Page 68 of Angel of Light (Lords of The Commission: New York #5)

“I discharged myself. Couldn’t miss my brother’s engagement party. Besides, Diego is a terrible patient. Since I couldn’t exactly use a gun in the hospital, this was the obvious choice.” He watched Alison and Lorenzo dance, his expression soft. “She’s good with him.”

“She’s good with everyone,” I replied. “How are you feeling?”

“Like I got shot,” he said with a weak laugh. “But alive. No thanks to you. My fiancé’s quite the shooter. Who knew?” He nodded towards Alison.

I shot him a warning side glance, but I could see the half-smirk hidden under his fake seriousness.

“ My fiancé is a badass queen. You’d see that if you weren’t too busy plotting her demise.”

“I never wanted her to get hurt. Even despite that, she still pulled that trigger to save me.”

“That’s because you’re her brother-in-law, and you know how the Battaglias are about family. That’s what family does.”

“Speaking of family,” Vincenzo said, “Camila wanted me to tell you thank you. For everything. For bringing her home, for helping us find our way back to each other.”

“She doesn’t need to thank me.”

“She does. And so do I.” He paused, then looked at me seriously. “I should apologize, too. For everything I put you through. For making you choose between loyalty and love. I was too blinded by hate.”

“You were too blinded by love. I know how that feels. We were both idiots. But we figured it out in the end.”

“Fucked up way of figuring it out.” He smiled, then winced as the movement pulled at his shoulder.

“Go be with your family.”

He nodded, then reached out and squeezed my hand. “Take care of her, Max. She’s special.”

“I know,” I replied. “I will.”

After Vincenzo left, I found myself standing at the edge of the dance floor, watching the people I loved most in the world celebrate.

Alison was now dancing with Adrian, their conversation animated and happy.

Jamie and Liam were swaying together in a corner, lost in their own world.

Francesca was laughing with Teresa, the two women bonding over something I couldn’t hear.

And in the middle of it all was Adrianne, her white dress shimmering in the light, her face bright with joy as she danced with Jimmy. She looked happy as she found her place in the family, the trauma of the day seemingly forgotten in the celebration.

“You look like you’re thinking deep thoughts,” Alison said, appearing at my side. “That might hurt.” She teased, making me give her a fake warning glare.

“Just thinking about how lucky I am,” I said, pulling her close. “A few hours ago, I thought I’d lost you forever. Now…”

“Now you’re stuck with me,” she finished, her eyes sparkling with mischief.

“Forever,” I agreed, the word becoming our promise.

The music changed to something slower, more intimate, and I led her onto the dance floor. We moved together like we’d been dancing our whole lives, every step coming naturally.

“I love you,” I whispered against her ear.

“I love you, too,” she replied. “So much that it scares me sometimes.”

“Good scared or bad scared?”

“The best scared,” she said with a laugh. “The kind that makes you want to jump off a cliff because you know someone will catch you.”

“I’ll always catch you,” I promised. “But don’t jump off cliffs, please. We’ve had enough commotion for the whole month.”

“Oh, smarty pants now, are you?”

We danced through several songs, stopping only when the music changed to something more upbeat. The party was in full swing now, people laughing and drinking and celebrating like the world hadn’t almost ended a few hours ago.

“Okay, everyone!” Jamie called out, standing on a chair to get everyone’s attention. “It’s time for a game!”

“Oh no,” Alison groaned beside me. “I know that look.”

“What look?” I asked.

“The ‘I’m about to embarrass everyone’ look,” she replied. “Jamie loves party games when she’s tipsy.”

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Jamie continued, “we’re going to play a little game called… What’s it called again, Ali?”

“Jesus Christ.” I muttered to myself, feeling the heat of quickly incoming embarrassment, “It doesn’t have a name.”

“Called, ‘It doesn’t have a name.’” Everyone erupted into laughter at her antics.

“Those of you who were at the hen party know the rules, but for everyone else…”

“This should be interesting,” Matt said.

Francesca pulled on Jamie’s dress, hoping to get her attention, “No sex stories this time.”

Everyone gathered in a circle, drinks in hand. Adrian raised an eyebrow at the proceedings but took a seat anyway. Even some of the security detail joined in, creating a large, chaotic circle in the middle of the dance floor.

“Where’s Adrianne?” Jamie asked suddenly, looking around the circle. “She should be here for this.”

We all looked around, and I felt a chill run down my spine. Adrianne was nowhere to be seen.

“When did anyone last see her?” Matt asked, his voice immediately shifting to business mode.

