Reign (The Italian Cartel #3) - Shandi Boyes Page 0,31

get your girls. We play to play—”

“We kill to kill…” we say at the same time, “… and we take down any fucker stupid enough to get in our way.”

After whacking me in the chest with the back of his hand, reminding me I’m not as old as my body feels, he scoops up my keys from my desk, then moves for Roxanne’s bag by the door. His race down the hallway almost takes out Smith, who’s coming in the opposite direction. He’s balancing a laptop on his hand, the shadowing of gray under his eyes exposing his sleep was as lackluster as mine.

“You’ll want to see this,” Smith says after popping his head up from the screen of his first-of-its-kind laptop. When he spots Roxanne’s bag in Dimitri’s hand, his brows pinch. “Are we going somewhere?”

I jerk up my chin. “Can you tell me on the way?”

Nodding, he races back to his computer hub to grab chargers, another three laptops, and a gun. Rocco quirks his brow when he leans over a sleeping Ellie with his lips puckered. He almost kisses the tiny section of her forehead not covered by locks of shiny blonde hair but pulls back with barely a second to spare.

Instead of farewelling her as if the last two years never happened, Smith jots down a message on the notepad Ellie’s cheek is squashed against before spinning around to face Rocco and me.

“What?” he asks, frustrated by our silence. “Old habits are hard to give up.”

“It’s been over two years, Smitty,” Rocco says with a laugh.

Smith’s eyes snap to Rocco. “Yeah, and your point?”

Rocco steps back with his hands in the air, acting as if the words cracked out of Smith’s mouth were bullets. “I’m not sayin’ nuffin.”

I don’t follow his lead. “She can come with us if you want?”

We don’t know what we’re walking toward. For all we know, having a female on our team could come with great benefits. I’m a father, but I am still clueless when it comes to things like pregnancy and birth, not to mention kids. As far as I’m aware, Ellie doesn’t have any children, but with her little brother having the mind of a child, she understands them.

Smith takes a moment to consider my reply before shaking his head. “If this goes as deep as I’m thinking, I’d rather Ellie’s career not be tainted by it.”

“Are you sure, Smith?” Rocco questions, jumping back into the conversation. “If she gets booted from the Bureau, you’ll have no reason not to be together.”

His question is fair but only because he doesn’t know their breakup goes deeper than Ellie’s career choice.

“I’m sure.” Smith’s short reply reveals he doesn’t want to go into details with Rocco right now. I doubt it’s a conversation he wants to have in the next decade, he just won’t have a choice. Rocco is like a bull in a China shop when it comes to any relationship he isn’t a part of. “Do I need to organize transport, or is this another road-tripping adventure?”

The gargle the last half of his sentence arrived with reveals he’s praying we’re not taking the high road again. He’d rather hitchhike to where we’re going than be stuck in the back of his van with Rocco for another three hours.

“Silas is on standby,” I answer, slackening the groove between Smith’s brows by a smidge. “Make sure he’s ready to have wheels up in an hour.” Before Rocco can grill me about the delay—the private airstrip we use is only ten minutes from here—I nudge my head to a recently approved court appearance date circled on a notepad brimming with handwritten notes. “We need to make a stopover first.”

With his smile huge and his hands rubbing together like a crack dealer on payday, Rocco follows me out of the compound, aware who we’re visiting and more than happy to update Smith all about it.

17

Dimitri

“Where is he?” I ask no one, frustrated as fuck Agent James isn’t upholding his side of our agreement.

Brandon will have no chance in hell of convincing Isabelle to unknowingly do his ruse if he doesn’t support her during her arraignment for murder. It’s the people who stick by you during the bad times you protect the most. If Brandon doesn’t show up today, he’ll be struck off Isabelle’s friends’ list without delay.

It would have been the same for Rocco and me when news of Fien’s unkosher arrival circulated through my inner circle. He rocked up only hours later, drenching