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“I’m so fucking tempted to take a picture of you just like this and send it to your piece of shit father.”

“Um, ew. No thank you,” I say, immediately raising my arms to cover myself the best I can.

Kato’s chuckle is deep as he tucks himself away in his slacks, pulling the zipper up and redoing his belt. “I scheduled a few appointments for you this week. Everyone’s coming here so you can plan the party the way you want.”

“Were you able to stop the announcement?”

He scoffs and rolls his eyes. “Was I able to call a newspaper and tell them to retract my order before it went out? I figured you thought more of me than that.”

“Yeah, yeah. You’re the big, bad Kato Antoniou and all should fall to their knees in fear,” I tease.

He leans closer until he’s hovering his face over mine. “Keep it up and I’ll have you on your knees begging for mercy.” And then he does as he did in the beginning when he was being acomplete and total dickhead and presses the sweetest kiss to my lips.

Smirking at him, I stretch my arms over my head and look at him through my lashes. “Promise?”

Chapter 24

Maddox

“This is bullshit,” I grumble as I watch Kato chatting with one of the men in the three lines.

Some shit has been going missing. As in, our cargo has been short lately and we’re not sure whether the assholes we’ve partnered with are trying to fuck us over or if one of the people we have on our payroll has been helping themselves.

The only thing the three of us refuse to be involved with is the skin trade. I don’t give a fuck if a woman chooses to sell her pussy to make money, but that whole trafficking bullshit is downright disgusting.

I might have taken out my anger over the loss of Everest on a few traffickers and rapists over the years.

“Quit bitching,” Brix mutters back to me.

We’re far enough away no one can hear us, but we still have to put on airs, looking as though we’re two seconds from taking someone’s life.

Which, honestly…I really am. Because whoever the fuck is causing this bullshit is keeping me from Everest.

Yeah. I have a job to do and all that shit. But we just got her back, damn it. I want to spend every waking second with her, not standing in this cold as fuck warehouse surrounded by men who look as though they’re struggling not to piss their pants.

It’s not only the fact I’d rather be with Everest than here. There are people in our house. They’re there with her and we’re not.

Okay, yeah. There are guards watching over her, both inside and out. We’d intentionally left Dimitri and Karolos – our two most trained and trusted guards – to stay inside while the planners or whoever the fuck she called in were there.

Flora invited herself. Or Everest invited her, I don’t know. Flora tends to have her own security when she’s out and about too, since her father is the Pakhan, the position Dima Sidorov has dreamed of as long as I’ve known him.

I wonder if the Pakhan is aware of the way Dima treated his own daughter. Not a whole lot of mafia parents care about their kids for anything more than an heir to the dynasties and empires they build, but Flora actually has decent parents who give a shit about her. Her mother didn’t treat her like competition and was a good person until the day she was caught up in crossfire when someone was gunning for her husband.

The Pakhan has always been super protective of his only child, his princess, but even more so since his wife was murdered.

Hence the constant security detail.

That shit used to piss off Dima, knowing the Pakhan didn’t trust one of his soldiers to keep his daughter safe and sent his own men. But I get it. When I finally have a kid – especially if I have a daughter – no chance in hell will they go anywhere without a gaggle of armed guards.

Everest will be fine. There are guards, and I highly doubt the event planners want to risk having their throats cut for fucking with our girl when they could be making bank by catering to Everest’s vision for the engagement party and wedding.

Damn. In a matter of weeks, Everest will officially be Everest Antoniou. She will forever be tied to us…by fucking law.

Divorce in our world – nah. That shit rarely happens. The wives know far too much. If for some reason their husband dies or ends up in prison for life, they end up marrying someone else in the syndicate.

Not Everest. We’ll make sure if something happens to the three of us, she’s set for fucking life. The guards will stay on our payroll long after we’ve been put in the ground to keep away any and every asshole who thinks they can stake a claim on her after our deaths.

Has Kato bothered informing her of any of this yet? Doubtful. He finally pulled his head out of his ass long enough to hear what Everest had to say, to hear the reason for her disappearance only after she smashed his balls with her knee.