Page 146 of Ruthless Sin
She holds. Dante’s hold. Papa’s hold.
I press my forehead into her hair. The smell of her shampoo. The smell of Mama’s sweater. Mama-and-sister at once. Grief. Years of it. Somebody knows. My chest eases a quarter inch.
I let myself stay there.
When I step back my throat is tight and my eyes are dry. Hers are not. She wipes her face with the cuff of the sweater.
She says, “I love you, Nico.”
She hasn’t said it to me in years.
“I love you too,” I say.
It’s the easiest thing I’ve said all morning.
She nods. Steps back.
“Marco is waiting. Go.”
I go.
Cassia is at the corner between the corridor and the back room hallway.
She doesn’t stop me or say anything.
She puts her hand briefly on my elbow as I pass. She walks past me toward the kitchen.
I keep walking.
The back room.
Marco at the comms station. Izzy at her laptop. The board has shifted since yesterday. New flags. New routes. New names. The protocols Dante set in motion are running.
Marco looks up.
“Casa Lucia is on full lockdown. Cassia closed intake. New badges installed at the gates. The reception position is the new man I vetted last week. Algiers property in lockdown too. Compound security doubled at every entrance.”
He doesn’t ask if I’m here to add to the orders.
He’s reporting.
I let him.
“Bratva movement?”
Izzy. “Two of Alexei’s known associates landed in Houston since yesterday. One more in Miami this morning. He’s moving people. We have eyes on all three. They haven’t moved toward us yet.”
“The Romanian. The leak.”
Marco. “Pulled in. Gia has her in the medical wing. Cassia’s coordinating the sister out of Naples. The shell is the same one that took Andrei Volin’s sister out. Clean.”
“The Moscow courier.”
“Already talked. He didn’t know what he was carrying. He carried it for cash. He gave us the wholesaler. Izzy is on the wholesaler.”
I nod.
“And Marco.”
