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CHAPTER NINE

Violet

I didn’t sleep hardly at all last night. I tried to go see Emilia, to sit with her through the night, but Vincenzo’s men wouldn’t let me past the door. If Vincenzo hadn’t come out to tell me about her injuries and the sedatives his doctor administered insuring she would sleep through the night, I would’ve raised hell. But what he said made sense.

Damn him.

Vincenzo’s doctor was able to get a small, portable x-ray machine up here in the middle of the night. Emilia has two fractured ribs, a sprained wrist, and a mild concussion. That’s besides the busted lip and bruised face. The doctor stayed in the room next to Emilia, checking on her throughout the night. By the looks of Vincenzo’s rumpled suit and the bags under his eyes, I’m pretty sure he stayed awake watching her all night, too.

“Good morning, Miss Dupree,” the doctor greets as he exits the room where Mili is resting.

“Good morning. I’m sorry,” I start, “I didn’t catch your name, doctor.”

He gives a slight bow of his head. “Doctor is fine. Not everyone needs to know who I work for, hmm?”

“I understand.” I nod. It makes sense, I suppose, to want to keep this part of his practice, the part where he works for a criminal organization, private. “Thank you for taking care of Mili. I can’t begin to repay your kindness.”

“You don’t have to worry about repaying the good doctor anything, Miss Dupree. Your debt is with me.” Vincenzo’s smooth, deep voice rumbles from behind the doctor. He turns, giving a slight nod to Vincenzo.

“I need to tend to my rounds, but I’ll be back in a few hours to check on Miss D’Angelo. Until then, keep an eye on her. Don’t let her move around too much and definitely not alone. She may get lightheaded or nauseous, which is to be expected with a concussion. Food, lots of fluids, and rest. Keep her meds on the schedule I gave you and call me should anything change. Otherwise, I’ll see you this evening.”

“Thank you, Doctor,” Vincenzo says dismissively.

“I’d like to see Mili.”

“She’s sleeping,” Vincenzo says and starts walking past me down the hall. “Follow me, Miss Dupree. We have much to discuss.”

I peek in the door and see Mili tucked up under a dark gray comforter with pillows on either side of her. There’s a woman sitting in a plush chair beside the bed with a book in her hand.

“It wasn’t a suggestion, Violet.” I startle at the low rumble of Vincenzo’s voice. He’s managed to sneak up behind me, speaking low in my ear. It’s not the sexy way a man does when he wants to entice a woman. No. His is more of a disgruntled mob boss who doesn’t like being disobeyed.

Shit,

“Claudia will keep watch over Miss D’Angelo while we have some breakfast and discuss … matters.”

“S-s-sorry. I just wanted to see she was all right for myself. She’s—I owe her my life.”

“Hmm. Perhaps it’s not her you owe such a debt.” I shudder at his words. “Come.” Vincenzo takes my wrist in his hand and leads me to a formal dining room where another woman is placing three plates of food. Matteo enters from the other side of the room as the woman leaves.

Vincenzo pulls a chair out to the right of the table, motioning for me to sit. As soon as I do, he slides the chair to the table. Matteo sits in the chair across from me.

“Good morning, Dolcezza. Boss,” Matteo greets. Vincenzo nods.

“Good morning, Matteo.”

“How’d you sleep?” Matteo asks around a fork full of eggs.

“Um, as well as to be expected, I suppose,” I answer, lifting my fork from the table and staring at the mountain of food sitting on the plate before me. There are scrambled eggs, sausage, two strips of bacon, a bowl of fresh fruit and, to the side, a second plate with two pancakes. “Who are they expecting to feed with all of this?” I mumble to myself, but apparently not quietly enough as Matteo chuckles and answers, “You don’t have to eat it all, Dolcezza. The cook wasn’t sure what you or Emilia …” Vincenzo’s throat clears at the mention of her name and he gives Matteo a warning look I don’t quite understand.

“The cook wasn’t sure what you or Dr. D’Angelo might like so, he made an array of choices.” Matteo shrugs, shoveling another bite into his mouth, not the least bit phased by Vincenzo’s obvious disgruntlement.

“Miss Dupree,” Vincenzo starts. I drop my fork and stare at the infuriating man.

“You have known me and my son for two years now. You know my name is Violet. Please, use it. There’s no need for you to be so formal with me. If you wish for me to address you as Mr. Parisi, if I’ve somehow crossed the line of friendship mistakenly, then so be it. But please, I prefer to be called Violet.”

Vincenzo smirks, leaning back in his chair with his coffee mug in one hand. “Very well, Violet. What do you know about what happened to Emilia?”

“I know what you know,” I answer honestly. “She called me early in the morning and told me some bikers had beaten her to send a message to whoever stole their, um, shipment.”

“Women.” Matteo grunts. “The shipment of women was coming into Baron’s Edge for an auction.”

“An auction?” I ask, unsure if I want to know the answer.

“Whoever these men were that attacked Emilia were merely the transport team. I would imagine when they informed their client that they lost their shipment, whoever is paying them for their transport services wasn’t pleased.” Vincenzo continues. “Therefore, they felt the need to find the responsible party and make them pay for their mistake.”