“She was dancing with Jimmy about twenty minutes ago,” Francesca said.

“I thought she went to the ladies’ room,” Teresa added.

Jimmy was already on his feet, panic flickering behind his eyes like wildfire. “I’ll check the–”

“No.” Matt’s voice boomed in that commanding tone that had everyone standing taller and alert, “We do this right. Follow protocol.” He turned, his gaze sweeping over our men scattered throughout the venue.

“James, take Marco. I need a full sweep of this building. Every room, every closet, every fucking corner. Now!”

The men moved like lightning, disappearing into different directions.

“Mike, Carl, secure the perimeter. Nobody gets in or out without my consent. Liam, take the terrace and check the parking structure. Jimmy–” There was reproval in the way he said his name.

“I’m going to find her,” Jimmy said, his voice raw. It was clear that he’d taken a liking to her, and from the look on Matt’s face, he was holding him responsible for not keeping an eye on her.

“You’re going to call her phone first,” Matt commanded.

Jimmy’s fingers were quick to find her contact. The phone rang once. Twice. Three times. Then nothing.

“Voicemail. I’m going to trace it.” Jimmy’s thumbs worked furiously on his phone, his brow furrowed as he concentrated on the screen. “Got it. It’s still here. In the building.”

“You put a tracker on her phone?” Alison asked.

“Should have put it in her damn arm,” Jimmy barked back, the guilt clearly consuming him from within.

“Fabio,” I barked, “Find her fucking phone!”

The seconds felt like hours. The celebration had died so fast it was like someone had flipped a switch, replacing music and laughter with the sharp efficiency of trained killers hunting for one of their own.

“Don Battaglia,” Fabio’s voice echoed from across the room a few minutes later. He jogged over, holding Adrianne’s phone between two fingers. “Found it under the gift table. The screen’s cracked like someone dropped it in a hurry.”

“Any signs of a struggle?” Francesca asked.

“Hard to tell with all the foot traffic.”

“Boss!” Mike came running from the back of the venue, something light blue dangling from his hand. “We found these by the service entrance. They were kicked under the curtains like someone was trying to hide them.”

“Those are her shoes,” Alison said, holding her emotions.

“Fuck,” Matt breathed, running his hands through his hair as he picked up his phone and set it on speaker as it rang. “James, report.”

“All clean, but there’s tire tracks by the back alley that look fresh.”

“Could she have left on her own? The shooting, everything we’ve been through, maybe it was too much too soon?” Alison asked, almost wishing that were the truth. Hurt as it might, it was still the better option.

Liam came back, shaking his head, indicating they hadn’t found anything.

“James, I need you to go check her apartment,” Matt ordered. “Look for anything suspicious. Check if her things are still there. It’s unlikely, but it’s best if we just cover all our bases.”

“On our way, Boss.”

Alison grabbed my hand, her engagement ring catching the light, making her look at it, concern written all over her beautiful features. “We just got our happy ending. We can’t lose her now.”

“We won’t,” I promised, though I wasn’t sure how I could keep that promise.

I had a sinking feeling in my stomach. After everything we’d been through, after all the danger we’d faced, the thought of someone taking Adrianne was like a nefarious fucking joke. Life couldn’t be that cruel, right?

“Boss! You need to see this!”

We all turned toward the voice. One of our men was standing by the wedding cake table, his face pale as death.

“Someone left us a gift.”

We rushed over as one unit. There, stabbed into the pristine white fondant of the three tier wedding cake, was what looked like a military-issue combat knife. It held a Polaroid photograph of Alison from tonight. Her smile was radiant, caught mid-laugh as she danced with me earlier.

But that wasn’t what made the temperature in the whole room drop to arctic freezing.

A military dog tag hung from the knife’s handle. I yanked it off as if it had personally wronged me. It was scratched and worn, with Cyrillic letters etched into the metal.

I twisted it between my fingers, inspecting the damn thing, hoping it would, by some miracle, gain a voice and speak its truth.

“There’s something written on it, but I don’t understand what it says. Francesca?” I called out, knowing she’d easily decipher the single word on it.

“ Spetsnaz, ” she said, her voice deadly sharp. “Russian Special Forces.”

Alison clutched my hand with force while Matt’s face went from pale to murderous in the span of a heartbeat.

Jimmy snatched the photo, and I watched his face crumble as he stared at Alison’s joyful expression. A moment of pure happiness, now turned into a threat.

“Did they… did they think she was me?” Alison’s voice cracked in both guilt and concern.