fists fly again. I’d learned my lesson the first time.
Rafe sidled over, his face pinched and tight. “Give me her fucking number. This doesn’t work out, I’m stabbing you with a scalpel.”
I rattled off the number, held my breath as I waited for Nik to answer. It rang four times. Just as it started on the fifth, she answered. Out of breath and angry with it.
“Tell me your name so I can make sure to spell it right on your tombstone, you cocksucker. I was in the middle of something great. You’ve got ten seconds before I obliterate your digital world around your feet.”
“Rafael Amatucci. I would suggest you not try to threaten me. I’ve got a message from Penn. Alpha-Three-Zulu-Zulu-One-Zero-Four-Charlie.”
“Why didn’t you just start with that, you dumb fuck?” she spat. Her breathing picked up over the line.
“Because you’re a bossy woman who doesn’t know when to keep her mouth shut?” Rafe suggested.
I felt my eyes widen as I thanked my lucky stars I wasn’t in the vicinity of her expert Brazilian Jiu Jitsu feet. I smirked when I thought of Rafe and Nik meeting in person for the first time though. That was going to be an amazing encounter. I