“But how did they find Emilia? Kayce and his team are good at what they do. Flying under the radar is second nature to them. I don’t understand how this happened. Why didn’t they protect Emilia?” My anger is evident with the shakiness in my voice. “It’s not like Kayce to leave any shred of evidence as to who his team are or who they work with. They can make electronic trails vanish completely, create new identities, and have fail safes in place to prevent anyone who goes digging. They never leave a trail of any kind. So, how did anyone find out about Emilia’s involvement?”

“This is what I would like to know as well,” Vincenzo says, tapping his fingers on the side of his coffee cup. “Someone must’ve sent a similar message to the bikers who attacked her.”

“Or they threatened to take their cut of the take,” Matteo says. “Baron’s Edge is full of rich, depraved individuals. Maybe the loss of the shipment spooked a few, costing the orchestrator a big chunk of cash. To make up for his inconvenience, he takes his cut from the bikers and issues a warning.”

“Mmm.” Vincenzo grunts. “It would make sense.”

“Shit rolls downhill,” Matteo says with a shrug. I sputter my coffee at his candidness. “The boss loses money, the bikers get punished and, in turn, they find whoever they can link to their missing merchandise and deliver a warning of their own.”

“Violet’s right,” Vincenzo says, turning to Matteo. “Kayce is far too careful to make a mistake of this caliper.”

“You think there’s a rat.” Matteo’s eyes narrow. It’s not a question, it’s an accusation. “You think it’s one of ours or Kayce’s?”

“Yours?” I ask, but they both ignore me.

Vincenzo gives me a side glance, rubbing his beard. When he turns back to Matteo he says, “Reach out to the snitch, and see what you can find out.”

Matteo nods, wiping his face with his napkin, then stands and leaves. “I’ll see you later, Dolcezza.” He calls on his way out.

“Who is the snitch?” I ask. “Isn’t that the same as a rat?”

Vincenzo chuckles. “Not quite. A rat is someone who is leaking information without consent for personal gain.” He leans back, finishing his cup of coffee. “The snitch is my employee. One with a specific set of skills. The snitch can find things, people, information, whatever I need—for a price.”

“And you think this snitch will know who sent the bikers after Mili?”

“I’m not sure what the snitch will know,” he says nonchalantly. “But I have faith enough we will know more than we do now.”

“Vague much?”

Vincenzo laughs. “You know all you need to for now. Let me worry about the details.”

“And what about Kayce?” I ask. “Will you speak to him and see what he knows about all of this?”

“I was actually hoping you would speak to him.”

I pause, watching Vincenzo cautiously. “Why me? You two have a working relationship. I’m sure you can work out the details without me.”

Truth be told, I don’t want to know who’s to blame or why. I just want to get my friend and go home to my son. The further away from Baron’s Edge we both get, the better. Sooner rather than later.

“The less communication I have with the men of Trident Elite, the better. If this group of bikers has discovered the connection between Trident and Emilia, it would be best if I was kept more of a silent partner, if you will.”

“You mean you want to protect yourself.” It comes out on a low growl. My anger bleeding through every word.

“Careful, Miss Dupree.” Vincenzo warns. “I’m merely saying it’s best if the lines between partners don’t connect me to Trident. This way if there is a rat, or a larger problem should occur …”

“You can bail and leave us all to pick up the pieces, leaving you unscathed and us to the slaughter.”

Vincenzo leans his elbows on his knees, gripping my hand with his meaty one. “Listen very carefully, Miss Dupree. I will not be repeating myself.” He waits until I agree before he speaks again. “I have no intention of letting these bastards go after what they’ve done to my—Emilia. However, if there is a rat and they discover our connections to one another, it could lead to more than just Emilia being hurt. Kayce’s involvement would go under the radar, since he works for black ops agencies and his shit is done completely off the books. My involvement, however, could bring in other interested parties, like government agencies. Cops, FBI, you understand where this is going?”

I nod. My body trembling with the realization of what he’s telling me.

“If the police were to find out about my involvement with Kayce’s crusade, they would start interfering with our way of doing things. But if the police discovered Kayce’s connection with yours and Carter’s deaths, well, now that could be a problem for both of us. Especially since you’ve been hiding in my town, worked at my club, and are currently here.” He gestures with his hands around the penthouse. “With your friend under my roof, and both of you and Carter very much alive.”

My body shakes with fear as his words take root.

“And of course, if your husband were to learn that you’re alive, he would soon go searching for Carter as well.”

“No.” I shake my head as tears stream down my face. “He can’t find Carter. Ever.” I wipe my face with the back of my hand. “No matter what happens. If James finds me, he can never find Carter. You promised to protect him.” I’m crossing a line here, and I know it, but I don’t care. I gave Vincenzo the information he wanted, the evidence my husband had on him. It was James’s insurance policy if the man he worked for ever turned the tables on him. James planned to blackmail Vincenzo to keep himself alive. It’s also why Vincenzo told Kayce to put me and Carter under his protection. It gave Vincenzo insurance that I wouldn’t double-cross him.

I gave up one devil for another. But the devil I knew was going to put me in the ground if I didn’t find a way out. At least this devil hasn’t laid a hand on me or my son in anger.

“I am a man of my word, Violet. I have kept you and your son safe, as promised. And I will continue to do so, but you will continue to do what I ask and play liaison between me and Kayce Eaton. It’s the only way I can keep my word to you, and it is part of your payment to me for bringing you here to rescue your friend.”