Page 30 of Ashes

She removed her noise-canceling headphones. “What do you want?” she asked, never taking her eyes off the screen.

“To apologize?”

“Was that a question or a statement?” she asked, spinning her desk chair to face me.

Kai chuckled, the sound of his mockery reverberating off the walls. I glared at him over my shoulder before turning my attention back to her.

“A statement,” I replied hesitantly. I shouldn’t be this nervous and I was technically her boss, but she wasn’t one to cross. Besides, I’d stepped over the line by taking my issues out on her. I huffed. “Listen, I’m sorry. I was mad and took it out on you.”

She pushed the bridge of her glasses back into their position. Then she shrugged, which was her way of accepting my apology. “Let me show you something.”

I let out the breath I was holding.

Dieu merci.I was back in her good graces.

Kai made his way to us and we both loomed over her. Iplaced a hand on the desk and the other on the back of her chair to watch her screens.

“I lost Barrera’s car before I could attach the device, but I was close enough to ping a signal from his cell phone. These documents were in the latest email Barrera received. I already sifted through them and initially, I thought this was just a document marking their newest real estate acquisition. But I found this.” She paused, swiping through the pages until she stopped on one in particular. “At first glance, it seems like another segment of the contract, but if you look closely, it’s a date and coordinates to a meeting. All we’re missing is the time.”

“Who’s the meeting with?” I asked.

“Bianchi,” she answered, looking at me over her shoulder.

“Bianchi as in the Don of the west side?”

“Yes,” she confirmed.

“That’s unexpected,” Kai said, and I thought the same.

The Italians rarely dealt with anyone outside of the three other Italian mafia families on the island. So for them to be in discussion with the Moroccan cartel was quite out of the norm.

“The Moroccans are trying to acquire more land in Sardenya, and Bianchi owns the majority of the real estate in that corner of the island. The goal is still to get to Barrera and find what we’re looking for, but for now, this is a good start.”

I pulled back, crossing my arms. “So the meeting’s in three weeks,” I concluded.

“Yes,” she said, looking back at us.

I looked over at Kai, a slow smile creeping along both of our faces.

“Let’s get started, then.”

Barrera, I’m coming for you.

We spent the rest of the night planning for the meeting.

We looked over the building blueprints and security system, narrowing down the best access route we could use without being seen. There wasn’t a building in the vicinity where Valentina would be able to best use her skills, but she’d still be able to help me out on the grounds.

I knew she could handle herself, probably more than I could, but I never liked having neither her nor Kai there, especially him. Let’s just say Kai’s strength wasn’t in the combat department. He wasn’t much of a hands-on participant in all of this, but Valentina volunteered to train him, which was surprising in itself, but I didn’t dwell too much on it.

I needed the extra hands. Especially if things were to go south.

The only thing missing was the time of the meeting, but we figured out a window where Barrera would be in town,so we’d simply have to be on alert that day until the time was set.

I woke up the next morning and headed downstairs to get breakfast started.

Strangely, over the years, the kitchen became a place where I could turn my brain off from everything that had it spinning a hundred miles per hour.

I went over to the pantry and grabbed all the ingredients I needed to make pancakes, then stopped by the fridge to get the rest. I was almost done when Kai walked in and took a seat on one of the bar stools behind the kitchen island.