Page 75 of Ruthless

She squirms beneath my hold. “But the level four override can only be initiated from the hardwired terminal in the security room. Which means…”

I nod grimly. “The call is coming from inside the house.”

Chapter 29

Sara

“Well,bella.” Marco lifts my arm and encourages me to spin for him. “If I’m dead, it’s because your ass in those jeans sent me right to heaven.” Clutching his chest, he glances up at the sky as if seeing divine light.

I twirl in a circle while biting back a laugh. Dante cautioned me about his brother’s “unmitigated flirting” before he invited him to the house to act as part of my personal guard, but even with the warning, I’m wholly unprepared to deal with Marco’s lighthearted flattery over the next several days. On top of his devastatingly handsome features, Marco isn’t shy about enjoying himself, contrary to his brother’s tendency toward the fun police.

The suave, honey-tongued charm is pure testament to Marco’s undeniable charm, though I try not to let on because it’ll just encourage him. Gratuitous compliments aside, having Marco around after the attack is a breath of fresh air.

An attack that seemed coordinated for the sole purpose of capturingme, though we still don’t know who or why. Gregor and Luca pulled a barely alive man from the carnage and transported him upstairs to the interrogation room on the fifth floor just as red and blue lights flashed outside.

Dante worked on him for a full twenty-four hours and then the captive succumbed to his injuries a day later. While the “who” and “why” remains a mystery, it doesn’t change the fact that if I’m in danger, Jeremy could be as well.

When I express my concerns to Marco, Dante’s younger brother delivers my phone, and I talk to Jeremy for almost an hour. Guilt gnaws at me whenever Jeremy asks questions about a nonexistent position at a nonexistent hospital, but the fabrication is worthwhile just to hear him rave about a new work project and share his silly jokes again.

The next morning, Marco assigns three of his own men to keep an eye on my apartment in Brooklyn just in case anyone from the Council tries to pay Jeremy a visit, and I sleep a little easier that night.

For all his teasing, Marco is as adept as his brother in a lot of ways. Even while nursing a hangover. His word is law, and he commands his men in the same ruthless manner, leaving no room for dissent or argument. I understand why Dante trusts in his brother’s abilities, despite his displeasure with all the partying and drinking.

When the police knocked on the door following the attack, my entire body tensed. I was sure someone was headed to jail. Maybe even me, though all I did was hit a man with an umbrella, threaten another man’s future children, and hide. To my surprise, the police barely glanced around before excusing themselves.

When Marco hiccups loudly, the detective glances between him and the liquor bottles we had lined up along the fireplace like trophies, closes his little notepad, and leaves. I ask Dante what we’ll do when the police test for DNA, and he scoffs. “That’s what we pay our informants on the force to deal with.”

Okay…yikes.

When I ask Gregor the same question a little later, he simply shrugs. “It’s actually a good thing the cops are sniffing around. They won’t find anything, and with the NYPD watching the place, it buys us time to figure out a game plan. I’m sure the boss has something in mind.”

Gregor’s words spook me, though overall, I’m surprised by how easily I’m handling all of this. I guess my years working in the ER left me unflappable to a certain extent.

Luca is tasked with rewiring the motherboard, or maybe scrubbing a wired terminal? Something along those lines. Meanwhile, Dante turns the townhome upside down in his search for the mole. No guard or staff member is spared his interrogations, even if they have a bulletproof alibi from that night. He might not say so aloud, but I can see just how shaken he is by the betrayal of one of his own.

And when he finally relents and puts me on the medical team, I know he’s desperate.

He’s more solicitous toward me too. One night in bed, he brushes my hair back from my face, his gaze soft. “You’ll be safe there. Marco or one of his men will be stationed just outside whenever you’re working. Talk to the other nurses and anyone who comes in for treatment. See what you can figure out.”

“You mean it?”

After the attack, Dante put me in a spare bedroom on the fourth floor. The space is opposite his, and compared to my grim little cell, could pass as the Taj Mahal.

One afternoon, he even took me over to Fifth Avenue to shop. While Chanel and Bergdorf’s are a little out of my league, I was able to find some practical clothes at Neiman Marcus. I also picked up a few things to decorate my new room with, some Egyptian cotton bedsheets, and an overstuffed chair that Marco helped me position by the window so I can admire the tree-lined view of the street below.

It almost feels like home

At my question, Dante nods and takes my hand. “You have a way with people. If anyone has a chance of finding this fucker, it’s you. Be careful though, Sara. If the mole is one of the Council’s rodents, there’s no telling the lengths they’ll go to just to carry out orders. So far, only you, me, Luca, and Marco know this information. Keep your inquiries discreet. You can do this.”

His belief in my ability to succeed infuses me with a warm glow.

When I start at the clinic, the other nurses take to me right away. I also build up an easy rapport with most of the guards, though I haven’t had a chance to speak with them at length yet. I keep Angela out of it. She’s already done so much to help me that I can’t bring myself to drag her into my investigation. Luckily, I gather most of my intel through casual conversation, so it’s simple enough to hide my true purpose.

With Dante busy and his forces cut nearly in half after the ambush, Marco brings some of his own people in to help strengthen defenses in case of another infiltration. I get to know some of them, too, but I’m mainly focused on Dante’s soldiers and his personal guard detail. I love being useful to Dante, but more than anything, it’s good to dive back into what I know best, which is nursing. Following the attempted abduction, Dante started providing me with opportunities every day to check-in with Jeremy, which does a lot to alleviate my stress.

The hunt for the Ghost takes a reluctant back seat after the events of the other night. Still, Dante and Luca carve out pockets of time to try and decipher the letter we found in my purse from the evening of the Conti benefit. Between that and my work, I hardly see him at all.

When I’m not occupied at the clinic, I spend the late afternoons in the Red Room, Dante’s common space on the first floor, where everything from the luxurious carpets tothe brocade wallpaper are bedecked in sumptuous hues of burgundy, crimson, and cherry.